Effective immediately, non-.edu DNS domains registered through CITES will be automatically renewed by the registrar 60-90 days before they are scheduled to expire. The Primary and Administrative domain contacts will receive a notification email prior to each auto-renewal, but will not need to respond affirmatively in order for the auto-renewal to proceed.
If you do NOT wish to renew a domain, you must notify hostmgr NO LESS THAN 91 DAYS PRIOR TO ITS EXPIRATION DATE (or sooner if that deadline would fall on a non-business day) to ensure that the change can be processed before the next auto-renewal occurs.
Transitional note: for non-.edu domains currently scheduled to expire before Mar 2, 2015, you must notify hostmgr no later than Dec 1, 2014 if you do not wish to renew these domains. Individual reminder notices for these domains will be sent out within the next week.
Q: Why is this process changing?
A: Nearly all of the non-.edu domains registered through CITES are renewed each time they come up for expiration, but a lot of effort is spent every year on obtaining affirmative email responses (from domain contacts who may not reply promptly) and manually processing each renewal transaction. Moving to automatic renewals streamlines our business workflow considerably, and requires no action from our customers in order to keep domains functioning (thereby reducing the risk that a domain registration will unintentionally be allowed to lapse).
Q: For how many years at a time will a domain be automatically renewed?
A: By default, auto-renewals will have the same duration as the initial domain purchase, i.e. a domain purchased for one year will auto-renew every year, while a domain purchased for five years will auto-renew every five years. Contact hostmgr if you wish to change the auto-renewal duration for your domain.
Q: Which CFOP will be billed for the renewal fee?
A: Each non-.edu domain has a CFOP on file which is billed for the $10/yr recurring CITES maintenance fee, plus renewal fees equal to the amount that CITES pays the registrar. Contact hostmgr if you wish to change the CFOP to which your domain is billed.
Q: What about subdomains of illinois.edu (or uiuc.edu, or uillinois.edu)?
A: This change does not affect .edu subdomains, since they are not subject to individual expirations or renewals.
Please contact hostmgr if you have any questions or concerns related to this business process change.