Register.to Dies, Long Live Namecheap: A Migration Horror Story

April 14, 2023 - Nine days ago, I received an email that made my blood pressure spike. Register.to, the registrar that had been home to shibi.to for seven fucking years, just lost the ability to manage .TO domains.

Seven Years of Trust, Betrayed

Back in 2016, Register.to seemed legit. I got this professional confirmation:

Register.TO [email protected]
Thu, Mar 24, 2016, 11:53 AM

This message is to confirm that your domain purchase has been successful:

Registration Date: 03/23/2016
Domain: shibi.to
Registration Period: 1 Year(s)
Amount: $45.57 USD
Next Due Date: 03/23/2017

You may login to your client area at https://register.to to manage your new domain.

Seven years. Seven years of renewals, DNS management, and trusting them with my digital identity. And what do I get for my loyalty? An email from the registry itself telling me Register.to lost their authority.

The Apocalypse Email

April 5th, [email protected] dropped this bomb:

Subject: renewal of your domain name seated.to (they had the wrong domain but whatever)

This is a message from the .TO ccTLD registry to advise you that the registrar with which you had registered your name (https://www.register.to) no longer has the ability to register or renew .TO domain names.

We further advise that you not attempt to renew your domain name at register.to, as we are no longer accepting new registrations or renewals through this company and it is our understanding that its infrastructure, while still partially operating, is no longer being maintained.

Wait, what? No longer has the ability? That’s not “we’re shutting down”—that’s “we fucked up so badly the registry revoked our license.”

The Panic and the Hero

For context, shibi.to isn’t just a domain—it’s my digital identity. Every API endpoint, every SSL certificate, every email address tied to this name. And now I’m finding out from the registry that my registrar is basically dead.

But credit where it’s due: Tonic Domains (the .TO registry) actually stepped up. They identified affected customers, provided clear timelines (shibi.to expires July 5, 2023), and arranged partnerships with real registrars for easy transfers.

This is what should happen when registrars fail. Too bad Register.to couldn’t be bothered to tell their own customers.

Why Register.to Failed

When a registry tells you a registrar “no longer has the ability” to manage domains, that’s license revocation territory. Register.to either:

Failed to meet registry compliance requirements
Stopped paying fees to the registry
Had their accreditation pulled for cause
All of the above while ghosting their customers

The phrase “infrastructure no longer being maintained” is corporate speak for “it’s completely fucked.”

Enter Namecheap

When the registry itself arranges a partnership with Namecheap, that’s a strong endorsement. The transfer was surprisingly smooth—emailed Tonic for the auth code, moved to Namecheap within 24 hours thanks to the registry partnership.

But holy shit, the anxiety. You’re not transferring between functional registrars—you’re escaping from a sinking ship that lost its license to operate.

Nine days in, Namecheap is solid. Zero downtime, decent support, no surprise billing. Most importantly, they actually maintain their infrastructure and haven’t lost their authority to manage domains.

Lessons Learned

This shitshow taught me some painful lessons:

Never trust one registrar with everything. Seven years of loyalty meant nothing when they lost their license and ghosted their customers.

Know who actually controls your domain. For .TO domains, that’s Tonic Domains, not your registrar. When Register.to lost authority, Tonic was my lifeline.

Backup your DNS religiously. When your registrar implodes, their control panel might not be reliable.

Registry operators can save your ass. Tonic stepped up when Register.to disappeared. Not all registries would do this.

The Real Problem

Here’s what pisses me off: registrars can lose their authority and just ghost their customers. No industry standards for notification, no customer protection, no accountability.

Register.to lost their .TO license and could have sent one email: “Hey, we lost our authority, here’s how to transfer.” Instead? Radio silence while customers scramble.

The only reason this wasn’t a disaster was because Tonic actually gave a shit about their customers. But what happens when registries don’t care? Customers get fucked.

Final Thoughts

Seven years of trust, $45.57 at a time, and Register.to repaid that loyalty by losing their license and ghosting their customers. shibi.to survived because Tonic Domains stepped up and Namecheap made the transfer smooth.

The lesson? Your registrar is just a middleman. When they fuck up, you need the registry to care enough to save you. Not all of them will.

If you’re still on Register.to: Email [email protected] immediately, get your transfer code, and move to Namecheap. Register.to can’t help you anymore—they literally don’t have the authority.

Thank you, Tonic Domains. Fuck you, Register.to.