The .COM domain has a registration period of anything up to 10 years at a time. This allows you to plan and keep your domain safe. One of the other MAJOR advantages of having a long registration of your domain is SEO, Google and many other Search Engines attribute very little benefit to new domains, and it is the same with Email Filtering, so for a new site that wants to get a kick start consider registering your domain, or renewing it for an extended period.  At Future Hosting we have several offers for longer periods.

General Life Cycle of a .COM domain.

This also is attributed to many other generic domains and Gtld domains, and we will expand on the various ones in another post.

1. Domain is registered or renewed. Once this is completed the clock begins to tick. Now there are a few CRITICAL things to consider when registering, renewing or modifying your domain. The various registrars, and we are included, are MANDATED by ICANN to get authorisation from the domain holder that they are the true and valid holder. So it is imperative that you as the Admin Contact put the correct email address so you can receive these VITALLY important emails, otherwise your domain will be suspended. We must verify the accuracy of the WHOIS record for all gTLDs within 14 days of these events:
1. A new domain name is registered with us.
2. A domain name is transferred to us from another registrar.
3. The registrant's contact information (name, organization, or email address) is changed.
4. We have reason to believe the contact information is invalid.
2. Domain expires. Once the domain expires, it starts what is called the Renewal Grace Period, or "RGP". This will vary from 30 to 45 days based on the domain tld (Extension, eg .com, .net etc). Once a domain enters this phase ALL services from email, web etc will stop working! The domain is usually AUTOMATICALLY parked which means it goes to a standard default holding page. During this phase you can renew the domain at any time without any penalty or fee!
3. End of Grace Period and Start of the Redemption Period. Once this happens after the 30-45 days the domain is "deleted" which means there is no parked page and you no-longer "own" the domain. The domain also on the Public "WHOIS" lookup renewal date changed to the following year. This has no bearing on the owner. The only way that the person who registered the domain in the first place is to pay a redemption fee, PLUS the next years renewal fee. This fee varies from domain to domain, but the average is over $80. This is the ONLY way to get the domain out of redemption and this is a fee from the Governing Body and not the domain registrar.
4. Redemption Period Ends, and Domain is Queued for Deletion. Within approximately 60 days after the expiration period the redemption period ends. The domain is then placed in a "Pending Delete" status with us, and this can last up-to 5 days. In this time it is NOT possible to redeem, recover or renew the domain. The ONLY way to get the domain back is to wait until these 5 days are over and the domain is removed from the central database and it will allow for it to be registered all over again.

One advantage of renewing your domain for a multi period in time is you do not have to worry about this, BUT you MUST make sure that the email address that the domain is registered against is always live and checked. As you may miss or forget the renewal period and if this is not managed it can be a nightmare to update and change this in several years time.