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Came here to second DirectNIC! Stable pricing and services... I'm a happy customer since 2001!

For what it's worth, I've been using DirectNIC for years and have never had a problem with them. They are also not on the list of SOPA supporters.

I maintain all my DNS servers and use DirectNIC as a registrar. I can't imagine using a registrar that won't allow you to maintain your own servers. I've been running DNS servers for fifteen years staring back when everything was registered at Network Solutions. It was actually a bit harder then to manage your own DNS since you had to register your servers with NetSol using a special e-mailed form. Making changes was cumbersome and slow. Now I can just change an entry on a web page at DirectNIC if I need to move a server.

They register names for $15/year and offer a POP3 service for another $10/year. I don't think they support IMAP, though.

See: http://www.directnic.com/help/faq/?question_id=517&topic_id=44

DirectNIC is located in New Orleans and survived Hurricane Katrina. I've used them as a registrar for perhaps a decade now. Great customer service.

I wouldn't let any of my business customers set up a GMail account. Businesses need more privacy for their messaging than Google offers.

I use DirectNIC. Nice bunch of folks who've responded quickly and helpfully when I've had a question. Plus they survived Katrina. What more could you want!

http://www.directnic.com/whois/?query=line9.com

Administrative Contact:
This domain was reported to, ICANN for invalid WHOIS info.
customer-must-correct-the-info@or-the-domain-will-be-deleted.com
invalid WHOIS, domain disabled
invalid WHOIS, domain disabled
invalid WHOIS, domain disabled
invalid WHOIS domain disabled, WY 99999
US
9990000000
Fax:9980000000

Well, you won't see any of the sites I host then, since I use DirectNIC as well.

Don't blame them just because you don't like one of their customers. Do you think every DNS registrar reviews every registration (in their case, an online registration) to make sure it passes some kind of Slashdot cleanliness test?

BTW, DirectNIC is an excellent registrar with good customer support. Sure they cost a bit more than GoDaddy, but I've found they're worth the $15/year I pay.

How exactly do you as the hosting provider handle such a thing? I believe GoDaddy did the right thing to a point.

GoDaddy was the domain registrar, not the hosting provider. There is a big difference. I would never use GoDaddy or any other domain registrar that would alter a registration without a court order.

Personally, I use directNIC and Domain Contender.

So who's a good, low-cost registrar with no relationship to GoDaddy?

http://www.domaincontender.com/

They are a rebranded directNIC (one of the top ten domain registrars).

I've had very good experiences with DirectNIC http://www.directnic.com/. I was especially impressed with how their New Orleans-based operations survived Katrina. I've also needed to contact customer service in a couple of cases, and all my cases were handled quickly and courteously.

BTW, they charge a whopping $15/year for domains. I guess that seems like a lot to someone used to GoDaddy pricing, but if your business makes key decisions on the basis of $15 vs. $9, good luck to you.

Well, I can't load the page that you're linking too, but I'm betting the person works for DirectNIC. They have a blog up on their site with pictures, etc. too.

New Orleanes Registrar vs. Katrina.

DirectNIC.com, a registrar and host which is based in New Orleans, evacuated the majority of their personnel. The skeleton staff that remained spent a great deal of effort battling broken windows, incoming water, and flying debris, from their high-rise office and data center. Their hosting and registration services remained online and worked flawlessly however they are currently running on a back-up diesel generator. From their website "Please understand that with the aforementioned power outage, and the fact that travelling to and from our offices (on the 11th floor) is somewhat restricted, responses to customer support issues might take a little longer than normal to be addressed...You've heard of 'bullet-proof hosting'? directNIC.com is now proudly able to prove that their services are literally 'hurricane-proof'."

Their blog and photos of this event were featured on CNN.

New Orleanes Registrar vs. Katrina.

DirectNIC.com, a registrar and host which is based in New Orleans, evacuated the majority of their personnel. The skeleton staff that remained spent a great deal of effort battling broken windows, incoming water, and flying debris, from their high-rise office and data center. Their hosting and registration services remained online and worked flawlessly however they are currently running on a back-up diesel generator. From their website "Please understand that with the aforementioned power outage, and the fact that travelling to and from our offices (on the 11th floor) is somewhat restricted, responses to customer support issues might take a little longer than normal to be addressed...You've heard of 'bullet-proof hosting'? directNIC.com is now proudly able to prove that their services are literally 'hurricane-proof'."

Their blog and photos of this event were featured on CNN.

