Musings from an overworked translator

If I don’t have a domain do I exist? August 7, 2012

I’m at the end of a harrowing couple of days. It turns out that when I cancelled my contracts with my German ISP earlier this year I didn’t realize that my domain would not be automatically renewed. I woke up yesterday morning to no e-mail. I thought it was weird, but simply chalked it up to a server outage. Then a client sent an e-mail to my backup e-mail at Gmail informing me that my e-mail was bouncing and I started looking into it. The first thought was that my domain had been “sniped” as soon as it had become available, but thanks to ICANN’s Redemption Grace Period sniping has become a thing of the past. I contacted my ISP through their U.S. contact number (which I had no idea even existed) and started the process to get my domain back. I also sent out e-mails to all my active clients and anyone who may have been trying to reach me.

I have since received word that the domain is being transferred back to me, and it should take 6-12 hours to be active again. In the meantime, I truly hope none of my less regular clients were trying to reach me. Thank heavens for Gmail! I’ve been able to send out invoices and deliver my translations through Gmail.

One of my closest friends called me this afternoon in a panic since her e-mails to me were bouncing. She was relieved to hear everything was fine. So if you have been trying to reach me since the evening of August 5th I am fine. Just feeling very non-existent without my domain and main e-mail addresses.