Answers to Your Questions

What are the characteristics of Gandi Whois ?

Our customers have been complaining about receiving spam and viruses via the e-mail addresses that are required to register a domain name.

To avoid spam, some clients even provide a false email address. But this does not adhere to the terms and conditions of our contract, and the domain name(s) associated with this false email can be deleted just because of that.

That is why we have set up a system to fight against spam and viruses :

• We only send to the registries the registrant (owner) contacts and administrative contacts
• For these contacts we send special e-mail addresses, like:

  ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net for the contact AR41-GANDI who has the email address support@gandi.net;
  fbc7c9d9e124def902f077e79670ab9a-1234@owner.gandi.net for the registrant (code 1234) who has the email address support@gandi.net

• For the other contacts (technical and billing), we always send to the registry our own handle (according to the registry, it can be AR41-GANDI, C1249598-LRMS, ga457, ar962, gb1738). For .be domain names, the restrictions are so high that we need to send our own handle also for the administrative contact.

With this process, the public Whois (registries' databases) displays valid e-mail addresses, which work, but which also minimize spam and viruses.

As a consequence :

• Your e-mail address, like support@gandi.net, is not displayed in the Whois.
  However please make sure that this e-mail address is still correct and valid, otherwise the associated domain name(s) could be deleted.
• The a-mails go through filters: for example any e-mail sent to ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net will go through anti-spam and anti-virus tests, and then will be sent to you with the results of these tests.
• The displayed e-mail addresses, like ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net, are valid.
  For example any email sent to ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net, once filtered, will be forwarded to support@gandi.net.
• The displayed email addresses can change.
  They are changed each time you make a modification on our website, or whenever you want.
  After this change the former e-mail address, like ab3a1046d1b51f35a55862198a88013b-ar41@contact.gandi.net, can still be used for the next 24 hours.

Customer Care

Do you need more information on this topic?, Contact Gandi Customer Care

Error

Have you spotted an error in this answer, or think that it is outdated? You may start a support ticket, and our Customer Care staff will update it as soon as possible.
Note: No support request sent to this e-mail address will be replied to. To contact Customer Care, please use our online form.