Domain & WHOIS Monitoring
Never lose a domain to an unexpected expiration.
Domain expiration is one of the most avoidable causes of website and email outages — yet it continues to happen because renewal notifications get lost in inboxes or go to former employees. NetTests monitors your domain registration details, expiry dates, and nameserver assignments, alerting you well in advance so renewals happen before anyone notices.
Domain expiration is more disruptive than it looks
When a domain expires, the impact is immediate and total. DNS stops resolving. The website goes offline. Email stops delivering. And depending on the grace period, recovering the domain may require paying a premium redemption fee — or in the worst case, the domain is acquired by a third party. Domain monitoring provides a reliable, independent safety net that doesn't depend on registrar notifications reaching the right inbox.
The renewal-notification problem is more common than it should be. Registrar emails go to an inbox that no longer exists, get caught by a spam filter, or land with the person who originally registered the domain years ago and has since left the company. Auto-renew helps until an expired credit card or a billing dispute silently disables it — the domain still looks "set to auto-renew" right up until the moment it isn't.
Nameserver changes are equally dangerous. An unauthorized change to a domain's nameservers redirects all DNS to a different provider, potentially pointing your website and email to attacker-controlled infrastructure. WHOIS monitoring that tracks nameserver assignments provides early detection of this class of domain hijacking attack.
What NetTests domain monitoring checks
NetTests queries WHOIS/RDAP data for every domain you track on a schedule, recording the current expiry date, registrar, and nameserver assignments. Days-remaining is calculated on every check, so alerts can be staged well ahead of the actual deadline — no dependency on the registrar's own reminder emails reaching anyone.
Nameservers and registrar details are compared against the last check on every run. A change to either is flagged immediately, whether it's an intentional migration you forgot to acknowledge or a sign of an unauthorized transfer or hijacking attempt in progress — either way, it's something you want to know about the moment it happens, not whenever someone notices the site is pointed at the wrong place.
Every domain in your portfolio appears in one dashboard sorted by days remaining until expiry, so the most urgent renewal is always the first thing you see, not something buried in a spreadsheet nobody's updated recently.
Key features
Expiry countdown alerts
Receive advance warnings at 60, 30, 14, and 7 days before domain expiration.
Nameserver change detection
Alert immediately when a domain's nameserver assignment changes unexpectedly.
Registrar monitoring
Track registrar details and alert when a domain's registrar changes — an indicator of a potential unauthorized transfer.
Multi-domain management
Monitor every domain in your portfolio from a single dashboard, sorted by days until expiry.
WHOIS/RDAP-based checks
Registration data pulled directly from the authoritative registry on every scheduled run.
Change history
Every registrar and nameserver change logged with a timestamp, useful when investigating a suspected hijack.
Agency-friendly portfolio view
Track every client's domains from one account instead of checking each registrar login separately.
Multi-channel alerts
Reach your team through email, Slack, Microsoft Teams, or SMS as a deadline or change approaches.
What you'll see
A live look at expiry countdown across your domain portfolio, and the alert that fires as one approaches its threshold.
Not ready to commit?
Try the free Domain Expiration Check first. See exactly how many days are left before a domain expires, then set up continuous monitoring across your whole portfolio.
Try the free tool →Free domain diagnostic tools
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I be alerted before domain expiry?
Most registrars require renewal well before the actual expiry date to avoid grace-period fees, so 60 and 30 days gives enough lead time for a normal renewal. Domains handled through an approval process (agencies, procurement) benefit from an earlier first alert at 60 days, with 14- and 7-day follow-ups as a final safety net.
Why isn't auto-renew enough on its own?
Auto-renew fails silently more often than people expect — an expired card, a billing dispute, or a registrar account flagged for review can all disable it without any visible warning until the domain is already close to lapsing. Monitoring the actual expiry date independently catches a failed auto-renewal before it becomes an outage.
What does a nameserver change actually indicate?
Sometimes it's an intentional migration to a new DNS provider. But an unexpected nameserver change is also the signature of a domain hijacking attempt — once an attacker controls the nameservers, they control everywhere your domain resolves, including your website and every email authentication record. Flagging every change, expected or not, means an unauthorized one gets noticed immediately rather than after damage is done.
What's the difference between WHOIS and RDAP?
WHOIS is the older, plain-text protocol most people are familiar with. RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol) is its structured, machine-readable successor, now required by ICANN for gTLDs. NetTests uses whichever is authoritative for a given domain's registry, so results stay accurate as more registries complete the RDAP transition.
Can I monitor domains across multiple registrars from one place?
Yes — WHOIS/RDAP data comes from the domain's registry, not the registrar's own dashboard, so NetTests tracks domains the same way regardless of which registrar each one is parked at. Useful for agencies managing a portfolio spread across several registrars and client accounts.
Monitor your domains before they expire
NetTests tracks expiry dates and nameserver assignments for every domain you manage, alerting you well in advance of any deadline.
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