Who is CIRA?

CIRA stands for the Canadian Internet Registration Authority. CIRA has been given a mandate by the Government of Canada to provide and operate the .CA domain name registry. CIRA does not sell .CA domains per se. Instead, registrars like CanReg.com are tested and certified by CIRA to perform the customer related aspects of domain sale, service and support. In other words, CIRA provides and handles the "back-end" of the .CA registry, while certified registrars like CanReg.com provide the "front-end" customer features and support. This allows CIRA to focus on their primary mandate. CIRA is also a non-profit body, and thus anyone can become a member of CIRA, with the voting rights associated with it. To become a CIRA member, you can login to your CanReg.com account and check the "CIRA Member" button at the "Registrant Information" section.

How do I modify my domain record?

You can modify your domain name record online using our easy-to-use Domain Admin Panel. This is accessible through the 'Manage Domain' link at the top of our homepage.

How do I retrieve my CanReg.com password?

You can do this online here.

How do I retrieve my CIRA password?

There are two ways to retrieve your private CIRA password. The most direct way is to visit CIRA's website here:
https://member.cira.ca/password/forgot/en
Your password will be emailed directly to your administrative email address.

You can also request this via the "Retrieve CIRA Password" option in the CanReg.com Domain Admin Panel. CIRA maintains a separate password which is kept private between you and themselves. More explanation can be found at the "Retrieve CIRA Password" section mentioned above.

Why do some updates to my domain record not work?

Certain updates are considered "critical updates" by CIRA. This is for the safety of your domain. This is because if such updates are done incorrectly or maliciously, you could loose control of your domain. This could happen, for example, in cases of "domain hijacking". To prevent this, CIRA requires that you go to their website to approve all critical updates. Any critical updates not confirmed are put in an "on-hold" state - thus such updates do not yet work. Also note that any critical updates not approved within 7 days are automatically cancelled.

What if I lost my passwords and access to the current admin email address?

The Canadian Registry has a manual update process to update your domain information in the event you have lost access to your account. The manual process only needs to be started when access to both the current admin email address AND access to the CIRA private password has been lost. If you can access either the current admin email address or have a copy of the CIRA private password please let our customer service department know at 1.877.901.2123.

The Canadian Registry (CIRA) requires that the following documentation be completed and faxed to us. There are two forms available , one for Individuals and another for non-individuals. If you are unsure of how you are currently registered please contact us, or if you still have access to the CanReg.com domain administration panel at www.canreg.com you may login and click on "Update Registrant Information" and the registration type will be displayed.

Individuals (e.g. Canadian citizen)

http://canreg.com/forms/individual_MCACE.pdf

http://canreg.com/forms/non_individual_MCACE.pdf

The form is in Adobe PDF format and contains all the instructions you will need. Once the form is completed it must be printed, signed, and faxed back to us toll free at 1.877.731.7375

What is URL Forwarding?

URL forwarding is an enhanced service for people who do not like to have their web-hosting-provider control their domain. It can also be used by those who prefer to use the various free webspace services on the Internet. URL forwarding allows you to keep control of where your website goes via our Domain Admin Panel. You will be able to direct visitors to your domain to any website in the world.

For example, you could set up forwarding for anyone visiting www.yourdomain.ca to be redirected to your personal homepage at www.homestead.com/user123, or to your main website at www.yourotherdomain.com. That way, you can tell people an easy-to-remember domain name instead.

Because URL Forwarding is not for everyone, it is not included in the domain registration fee. We provide 3 types of URL Forwarding service:

• Forward Free (tell 5 friends about us and get it free) - an advertising banner is placed at the bottom of the page. This is so that we can recover some of the costs of providing this free service.
• Forward Basic ($19.95 per year) - shows the actual destination URL in the address bar.
• Forward Professional ($29.95 per year)- retains your domain name in the address bar.

You can subscribe to any of these services at our Domain Admin Panel.

What is DNS?

DNS is an acronym that stands for Domain Name Service. Each domain is assigned a unique numeric address and DNS takes care of locating and routing information to the domains so that the world can find you. When you fill out your registration form, we give you the option to park your DNS with us or to specify your own DNS or the DNS of your hosting service. If you already have a web site or have found an ISP to host your web site, you should use your ISP's DNS when registering your domain name.

Why can't I see my website?

There's actually a few possible reasons:

• If you just bought your domain, please note that CIRA requires you to visit their website and read and confirm their legal agreement. You should have received an email from us with more details.
• If you just bought your domain and have already confirmed CIRA's legal agreement, please understand that it takes up to 24 hours for it to propagate to the Internet.
• If you just changed the DNS server for your domain, please understand that it takes up to 24 hours for the change to propagate to the Internet.
• If you are using a third-party ISP or web-hosting company, it could be that they either have not set up your hosting account yet, or have a problem with their servers.