The seductiveness of owning your own domain name is not hard to grasp; millions of us now sport an online identity.
For some it is just the chance to link up with relatives and friends all over the world. For others - who have snapped up 10, 20 or even 50 domains - it is a vital means to build, maintain and protect a business.
But whichever category you fall into, one fact remains the same: many of Britain's small e-businesses are becoming ex-businesses and it is the customers who are paying the price - quite literally.
In the past two months around 10 domain name providers have gone bust. But as more frustrated and bewildered customers raise their voices the eventual number is expected to be far greater.
Among the list of burnouts are Lollinames.co.uk, Justnames.co.uk, Dotltd.com, Webnetics.co.uk, Bestprice names.co.uk, Easyzone.co.uk, and Redhotant.co.uk.
When a company goes bust, its servers are switched off, and as far as the internet is concerned, your domain name no longer exists. If the website cannot be reached the emails do not work any more either. For an internet business this could be catastrophic. And, even for owners of only one domain, months of time, energy and money spent creating the site have been wasted.
If the company is not operating anymore then neither will its administration desk. But some customers have discovered to their horror that their domain name provider did not pay its bills and never even registered the domain in the first place.
They have found themselves tangled up in a protracted battle with the company's liquidators and the registry to prove they ever had the name in the first place. The longer it goes on, the more chance there is of someone else buying your domain.
An important port of call is Nominet - the registry for all .uk names. If you are one of the lucky ones and your domain was registered properly, then it should be recorded here and nobody else can register it again. However, they charge a hefty £80 to re-register, so finding another ISP to do it for you is the cheapest course of action.
So how can you protect your online alter egos? The wisest move is to make sure you get the right ISP to begin with.
A spokeswoman from Nominet said: "When a company goes bust they do not exactly pick up the phone and call to let us know. The first we know of any difficulties is when a customer contacts us, desperate because their domain has gone down and they can't get any answers.
"People lead busy lives and may not realise for weeks that their site is down, which can have serious implications for their business."
When the virtual gold rush began 18 months ago, thousands of companies jumped on the get-rich-quick bandwagon, but now the money is running out.
And with two small ISPs going bust each week, the chances of floating are remote: internet investors are now very choosy.
The moral? Do your homework before signing on the dotted line and request official confirmation of your registration. It is a small price to pay for not being left high and dry.