This guy is blogging from the DirectNIC datacenter in downtown New Orleans. Amazingly, they're still up. He seems to be having a hard time looking for diesel fuel. And then he starts talking about "survivalist hygiene"... He seems serious (to the point of being crazy) about staying there for the long haul.

New Orleanes Registrar vs. Katrina.

DirectNIC.com, a registrar and host which is based in New Orleans, evacuated the majority of their personnel. The skeleton staff that remained spent a great deal of effort battling broken windows, incoming water, and flying debris, from their high-rise office and data center. Their hosting and registration services remained online and worked flawlessly however they are currently running on a back-up diesel generator. From their website "Please understand that with the aforementioned power outage, and the fact that travelling to and from our offices (on the 11th floor) is somewhat restricted, responses
to customer support issues might take a little longer than normal to be addressed...You've
heard of 'bullet-proof hosting'? directNIC.com is now proudly able to prove that their services are literally 'hurricane-proof'."

Their blog
and photos of this event were featured on CNN.

New Orleanes Registrar vs. Katrina.

DirectNIC.com, a registrar and host which is based in New Orleans, evacuated the majority of their personnel. The skeleton staff that remained spent a great deal of effort battling broken windows, incoming water, and flying debris, from their high-rise office and data center. Their hosting and registration services remained online and worked flawlessly however they are currently running on a back-up diesel generator. From their website "Please understand that with the aforementioned power outage, and the fact that travelling to and from our offices (on the 11th floor) is somewhat restricted, responses
to customer support issues might take a little longer than normal to be addressed...You've
heard of 'bullet-proof hosting'? directNIC.com is now proudly able to prove that their services are literally 'hurricane-proof'."

Their blog
and photos of this event were featured on CNN.

If you just want economy hosting, it doesn't get much better than GoDaddy. If you want a bunch of e-mail management and forwarding options, I suggest DirectNIC. They are more expensive than GoDaddy but you get what you pay for. I have had no trouble from them, and also quick responses from their support, even when I was asking for help transferring a domain away from them as I did not need the more expensive services anymore.

They own gdesktop.com http://www.directnic.com/whois/index.php?query=gde sktop.com Why not use it?

At any rate, in the interest of trying, I will note that the 5-L version is still available:

Falllwell.com/net/org/etc.

Someone has!
whois

are not proven in the field

directNIC is running MyDNS and is currently serving 3.2 million queries per hour.

Do I think Sigmund has a real interest in my former domain name? Only as a speculator. What else can "Buy domains inexpensively! Resell them at competitive prices!" mean?

So what can I do about it? Sigmund is a lawyer with $250,000 worth of infrastructure behind him. I've seen WIPO cases with more going for them lose. The year I spent building that site and name are now effectively Sigmund's and there's nothing I can do about it because I don't have the time, resources or knowledge.

Problems like that need to be solved. Small businesses are going to be driven from the web by practices like that. If they go, so goes the web itself because people are not going to trust a non free media. It's simple banditry and no one does business in a lawless place.

It costs me $35 to buy my own domain and a one off payment of about $30 to zoneedit to set up the mail forwarding.

Use a registrar like directNIC that has $15 domains and free email forwarding.

But note that you don't have to have your own domain to use that method. MTAs like qmail offer extension addresses (user-*@example.com). Also check out spamgourmet for a more advanced approach.

I hear you. Every so often I get an email from www.directnic.com reminding me that in X number of days or months a domain of mine will expire. I just follow the link in the email, log in, and hit a button or two and am set for a year or two... or a hundred I guess.

To top the entire situation off, GoDaddy charged me a $250 fee to get my domain name back! I am now looking to transfer my domain names to a new registrar, so time to start looking - and time to start considering legal action.

I highly recommend directNIC.com. They have a great interface, great customer service, good prices and most importantly, they don't pull crap like that. There is a reason why so many adult companies register their domains through them. Of course, they are great for anyone, but they certainly don't shut off your domain because of a few spam complaints.

I have my important domains at directnic.com which provides amazing 24/7 trouble-ticket based support. I don't even think the somewhat less tech savvy the, yet ultra cheap godaddy.com would try this.

They took my money, had a problem transferring the domain, and told me when I called them that it was their standard policy to keep your money regardless of whether they provide the f**** service you paid for (transferring my domain). I said, "So you're not going to transfer the domain." "That's right. "And you're not going to give my money back either. "It's your problem."

Needless to say, I'm with DirectNIC now. GoDaddy is a bunch of slimeballs like VeriSign.

