Frequently Asked Questions

Administrative and Billing Contact

As per our standard hosting polices, GCom Internet requires and allows only one contact email address for any hosting account. We generally refer to that email address as the Administrative and Billing Contact, or the ABC.

For the security of our clients and our servers, and as a defence against common social engineering attacks, we maintain strict protocols with respect to the creation, maintenance and use of Administrative and Billing Contacts.

Important items related to Administrative and Billing Contacts include...

Eligibility for the ABC Role

To be eligible to take on the Administrative and Billing Contact role for a hosting account, the concerned individual must be the true and direct owner of the domain(s) controlled by the account, or a true and direct employee or organisational member of that said owning entity. Except in the case of authorised reseller accounts, no onselling, leasing or sharing of services, whether or not for profit, is permitted.

The ABC Must be Off-Server

The Administrative and Billing Contact for any shared hosting account cannot be dependent upon any domain hosted under that account, or any other domain also managed as a shared hosting account on our network. The email address used must be an independent entity so that communication channels will remain active even in situations such as a client neglecting to renew a domain name via a registrar.

If a client's hosted domains include "mydomain.com", then "owner@mydomain.com" is not acceptable as an Administrative and Billing Contact. Additionally, any other email address ultimately redirected to "owner@mydomain.com" is not acceptable as an Administrative and Billing Contact.

If another hosted domain such as "otherdomain.com" is hosted on our network, then "owner@otherdomain.com" is also not acceptable as an Administrative and Billing Contact. Additionally, any other email address ultimately redirected to "owner@otherdomain.com" is not acceptable as an Administrative and Billing Contact.

Typically a client would use an ISP provided email address as the Administrative and Billing Contact. Alternatively, another excellent option is to create an off-server address via a free service such as Google's Gmail.

Changing the ABC

The Administrative and Billing Contact for a hosting account can be changed at any time by emailing an authorisation to from the existing Administrative and Billing Contact. Such authorisations will normally not be accepted from any email address other than the existing Administrative and Billing Contact, with exceptions only as provided in the next paragraphs.

If a client has lost control of the existing Administrative and Billing Contact email address for any reason, then an authorisation to change the ABC will be accepted from the email address recorded as authoritative within the registry record of the hosted domain.

If a client has lost control of the email address recorded by the registrar as authoritative for the domain, then that issue should be addressed as a matter of urgency with the registrar directly. In the case of a domain with private/cloaked registration, proper forwarding of the publicly displayed authoritative email address of the registry record must be in place directing incoming email to a functioning email address, or the private registration may need to be temporarily removed from the domain.

If a client has a special situation where none of the above options to change an Administrative and Billing Contact can be completed, an explanatory email should be sent to with a subject of "ABC Reset Required".

Communicating via the ABC

GCom Internet will only accept support requests and administrative directions from the Administrative and Billing Contact.

GCom Internet will only provide support replies and administrative direction confirmations to the Administrative and Billing Contact.

GCom Internet will always provide invoice, receipt and general accounting items to the Administrative and Billing Contact.

In special circumstances, GCom Internet will also provide copies of invoice, receipt and general accounting items to additional email addresses closely associated with the hosting account.

The ABC is Unrelated to cPanel Contact Information

It is important not to confuse the Administrative and Billing Contact retained by GCom Internet with your cPanel contact information stored in each hosted domain's cPanel interface. One single ABC exists per client account, whereas separate and independent email addresses may be entered into your cPanel contact information for each hosted domain.

It is extremely important to ensure that your cPanel contact information is always up to date, although it serves a very different purpose to the Administrative and Billing Contact as discussed in this knowledge base article.

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