Validating Yahoo account

Bob Barr · 07-08-2009, 03:32 PM

I'm attempting to assist a potential web client in regaining control of his site. The client is very tech-unsavvy and had his site built by a friend who left the area some time ago. The client has no way to contact his 'webmaster' and doesn't know the user name or password for his account. Apparently, his friend answered all of the security questions using his own answers and didn't let the site owner know what they were.

A 'whois' search reveals that his registrar is MELBOURNE IT, LTD. D/B/A INTERNET NAMES WORLDWIDE (http://www.melbourneit.com). Since his DNS servers are set to yns1.yahoo.com and yns2.yahoo.com, I'm assuming that his site was hosted at yahoo.com. (His hosting has probably expired since his site is currently inaccessible.)

Does anyone have any tips as to how to proceed on this? Yahoo's security procedures seem to be impossible to get through without the proper magical incantations.

**htmlbasictutor** · 07-08-2009, 03:53 PM

Does he have the login info for the registrar?

Bob Barr · 07-08-2009, 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htmlbasictutor

Does he have the login info for the registrar?

While I don't know for sure, I'd bet that he doesn't. He also doesn't have the password for his Yahoo email account that's listed in his 'whois' information. (He says he never checks that account.)

**htmlbasictutor** · 07-08-2009, 05:10 PM

Ok, have him try this and see if he can get back into his Yahoo! email account.

1. Go to http://www.yahoo.com/
2. Top right under the search box is a link for signing in, click it.
3. On the right is a sign in box. Under that there is a link "I can't access my account", click it.
4. You are taken to a wizard to help you recover your password info.

You are going to have to solve this problem first as you stated that in the WHOIS records this is the contact email for the domain.

Bob Barr · 07-09-2009, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by htmlbasictutor

Ok, have him try this and see if he can get back into his Yahoo! email account.

1. Go to http://www.yahoo.com/
2. Top right under the search box is a link for signing in, click it.
3. On the right is a sign in box. Under that there is a link "I can't access my account", click it.
4. You are taken to a wizard to help you recover your password info.

You are going to have to solve this problem first as you stated that in the WHOIS records this is the contact email for the domain.

Good point. Getting access to his Yahoo email account first seems to be the best course of action.

The site owner hasn't used his Yahoo account for years and can't even say for sure that he set up the account rather than his "webmaster". I'll be getting together with him later today to see if we can gain access to the email account.

I checked the registrar's site and it turns out that Yahoo is their reseller for domain registrations. Back to square one on the domain access situation.