Domain registration process

After having a DreamHost account for a little over three weeks, I made use of my one free domain registration last night. Because of the lateness of the hour, it did not occur to me that the registration process did not ask me for any contact information. When I did a whois on my new domain this evening, I was shocked to discover that the contact info was taken directly from my profile in the web panel. This was information supplied to DreamHost during the initial sign-up process. So as a result, my home address, my home number, and my main email address are now out there exposed on the web, ripe for the plucking by spammers. Ugh. Just what I've been so careful to avoid.

Not only is this personal information now out there, I cannot change the whois information yet because when I log in at Domainitron.com, it says, "You have no domains.. add one now!!". How long is it supposed to take for the newly registered domain to show up at Domainitron? If the whois information is already available on the net, why is it not available yet for me to revise?

As soon as the domain is listed at Domainitron, I plan to replace my home address with a P.O. Box, my home phone number with a voicemail number (from k7.net), and my main email address with a disposable email address from sneakemail.com.

I think you guys should really revise the free domain registration process so as to give the registrant the option to supply the contact information rather than to use the information supplied during sign-up. Furthermore, there is no warning beforehand that such sign-up information would be used by default as whois contact info.

This is hopefully (finally) in the works. I agree that the current way of doing things is far from ideal, and it has caused me problems in the past - Earthlink actually called me at home (to try to get me to sign up with them) from a domain registration that I had changed two days after registering the domain.

Needless to say, I was not amused.

Thanks for pushing for the change.

In the meantime, though, the question remains of why my new domain has not shown up on Domainitron, well over 40 hours -- probably closer to 44 or 45 hours -- since I registered it, and well over a day since my personal information has made its way to whois servers everywhere.

The only other registrar I've used is GoDaddy. There your domain(s) appears in your account as soon as you've bought it, so you can make changes immediately to various aspects of your domain, even if it does take a couple of days for the changes to propagate.

I feel as if I have been suckered into exposing personal information on the net, and I anxiously log on to the Domainitron page every 30 minutes or so to see if my domain has appeared there so I can alter my contact info. So far, Domainitron *still* tells me I have no domain, even though the domain is listed in the Domains section of the DreamHost web control panel as well as on whois servers worldwide. This, not to put too fine a point on it, sucks.

Was the domain a transfer, or a new registration? If it was a transfer, you may need to contact support and have them associate the domain with your account. In general, you should be able to access the registration service for a domain as soon as you've registered it.

Can you see the domain registration service in the regular panel under "Domains => Manage"?

Hmm, something is definitely amiss. It's a new registration, not a transfer, and yes, it does appear in the regular Web Control Panel under "Domains => Manage". And Domainitron.com continues to say I do not have a domain. I guess it's time to send something off to support. Dammit.

Just to update:

I misunderstood Will's question above. My newly registered domain was indeed listed in the Web Control Panel under "Domains => Manage", but just for DNS Domain Name, Web, and Mail, not for Domain Registration, which for some mysterious reason was missing. I sent off a message to support, Sarah at support added the domain registration to my account, my domain appeared at Domainitron, and I was able to change my whois contact information. So everything's fine now.