If he’s a spammer he isn’t a very good one, he didn’t link to any sites selling anything! Looks like a drive-by guy being helpful to me.
Ah, the branded signature graphic was kind of off-putting.
Sounds like you use these 2 options, while you also pursue undesirable path B: register a new domain of (really) your own this time, and start transitioning everything to it :(
Thanks for the update, what a crazy ride. I wondered if the “company” QCH is really just run by like… one enterprising guy, and maybe he… died or something? Would anyone be taking over that role or would it just languish for eternity?
I hate to say it, but if nothing else for the sake of getting up and running, you may just want to start over with a new domain and work behind the scenes to recover any lost data/emails from the original like what @sillhouette suggested.
Hopefully you can recover your DNS but either way I would move away from hosting my own email and sign up with O365, GMail, or similar large scale provider.
You will have to pay for your DNS (cheap) and email (which can be very cheap up to $15 a month depending on what you want) but it’s much easier to setup and you don’t have to worry about your own servers. Which you should be concerned about, because they are prime targets for hackers and keeping them running happily and safely is not something I recommend a layperson attempt.
I’d been doing it (hosting my own servers) for nearly 20 years. Prior to the switch to Quick Click, I had been at Dreamhost for a long time, with zero problems save for the occasional downtime. I moved off Dreamhost because it was costing too much; my plan with them was for unlimited domains, and for many years I managed 3 or 4 domains as a side business. I’ve since gotten out of that business, so I really only needed the one domain.
I don’t like using Gmail because I really don’t like the UI. I have Office 2019, so I don’t want to sign up with Office 365, though the Windows10 Mail app works nicely, even with IMAP.
For now, I’m going to hope ICANN sees what’s happened here and forces Namecheap to turn over the domain. I’ve got a new host lined up, and I’ve spoken with them on the phone already. They seem like decent guys. Either way, I’ll make sure the domain is in my name.
If I can’t recover it, I’ll just have to move my every day mail to my Hotmail/Outlook.com account, and my family will have to as well. All the other TLDs with my last name are taken already.
Office 365 Business Essential is about 5$ per user, without the office programs. If using one user with multiple aliases, still just the 5$.
And it’s Exchange, which is great. I dislike pop and imap.
The company I used to work for renewed their domain via speakeasy.net circa 1999 for 15 years. What a horrific nightmare that was to try to renew and/or get it off after the DNS hosting had been passed around in one buyout or another for several years. Similar to your situation, it was registered via Network Solutions, but since it was done via speakeasy (a former ISP) as the re-seller, we couldn’t actually gain access ourselves via NetSol.
We eventually lucked out since the remnants of the company still existed. But I think I had to speak to 15 people in various offices throughout the country before I found the one dude in a broom closet who know how to make changes, and release our domain.
I thought I’d post a final update to close this one out (for those of you who might be interested).
In the end, neither Namecheap (the registrar) nor ICANN were able – or more accurately, IMO, willing – to help. I was basically pooched, and had pretty much given up. The Host had taken down their website entirely, posting a final “sorry, business is hard, so I’m out” statement and an email address. I figured one last appeal to human decency wouldn’t hurt.
And he replied! I got the EPP code, and was able to recover my domain and transfer it to a new host/registrar. Aside from a couple months of lost mail and a whole lot of aggravation, everything is back up and running, and I’ve confirmed the domain is in my name.
Nice! Glad to hear that the guy running the host was good enough to give you what you needed for the domain transfer. Congrats on getting everything back to normal and transferred to your own control now.