FAQ

No. You cannot come to us for a website or to register a domain name. You have to contact a registrar. A registrar leases space on his servers so that you can place your website on it (hosting) which is at the same time accessible on the internet via your domain name.

This is technically feasible. People often start to create a website on a free platform. The free domain name that you then get is a subdomain of a provider and looks something like this: www.thisisme.wordpress.com

It can be a good idea to consider registering your own domain name www.thisisme.be after a while. You will obviously not have to start all over again, but transfer the contents of www.thisisme.wordpress.com to www.thisisme.be. DNS Belgium cannot do that for you. Your registrar can establish a connection between the two websites, on condition that your registrar and the provider of your free website agree to the operation.

It is possible to register a domain name without name servers, but your domain name will not be active. A name server translates domain names into IP addresses. When someone enters your domain name in his browser, his computer will ask the name server of your website for the IP address to surf to. Without that name server, your domain name cannot be reached.

Technically, it is perfectly feasible, including without a provider, but DNS Belgium is not authorised to help you on that front. We only make all the connections with name servers (to which your domain name is connected), not with web servers.

The only thing that we have to know to be able to do that is which name server your domain name will be connected to. We get this information from the registrar where you registered your domain name.

No. At DNS Belgium you can not register any domain name, irrespective of the extension. We are the registry for .be, .brussels and .vlaanderen. But with these extensions too, you have to register your domain name with a registrar.

With a .be domain name it can take at most half an hour before the changes are visible, with .vlaanderen or .brussels it takes a few minutes. This is because we perform automatic checks before we activate new or changed domain names. This way, we make sure that the published list of domain names (the zone file) is always correct, complete and validated. Read more about it. It takes a maximum of 24 hours for the change to be spread across the internet.

You can look up certain details of a domain name on the home page, such as who the registrant is. You enter the domain name under “Verify details.” The non-personal data of a registrant will then be displayed if this is the domain name of a company.

When the domain name is a private individual, we do not show any owner details, in compliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

You can however contact a registrant by using the contact form.

If you register a domain name as a company or organisation, the registration data are public information. This means the data are visible to everyone. If you register a domain name as a private person, then your data are covered by the law on privacy and are not visible to everyone. However, if you fill in the field 'Company/Organisation', even if it is only with 'NA', '/' or 'private', then you are registering as a company or organisation and your registration details are therefore visible to everyone. You cannot change this yourself. You have to contact your registrar. He can then request a 'monitored update' from us and amend your details.  

Registering a domain name solely in order to sell it with a large profit margin is not contrary to the law in and of itself.

Only “abusive registration” of domain names is not permitted by law. Under abusive registration the law understands registering a domain name to which no right or legitimate interest can be asserted, with a view to harm a third party or to obtain an unfair advantage, if that domain name is identical or very similar to someone else’s brand, trade name, company name, family name, original work, geographical indication, etc. 

Assessing whether the registration of a certain domain name is abusive is the exclusive competence of the courts or the accredited alternative dispute settlement institutions and not of DNS Belgium.

No, DNS Belgium does not release any lists of domain names to prevent any misuse (spamming).  Furthermore, such a release may run counter to the guarantees that DNS Belgium offers to registrants for the protection of their personal data.

1. Choose an e-mail address that is not linked to the domain name you wish to register. If there is a problem with your domain name, the e-mail address may no longer work either.  
2. Opt for an e-mail address that you check regularly, or set an automatic forwarding to an e-mail address that you check regularly. 
3. Opt for your own e-mail address, not the e-mail address of your registrar.

We will use your e-mail address only in order to:  

• Send you the transfer code when moving/transferring your domain name to another party/registrar. 
• Announce important changes to the terms and conditions. 
• Inform you that the registrar managing your domain name has gone bankrupt. 
• Apprize you of a third party's inquiries about your domain name, e.g. if they are interested in acquiring your domain name etc. A third party cannot contact you directly to that end, but can contact you via a contact form that we forward to your e-mail address. 

You can unsubscribe at all times for all e-mails except for e-mails about our General Terms and Conditions and e-mails about the transfer code. To unsubscribe, please contact support.  

Your registrar can tell you exactly when your domain name expires. Otherwise, you can apply for a registration certificate.

After 40 days, the domain name is available again for whoever wishes to register it. That happens after 40 days have completely elapsed and 24 times per day (on the hour).

You will have to pay your registrar or reseller a fee for the transfer of your domain name. Your current registrar or reseller can also charge a small transfer fee. So look into this beforehand and get information from your current and your new registrar/reseller.  

