[Channeal]

Earlier this year, I created a free website with 000webhost/Hostinger and purchased a domain name from them. Ever since then, we have been getting phonecalls from companies apparently believing I am a buisiness and offering their web services. My site though is just a personal website related to learning a foreign language.

 

The phone calls have been annoying - but none more so than the past couple of weeks. My husband is awaiting a diagnosis for what looks likely to be a life-threatening illness and I cannot tell you how many times we have picked up the phone expecting it to be the hospital, only to find that it is one of these companies touting for website business. It has been just so stressful!

 

By coincidence, I received an email from Hostinger today telling me to check the Whois details for the website - and my phone number is included in the information they listed. They tell me to visit their website if I need to change anything, but I cannot find how to do this on their site.  It may well be easy to find; my brain just isn't functioning properly at the moment, so am wondering whether anybody here uses Hostinger and can help me out.

 

Thank you,

 

Chris.

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You will have to log into their control panel used for your web site using whatever log in information used to set up account for hosting. This might help: 

 

How to access cPanel?

 

How to create a support ticket?

 

Profile Management

 

Not sure if that link gives info you need under "Can I delete my whole client profile?"

 

My private information is shown online on my Domains WHOIS, how can I hide it?

 

Unfortunately, you have to pay to have them hide it. Within the control panel, where your WHOIS information is located (you'll have to look for which link you click on to get to it), I would just remove the telephone number. Only problem with that is the phone number has been available for sometime now. Blocking each number would be an exercise in futility. Other worse suggestion would be to change the phone number, but at your time of crisis, it's not a good idea.

 

If you do get logged in, you could submit a ticket. The easiest way (maybe) is to just contact them: Contact Us

Edited by AstraNut, 07 October 2017 - 03:15 PM.

[AstraNut]

You will have to log into their control panel used for your web site using whatever log in information used to set up account for hosting. This might help: 

 

How to access cPanel?

 

How to create a support ticket?

 

Profile Management

 

Not sure if that link gives info you need under "Can I delete my whole client profile?"

 

My private information is shown online on my Domains WHOIS, how can I hide it?

 

Unfortunately, you have to pay to have them hide it. Within the control panel, where your WHOIS information is located (you'll have to look for which link you click on to get to it), I would just remove the telephone number. Only problem with that is the phone number has been available for sometime now. Blocking each number would be an exercise in futility. Other worse suggestion would be to change the phone number, but at your time of crisis, it's not a good idea.

 

If you do get logged in, you could submit a ticket. The easiest way (maybe) is to just contact them: Contact Us

Edited by AstraNut, 07 October 2017 - 03:15 PM.

[Channeal]

Thanks very much for the info.

 

So it seems as if the only way I can make the info private is to pay for privacy. Great!

 

They are asking for $5, but I can't find out if that is for a year, a month or other period. Any idea?

 

Chris.

[AstraNut]

Thanks very much for the info.

 

So it seems as if the only way I can make the info private is to pay for privacy. Great!

 

They are asking for $5, but I can't find out if that is for a year, a month or other period. Any idea?

 

Chris.

I would image that it is per month which would be way too expensive. Five dollars a year would be much better and one of the better bargains.

 

Many good hosting services provide free domain privacy for WHOIS as part of the hosting package. Might take a read at Wikipedia:    Domain privacy

 

 

Wikipedia gives information, but can be outdated sometimes. This seems to be a little more informative:  Domain Privacy Protection: Is It Worth It?

Some paragraphs from the blog about the downsides:

 

1) "Your Information Might Still Be Public

Private domain registration can be set up at any time, but if your domain was already registered without privacy protection in place, your information might still be public. There are tools available that allow people to do historic searches and find previously listed ownership data on domains. Some of these tools may even show transfer or sales records of domains."

 

2) "Who Actually Owns the Domain

Whenever you opt for privacy or WHOIS masking, you should understand the implications of putting someone else’s information down as the registrar of the site. In the eyes of the registry (ICANN or CIRA), the individual or organization listed as the registrant for the domain is technically the legal owner of that domain name.

That means that even if you’ve paid for registration, you’re not the legal owner if your name is not listed in the WHOIS. Mind you, you aren’t likely to get into a legal battle with the registrar about who owns the domain. Still, if it were to ever come down to a legal dispute, the registrar could come out the winner with their information down as the site owner."

 

As I stated before, your WHOIS information has already been "out there" and making it private now may not be enough. You can still login to the Control Panel and change the phone number, but the hosting site may have already sold some of your information. Definitely it has been pulled from the WHOIS site.

 

You could switch to a more reputable "free" hosting site and transfer the files and domain name to them after you discuss setting up WHOIS privacy. The better hosting sites do offer free WHOIS privacy, but usually these require a paid hosting service.

 

If you need more help, you can send a private message to me on this site. Useful if you don't want information in the public forum.

 

I just shut down 3 sites for a lady in Alabama as she hates logging in and using the control panels. All of the sites, except 1, were free sites. She didn't want to pay extra for privacy protection, but has not received any phone calls like you have. Her sites have been up for a long time.

 

Is there anything I can do specifically for you?

[Channeal]

Apologies for delay in replying - things have been pretty traumatic here.

Am not really up to even thinking about moving my website to another host at the moment. My husband is going to be starting radiotherapy and possibly chemo too, so life is going to get even harder.

Luckily the phone calls seem to have died down a bit again now. I have no idea why there was a sudden deluge of them, but hopefully this quieter period will last. If I see a number I don't recognise has rung, I Google it and if it is a web-related company, I block it on our phone. Have had one ringing for a while from a location where we don't know anybody, but couldn't find any details online of who it was, or anybody else who had been pestered by them - but in the end I blocked it anyway. If it is somebody who really needed to contact us, they could have left a message on our answer machine.

Thanks for your help.

Chris.

Edited by Channeal, 14 October 2017 - 02:29 AM.

[AstraNut]

Apologies for delay in replying - things have been pretty traumatic here.

Am not really up to even thinking about moving my website to another host at the moment. My husband is going to be starting radiotherapy and possibly chemo too, so life is going to get even harder.

Luckily the phone calls seem to have died down a bit again now. I have no idea why there was a sudden deluge of them, but hopefully this quieter period will last. If I see a number I don't recognise has rung, I Google it and if it is a web-related company, I block it on our phone. Have had one ringing for a while from a location where we don't know anybody, but couldn't find any details online of who it was, or anybody else who had been pestered by them - but in the end I blocked it anyway. If it is somebody who really needed to contact us, they could have left a message on our answer machine.

Thanks for your help.

Chris.

You are most certainly welcome. Just happy to hear the calls are decreasing. Blocking them is good. I'm like you, if they are important, they'll leave a voicemail. If not, and a Google search shows their number reported or can't find it, it's blocked.

 

Prayers for your husband's recovery. I went through radiation treatments for several months at the VA Hospital. Didn't have to do chemo and I certainly hope your husband doesn't either.

 

Take care. Just "yell" if you need some help.

[Channeal]

Thank you so much for your kind words.

 

Kind words are needed and appreciated more than ever at a time when life itself is being so unkind.

 

I will certainly let you know if I need any more help with the website issue.

 

Stay well,

 

Chris.