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Gandi is an excellent place to go. They aren't as cheap as GoDaddy, but they are a heck of a lot friendlier to deal with, and they allow you a lot of flexibility. They have a new XML API, and they support a lot of causes, including Debian.

Years ago, I chose Gandi.net for my name services. A tad more expensive, but based in France, where very strong intellectual property laws exist that protect a domain holder.

A quick whois at gandi.net shows that while yootle.com and yootle.net are taken, you can still get .org, .info, and several others.

That whois also reveals something else -- Yahoo! didn't get the .com and .net, as far as I can tell. You would think they'd have thought of that before announcing the name of their new online currency... checking Domain Tools' whois shows that the .com has been registered since 1999, and the .net since 2005. Neither is an active site.

I get my gTLD (i.e. com/net/org/etc) domains from GANDI. They were recommended by some "domain name buyer's guide" site that now seems to have disappeared, mostly because the first section of their t&cs says "You own the domain name". Alas, many other registrars try to weasel out of saying anything like that.

Anyway, they've never given me any trouble :-)

It's right on the front page: See Gandi's price list.

That's why I always use http://www.gandi.net/. They're both high quality and low cost. You can't beat 12 euro a year (about $15 USD) for the service they offer.

And when you pick a name, buy it immediately, as the registrars are known to watch the queries for domain names, and if they see a good one, they'll grab the domain themselves and then offer to sell for a lot more. So today you find reallygooddomainname.com and it's available, but tomorrow it might not be -- tomorrow they want $1000 for it.

Certain registrars and resellers are notorious for selling "recent inquiry lists" to domain kings. I actually lost a domain name this way a few years back, after checking availability. It was very unlikely that specific domain name, which was meant for a personal site for a family member, could have been picked by accident by someone else with the same two-day period (while I was mulling it over).

After that experience, I became very cautious about where to check domain name availability. OpenSRS used to be good for a simultaneous WHOIS search and check of availability, but now they have this annoying captcha. At NameCheap, an Enom reseller which I've used for years for most of my small collection of domain names, I've never lost a prospective domain name after an inquiry and subsequent mulling, although apparently they did recently decide to keep as a "pay for click" empty parked domain name one that I decided to drop as superceded (for a business idea) by a more relevant term. I've not had problems either with GANDI, but haven't used them for new domain names for years.

There are undoubtedly many decent registrars and resellers, and a few bad ones run by slimebags, just as with any type of business.

By the way, a great place to check information on ownership of a domain name is here. Basic membership is free with a simple registration (use fake information and a throwaway email address if you are more comfortable with that), and they have lots of neat tools even for free memberships. Just make certain you only use it for domain names which you know are already taken, because the people who run it are in the business of reselling domain names, and giving them ideas isn't good.

Look, I completely agree with that. There is but one problem: depending on the country you are in, the prices for these might be horrendous. I live in .lu and frankly, a domain costs 40€ per year. (It used to be a lot more, back when my dad registered our family name, it was about 100€ initialisation fee and, IIRC 45€ per year) Compare that to 12€ for a .com at Gandi. For businesses that might be acceptable, but me standalone-geek, I have to look at least a bit at my (frivolous) depenses.
So, often national TLDs are simply not competitive with the generic and most people prefer the generic anyway. (It was called the dot-com boom for something, and not the dot-US boom.)

Not that this is going to make you feel any better, or help out in any way, but you never *owned* the domain name in the first place.

I don't understand how this story even got posted. If there was ever a non-story, this is it. Some guy lets his domain name expire, it's registered by someone else, and then he publicly gripes about it on slashdot. So you didn't get a notice. So what? Cry me a river. It's ultimately your responsibility to make sure your own bills are paid. If my electric bill or mortgage notice gets lost in the mail and I never receive it, it's still my responsibility to make sure it's paid on time.

Some advice:

1. Do a whois and check your domain expiration date. Pay your renewal early rather than waiting until the last minute (or last month).
2. Renew your domain for several years at a time rather than once a year. Domain fees are cheap. If you're paying over $15 you're paying too much.
3. If you have a lot of domain names make yourself a spreadsheet with all of your domain information including the expiration dates. Check it on the first of each month to see if a domain is going to need to be renewed soon.
4. If you use a personal information manager such as MS Outlook, Evolution, or KDE PIM, create a yearly recurring task to remind yourself to renew the domain two or three months before it's due.

Perchance, does anyone know how to lock a domain name at gandi.net? That's where a lot of my domains are, and I've been trying to find the feature there for the last ten minutes or so without success.

FAQ chapter 3.4. Outgoing transfer (leaving Gandi) indicates that there is no any lock. I think.

The gaining registrar will probably start the process by asking you for some authorizations. On a second step, the transfer request will be forwarded to the registry which will, in turn, notify Gandi of this outgoing transfer. Then Gandi will send an email to the contacts of the domain, just for their information. This email will look like:
IMPORTANT: Transfer of ... to another registrar

For .COM .NET .BE domain names:
If you wish to leave Gandi, you do not need to answer this email. Our lack of answer will be interpreted by the registry as an agreement, after a 5 days delay. There is no need to contact us during this 5 days delay.

For .ORG .INFO .BIZ .NAME domain names:
In this email you will find a link. You can use it to refuse or to accept the transfer. Your action will be applied immediately. If you do not use the link, the transfer will be interpreted by the registry as an agreement, only after a 5 days delay.

I like Gandi. The reason I switched to using them for my personal domain was because of Network Solutions claiming "ownership" of domains you had registered with them. That was a couple (or few?) years ago. Gandi's stance. Just look for "Will I be the owner of the domain name I have purchased?". Also the contract states it in point #1.

