Create an account

A DomainGuard account is free, needs no card, and holds an unlimited number of domains on every plan. Registration is the same account whether you start on the web or in the app.

On the web

1. Go to nhmohio.com/register.
2. Enter your name, email and a password (at least 8 characters), twice. Registration is rate limited per IP address per hour and per email address per day, so repeated attempts from one place are refused with "Too many registration attempts" until the window passes. New accounts cannot be created over Tor.
3. You land in the dashboard straight away, signed in. A verification link goes to your inbox; until you click it, the DMARC report inbox and welcome notifications wait. If it does not arrive, Resend verification email is at the top of Settings, Profile.
4. Next time, sign in at nhmohio.com/login.

Sign in with Apple also works on the website. The web flow asks Apple for a signed identity token and verifies it directly, and keeps nothing from Apple beyond that. The app's sign-in also trades Apple's one-time code for an Apple refresh token, stored encrypted, so the link can be revoked with Apple when you delete your account. See Sign in with Apple.

In the iOS app

The welcome screen leads with Sign in with Apple. Under it are Continue with email, Scan QR code to sign in (for an account already signed in on the web) and Check a domain without an account. Creating an account happens on the same email screen ("New here? Create a free account · no card needed").

Apple asks for your name and email only the first time. Revoking DomainGuard in your Apple ID settings has no effect on your DomainGuard session.

After the first sign-in the app runs a short guide to its five tabs, asks whether it may send notifications, and offers to add a first domain and scan it live.

What a new account has

• Unlimited domains. Adding one is never refused by plan, though a Free account may add at most 250 domains in any 30 days as a burst limit.
• Three domains watched automatically with a five-minute uptime probe. There is no nightly re-scan on Free: everything else runs when you press scan.
• One mailbox watched in breach data, re-checked daily or weekly if you choose.
• A one-time grant of 100 local SEO credits, spendable after a Local SEO upgrade or admin grant, or on any other credit-based action your plan includes.
• The app's Scan tab and the public tools, which run the basic checks on any domain from a signed-in session. Deep scans (open ports, known vulnerabilities, exposed files) run on your verified email's domain and on domains you verify, about a minute each. See Which domains you can scan.

Free accounts and ads

The Free plan shows Google AdMob banners in the iOS app. After the ads start, the app asks once through Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt; only if you choose Allow can ads be personalized with the advertising identifier (IDFA), and otherwise every ad is non-personalized. Paid plans have no ads and no prompt. "Ad privacy options" is under Account, Settings in the app.

Passwords and sessions

Passwords are stored hashed with PBKDF2. Too many failed sign-ins lock the account for 30 minutes. Sessions refresh themselves for 90 days on the app, and the app never signs you out on a network error or a failed refresh; it shows a banner instead. See Sessions and staying signed in.