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The rules

Every rule the Map Check uses

Eleven rules, applied only to your answers. There is no scoring formula and no lookup: a finding appears exactly when its rule below matches. "The core five" are domain registration, DNS, web hosting, email and the website admin login.

  1. R1

    Held outside the business

    When: A piece is in the designer's or agency's account, or someone else's.

    Fix first for the domain and DNS; fix soon for hosting, email and the admin login; worth a look for the rest.

  2. R2

    Held by someone who has left

    When: A piece is in a former staff member's or volunteer's account.

    Fix first for domain, DNS, hosting, email and admin login; fix soon for the rest.

  3. R3

    Circular lock-out

    When: The domain or DNS account logs in with an address at the website's own domain (fix first). The email account logs in with an address inside the same email service (fix soon).

    If the domain lapses, mail to that address stops, so the renewal and reset mail can never arrive.

  4. R4

    Login address belongs to a person or the designer

    When: A piece logs in with a personal address, or is the business's but logs in with the designer's address.

    Fix soon for the core five; worth a look for the rest.

  5. R5

    2-step sign-in off

    When: "2-step sign-in off" on a piece.

    Fix soon for the core five; worth a look for the rest.

  6. R6

    Only one person can get in

    When: "Only one person" on domain, DNS, hosting, email or admin login.

    Fix soon.

  7. R7

    Renewal date

    When: Counted from today in Eastern time. Date passed: fix first. Within 30 days and auto-renew not on: fix first. Within 30 days with auto-renew on: worth a look (check the card). Within 60 days and auto-renew not on: fix soon.

    Pieces marked "Nothing to renew" are skipped.

  8. R8

    Domain auto-renew off

    When: The domain has auto-renew off and R7 has not already flagged its date.

    Fix soon.

  9. R9

    Paid on a personal card

    When: Domain or hosting: fix soon. Others: worth a look.

    A card that expires or leaves with its owner makes renewals fail quietly.

  10. R10

    Backups

    When: Backups kept only at the web host, or no backups on the map at all.

    Fix soon.

  11. R11

    Missing from the map

    When: No row for domain registration, DNS, web hosting or email.

    Worth a look: every website has these, so somebody holds them.

"Find out" questions

Every "Not sure" answer becomes a question in the Find-out list (who holds it, which address, 2-step sign-in, how many people, who pays, whether it auto-renews, where backup copies are). Not knowing is the first thing to fix.

What the check cannot know

TotalHostNow does not look anything up. It cannot see your registrar, DNS or host, so a map is only as current as the answers in it. Run it again whenever someone joins or leaves, or a provider changes.

Hand-back requests

For pieces held outside the business the result includes polite wording asking for the piece to be moved into the business's own account. It is a starting point, not legal advice; if there is a dispute about who owns a domain or account, talk to a lawyer. Before moving a domain to another registrar, ask the registrar about any transfer lock that applies.