Timeline and Options for Expired Domains

Expired domains go through four different stages:

Renewal Grace Period The Renewal Grace Period allows registrants a number of days to reclaim their domain name for a number of days after they expire. This length of time is 30 days for most domain extensions.
Redemption Period
Pending Delete
General Availability

The process and time lines for these stages differs slightly from one domain extension to another. Please see the domain specific section of the FAQ page for details outlining the process for each specific domain. What follows is a general overview, which is applicable to most, but not all, domain extensions.

Renewal Grace Period

This period begins the day the domain expires (we process expired domains at 9:00 AM the day the domain expires), and last for 30 calendar days.

Should a domain expire, we will point the domain to one of our parking pages
Email services are not affected (unless the parking of the domain results in a change in name servers)
The domain can be renewed via a regular renewal process (i.e. via your Webnames.ca), and without penalty
The domain will be immediately renewed, however they may take a short time to become fully functional due to DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities. A Domain Name Service resolves queries for these names into IP addresses for the purpose of locating computer services and devices worldwide. By providing a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of the functionality of the Internet. propagation. Our TTL Time to live (TTL) is a mechanism that limits the lifespan of data in a computer or network. Shorter TTLs can cause heavier loads on an authoritative nameserver, but can be useful when changing the address of critical services like Web servers or MX records, and therefore are often lowered by the DNS administrator prior to a service being moved, in order to minimize disruptions. value on expired / parked domains is 15 minutes, so in theory domains which are renewed while in their renewal grace period should be functional once again within 15 minutes.

NOTE: For .CA domains (only), CIRA does not permit the routing of expired domain names to a parking page etc. Instead, the requirement is that all routing for the domain (including email) be suspended. This will result in all aspects of the domain no longer functioning. Such a domain is still recoverable via the means outlined in the is article.

Redemption Period

This period begins at the end of the Renewal Grace Period, and lasts for 30 calendar days.

This period is controlled by the respective Registry A domain name registry is a database of all domain names registered in a top-level domain. A registry operator, also called a network information center (NIC), is the part of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that keeps the database of domain names, and generates the zone files which convert domain names to IP addresses., whereby the zone file for the domain is removed.
All services for the domain will cease to function.
The domain can be renewed via a regular renewal process (i.e. via your Webnames.ca), however an additional redemption fee will apply. The costs to redeem a domain name is $75.00 . This fee does not include the renewal costs for the domain, which are thus a separate fee.
Upon redemption, the domain will be immediately recovered and renewed, however it may take 6 - 24 hours to become fully functional due to DNS propagation.

Pending Delete Period

This period begins at the end of the Redemption Period, and lasts for 5 calendar days.

The period is controlled by the respective Registry, during which no changes to the domain may be made whatsoever.
When in this state, the domain cannot be recovered.

NOTE: .CA domains undergo a proprietary process in between the Redemption Period and being put back into General Availability. Please see the .CA specific section of this FAQ for information on the To-Be-Released (TBR) process, or see http://www.webnames.ca/content/tbr.asp

General Availability

This period begins at the end of the Pending Delete Period The 5 day reconcilliation period falling between the end of the Redemption Grace Period and when the domain is released back to the public for general registration. A domain in Pending Delete status cannot be restored., and denotes that the domain is available for registration by any party as a new Registration.