Isn't that great? I hope were being sarcastic ..

because other companies such as directnic.com and godaddy have been providing full-service domain registrations for $15 or less per year for many *YEARS* now.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

directnic.com. They started off as a little independent shop using opensrs as there back-end system.

I recommend them to everyone I can because they are :

Cheap.

Effecient

and

Reliable

All the things you want in a domain name registrar/service provider.

Cheap, Only $15/year for a domain name and high quality service that you have full control over,
unlike some registrars you can change every setting in your directnic account (such as nameserver information) with great ease.

Move from host to host with great ease, and manage your directnic account with great ease.

Effecient, when you instruct your directnic account management interface to do something,
it does it : instantly with no messing around.

If there is a charge for the extra service, they tell you about in an open, clear, concise and honest manor!
(something very rare these days : integrety).

All the things that directnic.com claim they provide, they provide. Unlike some registrars who just use some lame link to a third party service directnic.com actually do what they say they do, and they do it well.

Reliable, the customer support directnic.com provides is nothing but first class. Whenever I have had a problem, it's been answered (usually within 24 hours, but I am in the UK so timezones are backwards compared to in the US).

I've tried Register.com, I've tried Verio, IMHO directnic.com are the best in the business because they actually do what they say they are going to do.

And it seems many people agree with me too ...

Superior customer support and reliability, is what turned directnic.com from a lowly opensrs.org based registrar into a fully fledged ICANN accreditted domain name registrar.

directnic.com simply rocks. They are the best. that's why I have 24 domain names registered with them. And will continue to register more with them now, and in the future.

Check out DirectNIC.

I don't work for them or know anybody who does, but I've had all my domains on there for a couple years (after getting fed up with Networ... uh I mean Verisi... uh I mean Network Solutions) and have been very happy with the price and performance. Quick and clean management interface.

Start off with a new e-mail address. Do this sooner or later because you already have a ton of contacts who know your current address. The longer you wait, the harder it is to switch.

To get a new address, I bought a domain name through DirectNIC (whose service is fantastic, btw) and set up a referrer myname@mydomain.org to point to my POP3 box. NOBODY ever gets the pop3 address. The contacts I trust get the @mydomain.org. For other online services, I create servicename@mydomain.org (or use sneakemail, which is also fabulous, btw) and can kill those if they get spammed.

My addresses NEVER appear on any web site, usenet, etc. without spam-guarding.

This method works, and at my real address I only get about four spams PER YEAR. (It's always the same spam too. Something about skin care.)

Now which would you prefer? Setting up tons of filters, spamcop, spamassassin, etc. or just acting with a little more caution from the start and avoidign the spam in the first place?

(Note to trolls: The e-mail address you see attached to this message is a spam-trap.)

You don't have to wait for the domain to expire. Just change your registrar, which you can do right now. I have had good experience with DirectNIC where you can change the owner of a domain with a few web clicks, zero paper work. They are also a lot cheaper than NetSol.

You can do a similar thing with DirectNIC, who has been managing my domain names for almost a year now. (They are great, btw, with lots of extra free features, and a non clueness person answered my e-mail to them at 10PM on New Year's Eve. And please don't ask me what I was doing administering domain names on New Year's Eve. :-)

Basically, fraudulent transfers where the registrar says you authorised and you didn't really authorise it automatically go through if you don't actively repsond to a confirmation e-mail. With DirectNIC, you can turn on "secure mode" where the transfers are automatically denied unless you reply to the confirmation e-mail.

Well, almost $99/yr, looks like inflation struck here...

Pricing Info states US$118 each, but still a nice agressive price.

DirectNic has pretty reasonable prices for SSL certs $118 per certificate per year...

Maybe this is why MySQL isn't as popular for database(for things other then a website)?

If you are a real DBA, then having to use a SQL console or command line tools to administrate a database shouldn't be a problem. If you need to point and click to make a backup or create tables because SQL is too hard, then there is no way you can be a DBA. Besides, there is a good web based GUI, phpMyAdmin, that lets you do most things without knowing everything about SQL. There are also GUI interfaces to MySQL.

Also, PHP more popular then ASP? Possibly. But name anyone who makes money running a huge website (Slashdot excluded, they don't make money) with MySQL. There may be some, but anyone who is doing serious business isn't going to be using MySQL.

