I am about to register a domain for myself ( it is a .com ). It is just for a personal site that will be a hobby of mine. The thing is, i am a little reluctant to divulge my home address, phone number, and what not else for the whois info. Is there any way I can keep this stuff a little private.

I understand that the governing authorities on domain names want accountabiliy and openness. But is there any way to balance that with my personal privacy?


thanks for any help

The ways to register .com without personal information are risky - the domain can be stolen. Maybe by registrar itself. But, for hobby homepage, do you really need a second-level domain? And .com? Maybe you could consider some other ns record type..

This a question of my regarding the topic on hand: Can't you run your own Domain Name Server? Or does it do something other then what I think it does?

It might be better to look under the .name rather than .com

For a DNS to be attached to the Internet you still need to register the domain name, and I don't think that you will find many ISPs who would refer to a DNS set up by an enthusiast.

meh this might not be the proper response but..... if its just a personal site then just put fake info and you wont get harassed for it.

If you dont like that idea you can try

http://domainsbyproxy.com/

Why is it an issue? So some random person could know your name and address, anybody with a phone book and enough time could find the same information. I'm not scared and while I understand some people are hesitant about putting that kind of info in the open, what is an example of a direct negative result that could comefrom you doing so?

Someone who found disliked the content or even career stalker could use the information against him. They could steal your life away. You may say its a hopeless cause, gaurding yourself against such people. But why make it even easier by remaining a sitting duck.

Atleast with the domainproxy which has the premise of anonymity, the stalker/identity thiever would have a harder time of tracing a person down. Unless ofcourse he owned, bribed, or cracked domainproxy.com. But thats ok, because even if he did, you registered with a fake name and address. The worst he could do is extract the service you used to register the .com. And then he would have to crack that .com to extract paypal/credit information. Oh wait... nvm. cs-cam is right.

It really is hopeless.

If it is a big deal to put your street address, just get a post office box, they arent too expensive if you value your privacy that much. I have my domain info pointing to a PO Box myself.