Home address for all to see

Alison_B

I have decided to set up a small business working from home selling. I have been looking to register a domain name and am not happy that my address is available for all to see by doing a simple whois search.

How can I get around this. I could register a PO box but how much would that cost?

abbalover

If you select a *.co.uk name your address will not be shown if you choose to opt out of the database.

Sofa_Sogood

What's a 'who is' search? And if I find myself on it, can I get it deleted?

Alfie_E

abbalover wrote:

If you select a *.co.uk name your address will not be shown if you choose to opt out of the database.

You can only opt out, if the domain name is solely for private use, ie. not connected with a business. See Nominet’s Registrant opt-out page. You could register a PO Box, but it’s probably not worth it. Five minutes, and a telephone call to Royal Mail, is all it takes to get the underlying address for a PO Box.

One solution is to get another larger company that specialises in providing Internet services to business to register the domain name on your behalf. The only downside to that is that Nominet won’t consider you the legal own, if there is any dispute over the domain name.

tru

Alison_B wrote:

I could register a PO box but how much would that cost?

Costs just £43.80 for six months, or £54 for 12 months
Additional option to get your mail delivered from your PO Box to your normal address for an extra £43.80 per 6 months, or £54 per 12 months


Taken from HERE

Fran

Alfie_E wrote:

............................You could register a PO Box, but it’s probably not worth it. Five minutes, and a telephone call to Royal Mail, is all it takes to get the underlying address for a PO Box.

Are you saying a PO Box isn't safe & that anyone can find out the address or would only a few be able to do it?

WHA

Regardless of anyone do a search on "whois". If you have a business website, you are legally required to show your name and address on your business website.

http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/gbhtml/gbf3.shtml

Alfie_E

Fran wrote:

Are you saying a PO Box isn't safe & that anyone can find out the address or would only a few be able to do it?

Anyone can. As far as I understand it, the Royal Mail are required to provide the information. They’ve always been very helpful and forthcoming, when I’ve asked. You can get the address used for registration, and the address that mail gets redirected to, if it’s different from the registration address. PO Boxes aren’t there to provide anonymity to dodgy people and businesses. Of course, there are genuine cases where anonymity is needed. The section Sensitive boxes on the Royal Mail’s page Manage your mail – PO Boxes summarises under what circumstances you can go about getting anonymity.

Alison_B

Thanks for the replies. I registered the domain name last night and it allowed me to opt out of showing my address.

vansboy

Have your Registerd Office as the accountants address, that you use for your bookwork.

VB

Savvy_Sue

vansboy wrote:

Have your Registerd Office as the accountants address, that you use for your bookwork.

Obviously you need to check that your accountant is happy for you to do this, and that they won't charge to forward any letters which arrive there. You also need to be reasonably happy that they're not going to go down the tubes imminently, and remember that if you change your accountant, you'll need to change your registered office address as well. At least I think you will - any comments on this?