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If you're like most internet-aware businesspeople, you've given careful consideration to your online presence, including choosing and registering an unforgettable, highly-marketable domain name. The following story is about someone who thought he had done just that.

My friend Bob came to me in a panic. Without warning, the web site that he had worked tirelessly to design, launch, and promote during the past year was no longer visible on the internet. After ruling out hardware and connection issues we checked with the company hosting his web site. No issues on their end.

The next step was to insure all was well with his domain registrar, the company he had used to register his domain name. When Bob logged into his registrar's site, he was able to access other web site names he had registered, but not the domain name in question.

At this point, I suspected some administration snafu on the part of his registrar. I suggested we check his domain name under WHOIS, the central registry that shows the contact information for companies and individuals who have registered web site names.

A perplexed look came over my friend's face when the WHOIS search showed that his domain name was owned by a person he had never heard of. Things were becoming clearer, and the picture that was forming wasn't a pretty one. A quick check of Bob's records showed that his domain name had expired four days ago, and according to WHOIS, the mystery person had registered his domain two days after that. A stoic reply to the frantic e-mail he sent to his registrar confirmed the worst: there wasn't a lot Bob could do about it.

How could such a thing happen? Could this have been prevented? And, most important for my friend, what could be done to retrieve his lost name?

How it happened is simple, and in fact, it's happening with alarming regularity these days.

When you register a domain name, you are asked to supply contact information, including your e-mail address. Many people assume it's just for the usual reason, in other words, to bombard you with annoying special offers. In this case, however, the e-mail address you provide is used to send you reminders to renew your domain name (usually 60, 30, and then a couple of days before the expiration date). In Bob's case, he gave a Hotmail address that he had stopped checking several months ago; so, the renewal reminders were sent, but he never received them. His domain expired, was then made available to the public, and was scooped up by someone else. Simple. And quite avoidable.

Preventing the loss of a domain name requires a three-pronged strategy:

making sure the Administrative Contact e-mail address you provided the registrar is valid and functioning;

keeping your own separate records and reminders (for example, as a Task in Microsoft Outlook) of when your domain names are expiring. A good practice is to extend the registration period past the standard one year, to reduce the chance of a problem due to an unexpected oversight;

knowing the policy of your registrar in the case of a mistake. While some registrars have a grace period which will keep an expired domain "on hold" before it can be claimed, others simply release the names and make them available as they expire. My friend's registrar was in the latter group.

If you find your domain name has been taken by someone else due to your error, you don't have much recourse. You can appeal to your registrar, but don't expect much help from them (unless you believe fraud has been involved). You can try contacting the new owner of the domain, but there's no rule that says they have to give it back to you.

You can also try appealing to ICANN, the organization that oversees the registration of domain names. Expect this to cost you time and money, without a guarantee of a ruling in your favor, unless your domain name was also a trademarked name. Most likely, you will wind up just registering a new name and link it to your existing site, and hope that it doesn't confuse your customers.

That's cold comfort to someone who has already expended significant money and energy to establish a brand, only to see it slip away because of ignorance about what happens to domain names when they expire. If your domain name is important to you, a far better strategy is to be prepared, and to guard your domain name as closely as you do other critical aspects of your business.

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