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Domains

Are My Domains More Secure with Brazzell or with a Self-Service Registrar?

Your domains are more secure when registered through Brazzell Marketing Agency. On a weekly basis, we work with a client who has a service interruption or a complete loss of a domain due to registration with a self-service registrar. Sometimes, it's a simple setting error that we can help the business discover and correct. The most common scenario is when a business stops receiving bills emailed from the self-service registrar. The emails are going to spam, or the business loses access to the old email address entirely. The self-service registrar sends several emails, but they never call you. The domain often nonrenews. Businesses forget where it was registered. Nonrenewed domains take 90 days before they become openly available for registration, again. They are often scooped up by domain squatters, who might demand over $1,000 to get your domain back. And other scenarios stop businesses from getting their domains back. Their websites go down. Their advertising stops. All their printed promotional materials and online profiles have a non-working domain. It's an expensive mess.

At Brazzell Marketing Agency, you have the advantage of dealing with real people, who understand small business. Domains registered through Brazzell Marketing Agency are owned by you. You have complete access to all the name server settings through your cPanel. Corresponding with the right person here is easy, even if you changed email addresses, personnel, or business ownership. We never let a domain nonrenew without both emailing you and calling you. We will use your office number, your personal cell, and every email address you have ever given us to make sure a domain name does not nonrenew without you knowing in advance. Are you out of country and don't need to worry about a domain name for a few weeks? We're going to hear that and make sure nothing bad happens to your company while you enjoy your trip. We are the people to trust. For more than two decades, a domain name registered through Brazzell Marketing Agency has never nonrenewed against the owner's intent.

How to Purchase a Domain

See what domains are available: Domain Availability Check
- Alternatively, email us and let us know your goals in adding a domain to your cPanel. We will email back some top options from which you can choose.
Contact us with instructions to register the domain and put it in your cPanel

Note: Brazzell Marketing Agency only registers domains in conjunction with website hosting. We do not have a stand-alone domain registration service.

Encryption Interruptions During Domain Changes

Please note that any time you have a domain in use, and you start using a different hosting account, there will be a brief period in which the encryption will be interrupted. Visitors may receive a security warning from their browsers. This occurs because the new hosting account can only establish encryption after the domain is working there. cPanel will automatically establish encryption in about four hours. One can manually make the encryption set in a matter of minutes with a few clicks. Email Brazzell Marketing Agency if you see an encryption warning, and we'll hop on it as fast as possible to shorten the unencrypted period.

If you would like to do this yourself, it's pretty easy. Log in to cPanel. Scroll down to the panel of options with the heading "Security." In that panel, click SSL/TLS Status. Then, click Run Auto SSL. All done! Note that this process will only be successful if the domain is already pointed to the Brazzell server, and if cPanel is prepared to receive the domain. This means we will have "created" the domain in cPanel settings.

How to Transfer a Domain to Your Brazzell Account

If you have a domain registered elsewhere, you can either point it to your Brazzell Marketing hosting or transfer it to your Brazzell hosting account. If you point it, you continue to pay the other company for the domain registration, and that other company will provide your customer service specific to that domain's name server settings. If you transfer the domain to your Brazzell hosting, you will pay Brazzell Marketing Agency for the domain registration, and Brazzell Marketing Agency will provide the service for that domain.

To transfer a domain to your Brazzell hosting account, send us a password called the EPP key. You can search the help files of the other company for "how to get the EPP key". Be sure that the domain is ready for transfer. To prepare a domain for transfer:

Turn off privacy.
Turn off any registration or transfer lock.
You may need to ensure that the contact email in the domain settings is your valid email. Most, but not all, registrars email the EPP key to you. They do not email it to the email address you have in your account with them. Each individual domain has a contact email setting. If you cannot receive email there, you may not be able to receive the EPP key. Note, as of December 2023, if you need to change the email address on the domain, your registrar will likely miscategorize this as a "change of ownership" and block the domain from transfer for 60 days. If this is the case, you will need to send us an EPP key after the 60-day waiting period, as each EPP key is only good for a limited time.

How to Transfer a Domain Away from your Brazzell Hosting

Email to request the EPP key. We will email it you, usually within the same business day.
Use that EPP key to register the domain elsewhere within a day or two.
To avoid future billing, notify us when you have successfully secured the domain with a different registrar. Our billing system is separate from the domain registration system. Your automatic billing will not automatically cease after domain transfer. A large percentage of EPP key requests never result in a successful transfer, so we don't take the request for an EPP key as tantamount to a cancellation. You can cancel at any time. We recommend emailing to cancel after you have successfully transferred the domain.

