Name Intelligence Offers Free Domain Name Lock Monitoring Service

Name Intelligence, is making available, for free, a suite of domain name tools available to help registrants watch their domain names, in an effort to protect against the negative impacts of a new ICANN domain transfer policy change which puts domain registrants at risk of losing their name if they are not locked and monitored closely.

Many Domain Name registrants and domain managers are not aware of a loophole in the updated ICANN domain name transfer policy (going into effect 11/12/2004) which could allow someone to transfer your domain away from your registrar without consent.

If you own one or more domain names, you need to be aware that those domain names are potentially exposed to unauthorized transfer under a new ICANN policy.

"People are not aware of the magnitude of the impact of this policy change and what it means to domain name registrants. Names that are not registrar-locked are at risk.", said Jerome Gagner, Senior Developer at Name Intelligence. "Previously, a registrant's name would be safe from someone taking it away from them, because a transfer simply could not happen without their explicit approval. The new policy makes transfers require that the current registrant explicitly decline the request. If the current registrant fails to decline the transfer, the transfer will go through. "

"Whois Source has always maintained free tools to aid domain managers in their efforts as a public service to the internet community. We encourage people who use the site to contribute via upgrade to the paid subscription model, as it allows our organization to improve the services we offer â€“ clearly this costs us money to operate, yet I am passionate about having useful resources available at no cost, and I am also passionate about not hounding the free member base to upgrade." adds Westerdal.