If your contact details are not up to date, we obviously cannot contact you anymore.  As a registrant, you are however contractually required to keep your data up to date.  

It is therefore important that your contact data linked to your domain name be updated as and when necessary. You cannot do that directly at DNS Belgium. Only your registrar is authorised to change your contact details.

If the registrar refuses to change the e-mail address when you so request, you, as a registrant, can lodge a complaint (with the exchanged e-mails appended by way of evidence) with the legal department of DNS Belgium via legal@dnsbelgium.be.  

Our legal department will look into the complaint and contact the registrar. IfF the latter has no valid arguments and refuses to carry out the update, we will do so in his place and stead and invoice him for the costs incurred.  

The current registrar can delete a domain name between the time of requesting the transfer code (the code is valid for 7 days) and the new registrar launching/executing the transfer. 

The transfer can still go through, but then it becomes a transfer from quarantine.

A transfer block means that the registrar has blocked the domain name for transfer. This can only take place at the registrant’s explicit request.

1. Did you request the lock at your registrar or webmaster? Ask them to unlock it so you can request the transfer code again.

2. Did your registrar or webmaster automatically set the lock for you? Log into the customer panel and deactivate this option yourself, so that you can then request the code again. If that doesn't work, contact your registrar or webmaster to lift the lock.

When you want to transfer your website and mailboxes also, the simplest thing to do is to buy a hosting package from the registrar who will take care of the web hosting after the transfer.  

You can then already place your website on a provisional domain name, and only then you can transfer your domain name. Always make a back-up of your website (texts, images, files, etc.) before you start the transfer.  

The time required to transfer a domain name depends on the domain name extension. A .be domain name can be transferred in a jiffy. Once you have requested the transfer, our registration platform will check whether the transfer code provided is correct.  

If it is, the transfer is carried out immediately.  Your domain name can be transferred in just a few hours!  

When you register a domain name, for instance, the registrar will have to carry out a number of operations and in many cases verify a number of data as well. In addition to the registration of domain names, a registrar provides a number of other services also. That is why a registrar is free to set his own prices depending on the costs and services provided.

DNS Belgium on the other hand has a fully automated registration system. In this way, we can keep the price of a domain name and of transactions with domain names a lot lower  than a registrar.

If your registrar no longer has a contract with DNS Belgium you need to move your domain name to a different registrar. There are 2 possibilities:

1. There is a potential gaining registrar. The gaining registrar takes over all domain names and let us carry out this transfer. This costs you nothing. The new registrar will notify you of this. Of course you can also choose another registrar. In this case you pay a normal transfer.
2. There is no potential gaining registrar. In this case, we temporarily look after your domain name and contact you by letter and e-mail to choose a new registrar as soon as possible who will move your domain name.
   • 2 months before your domain name expires, we send you another mail and letter.  If you do not move the domain name before this date, your domain name will no longer work (out of service).
   • at the end of the month in which your domain name expires, it is 'out of service'.
   • 2 months later we release the domain name.

• Death: the beneficiary. We request a death certificate and an authorisation from a beneficiary.
• Bankruptcy: the receiver. We request a document from the receiver to confirm the bankruptcy.
• Acquisition: the party making the acquisition. We ask for an official document (such as a copy of the Belgian Official Gazette) in which the acquisition is confirmed.
• Liquidation: the liquidator. We ask for proof that this person is indeed the liquidator.

• If you as a complainant win your case, DNS Belgium will reimburse you for the costs and recover them from the other party.
• If the proceedings are terminated early because you have reached an amicable agreement with the other party or because you have decided to abandon the proceedings, CEPANI will charge only the administrative cost if the third arbitrator has not been appointed yet. They will then reimburse you €1,500.

No, we do not reimburse those costs

If no appeal is initiated, DNS Belgium will launch the transfer procedure. DNS Belgium transfers the domain name to a temporary account (of DNS Belgium), replaces the data of the registrant by the data of the complainant, and sends the transfer code to the e-mail address that the complainant has given to Cepani. The complainant provides this transfer code to his registrar to move the domain name to the registrar in question. 

The zone file contains lists with domain names and the related servers. DNS Belgium does not disclose this data to third parties. That would run counter to Belgian legislation on privacy protection. We describe some exceptions in our privacy policy.

If the zone file were released, the registrants would no longer be protected against misuse. When looking up a domain name, registrants of business domain names can in fact easily be identified if these data are combined with the zone file. That could impair the interests of registrants, as spammers and hackers could use the data for their activities. This is not the case for holders of a personal domain name. We do not release information on the holders of these type of domain names.