How to Point Your Domain Name Here

To receive full service with no frustrations, we usually recommend registering your domain through Brazzell Marketing Agency. Then we handle all the back-end work automatically. You are not stuck in the middle between two IT companies. While you have full access to settings, you never have to look at a setting. However, if you are using an email service through a different provider, it's often easier overall to register that domain with the email provider. You may also choose to keep your domain and your website hosting separate for other reasons. In these cases, you want to point your domain to your Brazzell hosting. There are two ways to do this, and they are importantly different.

To point your domain to your Brazzell hosting, you either change the name server setting, or you change the A record. Changing the name server setting is easier, more effective, less prone to later problems, gives you access to the free email service, and gives us more access to provide service in every way. However, changing the name server setting sends all the email functions to your Brazzell hosting account. If you are not currently using the domain for email, changing the name server setting is good. If you are currently using the domain for email, and you want to keep it that way, you will want to change the A record, instead.

Change the Name Sever Setting

Search the help files of your current registrar for "how to change the name server setting." The values should be.

NS1.BRAZZELLMARKETING.COM

NS2.BRAZZELLMARKETING.COM

Change the A Record

If you changed the name server setting, you do not need to change the A record. Only use this method if you are already using the domain for email and want to keep it that way. Search the help files of your registrar for "how to change the A record." The value to input is your website's IP address. That is:

162.214.155.200

Changing the CNAME

If you changed the name server setting, you do not need to change the CNAME. If you changed the A record, you may or may not need to change the CNAME. The A record tells the server where the website is if people type "yourdomain.com" into the address bar of their browsers. The CNAME tells the server where the website is if people type "www.yourdomain.com" into the address field of an Internet browser. To summarize, the A record directs requests without www and CNAME directs requests with www. Ultimately, you want the CNAME value to somehow indicate www.yourdomain.com. In cPanel, the settings should look like this:

Name = www.yourdomain.com
TTL = 14400 Type = CNAME Record = yourdomain.com

Different registrars may have the interface for CNAME input arranged differently.

If you look at the CNAME setting on your domain, and it looks right, try this test. Type your domain into an Internet browser without the www. If your intended website appears, your A record is set correctly. Next, type the domain name into your Internet browser with the www. at the beginning. If the intended website appears, you have successfully pointed the domain. If the website appears without a www but does not appear with a www in the address, you need to keep working on the CNAME.

Preparing cPanel to Receive Your Domain

If you purchase your domains through Brazzell Marketing Agency, this section is irrelevant. We handle everything for you and don't bother you with the details. There are no additional charges. If you email us that you are pointing a domain to your Brazzell hosting, we will prepare everything for you. We often perform this work at no additional charge but may charge labor fees depending on the circumstances and/or complexity of the task. If you are pointing a domain that you purchased elsewhere to your Brazzell hosting and are not engaging our customer service for help, know that you have to both point the domain from where you purchased it and prepare your cPanel to receive the domain. We have a summary of important issues in this regard below. It's a quick summary of some complex issues, underscoring how this task should typically be undertaken by a professional with suitable experience.

Add the domain (a.k.a. create the domain) in your cPanel. Log in to cPanel. Under the heading "Domains," click the link "Domains". Click Create a New Domain. Enter the domain. If the domain is an alternate domain for the main website in the cPanel, leave checked the setting, "Share document root . . . ". If, however, the domain is intended for a different website in the same hosting account, uncheck this. A field for specifying a new root directory for this domain will appear. This can be whatever you specify. The domain name itself makes a good folder name in most instances.
Set the email routing. In cPanel, click Email Routing. Select the domain. If you are using the free emails that come with your hosting, choose Local. If you are using an email service elsewhere, choose Remote.
Set the canonical domain. If you are adding a domain as an alternate way to access an existing website, you need to set the canonical domain. In other words, you need all alternate domains to redirect to the main domain. Failure to do this can result in problems ranging from minor SEO disadvantages to Google entirely delisting your website. You can redirect alternate domains to the canonical domains through coding in the .htaccess file or through the cPanel user interface. Log in to cPanel. Click "Redirects." Fill out the fields on the screen such that you establish a permanent redirect from the alternate domain to the canonical domain. Note that the canonical domain should always begin with https:// , and you need to decide whether your canonical domain will be with or without a www. Be sure to select "Redirect with or without www".
If you are creating a new root directory for a second or subsequent website, you will obviously skip step three. Therefore, you will need to otherwise force encryption. If your website does not use a content management system that automatically rewrites your .htaccess file to force encryption, remember to modify the .htaccess file so visitors cannot access the site through an unencrypted transfer layer.
If you are transitioning from a previous website to a new one, and the page addresses change, it's good SEO practice to set up a redirect for each of the old website pages to the new corresponding website page.