That's complete FUD. Say, do you work for Microsoft or Oracle? I can say first hand that directNIC.com uses MySQL for everything. They are a very popular domain registrar (sold over half a million domains) and are certainly making money. Many other companies use MySQL and not just for running websites. You should rethink your myths.

Fantastic is such a subjective word. Let's just say they are good.

I used to use Register.com, since it had what I thought was a good interface, and free DNS. Then I found out about directNIC, transferred all my domains without problems and have never looked back. directNIC has an awesome interface (great if you have lots of domains), is less than half the price ($15) and a lot of optional extras (free hosting, free email forwarding, free parking and redirection, DNS, POP3 accounts).

The final straw for me was when I received a mailing from them advertising discount renewal rates. The only thing was that they were bogus. After spending lots of time on their website and email customer service, I releaized it wasn't going to happen.

So I switched to directnic. They're cheap, and the FAQ pages do an excelent job of explaining the domain transfew process which was a concern. So some other place out and get Verisign off of you back too. :)

Try DirectNIC. I sent them a question through their online form on 9:30PM on New Year's Eve and had a response before 10PM on the same night. In fact they have never been slower than 1/2 an hour for web-form inquiries. And their responses are from experienced people and not simply canned generic messages.

<advertisement>

I've never had any trouble with DirectNIC. Their response time is fast, too ... e-mail responses are always in 1/2 an hour or less without fail, even on new year's eve. (This is from personal experience.) The techs are very competent (problem always fixed the first time) and the prices are also good. And you get unlimited e-mail alias forwarding (i.e. different forwarding address per alias allowed.) I recommend them wholeheartedly.

</advertisement>

Good point.

This is where registrars that have 'safety levels' for domain transfers are gold. From the registrar I use (DirectNIC):

We strongly suggest you to set your account to high transfer security level to protect your domains again hackers.

[...]

Normal Security: This will automatically allow the transfer, if neither of the notification emails is responded to within five days.

High Security: This will automatically decline the transfer, if neither of the notification emails is responded to within two days.

Domain Direct: DNS registry with free mail. They give you 1 POP mailbox and 5 forwarding addresses. One nice thing is that they provide catch-alls, i.e., all mail addressed to anything@yourdomain.com can be captured to your POP account. I use this with Fetchmail on my Linux box to create individual accounts for all my family members. One drawback, the POP quota is only 5 MB so I have to poll frequently. Another is that fetchmail with POP can't handle BCCs correctly, so this is not too good for mailing lists.

DirectNIC: Also offers domain registry services as well as email. DNS is cheaper, mailboxes cost a bit more. A friend who doesn't need email uses this and has no complaints.

No-IP
: These guys also provide free DNS under the no-ip.com domain (and a few others). They can host your domain and give you a backup MX capability. More expensive than the other two but probably more full-featured if you can host your own SMTP server.

Raju

what i want to know is why when a domain expires, it doesn't really "expire". I assumed that an expiration date means that the domain would go back into the open pool.

it seems like NSI is the only one holding domains after they expire. i personally let 3 domains lapse and using directnic, they were put back into the pool that day.

xavii aka bob

Wow. I just went through this, trying to change the DNSes for my domains. It seems that one domain, which I registered in 1998, uses the old, agreeably disagreeable method we're all accustomed to. Another domain, which I registered in 1999, uses some other method involving a wholly unmemorizable number and a password which I never set, and which, to my recollection, was never assigned.

I called NSI. Which had the predictable result. I got in touch with what just had to be the least intelligent phone operator ever (or merely the very least motivated), who told me that there was simply nothing to be done short of faxing them. I don't have a fax, and besides, this is ludicrous. The old system isn't there anymore, they didn't provide me a means of transferring to the new, and they want me to prove my identity as a result? Screw it.

The same operator didn't seem to mind when I asked him how to transfer my domain name. Seventy-two hours later (or so) my domain is registered elsewhere for half the price NSI wanted, my DNS records are changed, and everyone's happier (quite probably including the surly NSI phone drone).

Now here's the funny part. The answer to the question is that all you have to do is get the new registrar to ask NSI to transfer the domain name. NSI will email you. All you have to do is respond to the email (following its simple instructions), and you're set. No fax, no proof of identity, nothing. Just have the email address registered with NSI.

directNIC.com is $15 and has nice features like free hosting, paid DNS and paid POP3 email accounts. They also have the best interface I've ever seen for a registrar. They make it really easy to mange lots of domains (even hundreds), which is really nice if you have more than a couple domains. Transfering your domain to them or another registrar is a painless process that doesn't involve the original registrar.