I paid for a site renewal but my site has not come back online

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  thefirstpadres · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 12:21 am

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  My blog, http://www.thefirstpadres.com, had its domain expired. I recently paid for the site renewal but the site has not yet come back online. Is there someone who can look into this issue for me?

  Thanks,
  Chris

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  raincoaster · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 1:38 am

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  https://thefirstpadres.wordpress.com/ the site is online, but it looks like you haven’t mapped the domain to it.

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  thefirstpadres · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 2:21 am

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  Thanks for the reply, raincoaster. Is mapping the domain something I can do on my own?

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  raincoaster · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 2:22 am

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  Yes, you need to buy the Domain Mapping upgrade from the Store page of the dashboard. http://support.wordpress.com/domain-mapping/map-existing-domain/

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  thefirstpadres · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 5:49 am

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  It looks like I was able to get the domain mapping upgrade, but now I’m having problems mapping the DNS servers correctly. I bought my domain from WordPress, do I still need to add the NS1.WORDPRESS.COM line in somewhere? It won’t allow me to do it in the My Domains section.

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  auxclass · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 6:03 am

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  yes the name servers need to be updated to point to WordPress.COM – that needs to be done at the registrar

  However your domain name is not registered with WordPress.COM:

  http://www.whois.com/whois/thefirstpadres.com

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  thefirstpadres · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 6:21 am

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  I never purchased the name through anybody else. I think I’m a little out of my depth here. Is another company able to buy the domain when it becomes unregistered? Am I able to buy it back from them?

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  rachelmcr · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 12:11 pm

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  Hi Chris,

  I just cancelled and refunded that domain mapping purchase for you, as you can only use that upgrade if you currently own the domain itself.

  Unfortunately, we no longer control the domain thefirstpadres.com and cannot renew it for you. All of your content is still available through this URL:

  http://thefirstpadres.wordpress.com

  It was possible to recover the domain for some weeks after it expired last August, but because of the time lapsed, the domain was sent back to the registrar, who then sold it to a new owner.

  You can read more about Domain Expiration if you’re interested in how that process works.

  Here is the publicly available contact information of the new domain owner:

  http://whois.domaintools.com/thefirstpadres.com

  You could try contacting them to see if they will sell the domain to you. Please be sure to use a reputable, online purchasing site for this transaction, if you go that route.

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  thefirstpadres · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 2:52 pm

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  Thanks very much rachelmcr. I will look into buying it back from the seller. Can’t imagine anyone else would want this domain!

  Appreciate the detailed information and all the help.

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  auxclass · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 3:01 pm

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  Thanks Rachel – I don’t have access to account info like you did and all I could see is that the name was not registered here, so I flagged this for the staff –

  Note to thefirstpadres – there is a whole industry of slimy squatters that buy up expired domain names and hold the names hostage – hard to say who or why the person bought your old name – but good luck

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  rachelmcr · Member · Apr 9, 2015 at 3:39 pm

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  You’re very welcome, Chris!

  @auxclass — I admit a bit of an advantage being able to look up those account details. ;) I really appreciate your help here! From the outside it’s hard to tell the difference between a domain that just needs to be mapped and one that someone else grabbed up and registered after it expired. It’s a real bummer when that happens.