They cost only 12 euros (plus VAT in Europe).

P.S. My homepage is my brother's site and is why it is not with Gandi.

I like Gandi. The reason I switched to using them for my personal domain was because of Network Solutions claiming "ownership" of domains you had registered with them. That was a couple (or few?) years ago. Gandi's stance. Just look for "Will I be the owner of the domain name I have purchased?". Also the contract states it in point #1.

They cost only 12 euros (plus VAT in Europe).

P.S. My homepage is my brother's site and is why it is not with Gandi.

I like Gandi. The reason I switched to using them for my personal domain was because of Network Solutions claiming "ownership" of domains you had registered with them. That was a couple (or few?) years ago. Gandi's stance. Just look for "Will I be the owner of the domain name I have purchased?". Also the contract states it in point #1.

They cost only 12 euros (plus VAT in Europe).

P.S. My homepage is my brother's site and is why it is not with Gandi.

I've got several domains with Gandi as well. No ads on their site, no additional-cost "features" that should be part of the deal in the first place. Everything is right there, completely configurable. Not for newbies, though -- I recommend Domain Direct for an easy-to-use interface. DD is a lot higher sometimes, but the nice thing is that they'll give me a cut if you click here (shameless, aren't I?).

Plus, it's kind of cool to pay 12 euros for a Gandi domain, and see a few days later how many US bucks that is (used to be ~10, now ~15... I have a greater appreciation of the currency markets now). I also use the French version of the site, just for a challenge (I'm also running the FR version of Opera for the same reason).

I'm actually moving my domains away from Opera, though, because I get a good deal from my web host. But that deal comes at a price -- I can't go in and tweak my info on those domains (though the Dryline guy is very responsive).

You said that you were worry about proxies -- I have secondhand that GANDI is a good registrar -- prices slightly higer than GoDaddy, but significantly better (as in favoring the user versus the registrar) policies. Not sure if they provide a proxy service.

I'm sick of getting mail from "registrars" charging $40 and up for two year renewals and so forth. People wouldn't have to falsify records if ICANN did not require registrars to sell their records to whoever wants them. On that note, I'll probably move all my domains to Gandi as they begin to expire because of this (they allow me to exclude my records from the stuff they sell).

Also, will this penalize people who use their real names but false addresses? From the sound of it, it looks like it would.

Some people are like me, and move between home and school every few months. Would you like to have to waite 2 days for DNS settings to circulate every 3 months or so, so that you can get your email?

What kind of goofy email set up do you have, anyway? It doesn't matter *where* I am, I send and receive email with several dozen accounts on my laptop! I can use the wifi at a coffee shop in San Diego as easily as my home or work DSL line.

What's this "waiting 2 days for DNS" you speak of? Does you email address change? If so, why not get your own domain and set any/all new addresses to forward to your own email address?

Services like Gandi allow for email redirection without having to set up your own server anywhere.

And, if you just need email hosting, I can cut you a deal...

-Ben

I'd suggest the following.

If there is obviously inaccurate information on Whois (eg letters in phone numbers), then Gandi should be contacted via email with a reference to someone violating their Terms and Conditions. Also read their FAQs topics, here and here. Note that you cannot submit anonymous complaints. Also note that Gandi helpfully tells you that you can complain to ICANN if Gandi isn't doing their job, see this too.

With spam, I'd think they need much more evidence than simply one complaint. After all, email can be forged. But as I said before, complain to ICANN if all else fails.

You should also give Gandi some slack. The fundamental problem with spam are open relays and web servers at the hosting company. Neither require domain names. I've seen plenty of spam websites with IP addresses only. Unless Gandi was directly hosting/forwarding the email/html, there's little they can do.

Also, if I was a customer of Gandi, I'd sue their arse off if they revoked my domain name without clear and unambigious evidence of any wrongdoing. That's what the court system is there for.

So short answer, complain to Gandi and wait 15 days or whatever. If they don't satisfy you, complain to ICANN.

I'd suggest the following.

If there is obviously inaccurate information on Whois (eg letters in phone numbers), then Gandi should be contacted via email with a reference to someone violating their Terms and Conditions. Also read their FAQs topics, here and here. Note that you cannot submit anonymous complaints. Also note that Gandi helpfully tells you that you can complain to ICANN if Gandi isn't doing their job, see this too.

With spam, I'd think they need much more evidence than simply one complaint. After all, email can be forged. But as I said before, complain to ICANN if all else fails.

You should also give Gandi some slack. The fundamental problem with spam are open relays and web servers at the hosting company. Neither require domain names. I've seen plenty of spam websites with IP addresses only. Unless Gandi was directly hosting/forwarding the email/html, there's little they can do.

Also, if I was a customer of Gandi, I'd sue their arse off if they revoked my domain name without clear and unambigious evidence of any wrongdoing. That's what the court system is there for.

So short answer, complain to Gandi and wait 15 days or whatever. If they don't satisfy you, complain to ICANN.

I'd suggest the following.

If there is obviously inaccurate information on Whois (eg letters in phone numbers), then Gandi should be contacted via email with a reference to someone violating their Terms and Conditions. Also read their FAQs topics, here and here. Note that you cannot submit anonymous complaints. Also note that Gandi helpfully tells you that you can complain to ICANN if Gandi isn't doing their job, see this too.

With spam, I'd think they need much more evidence than simply one complaint. After all, email can be forged. But as I said before, complain to ICANN if all else fails.

You should also give Gandi some slack. The fundamental problem with spam are open relays and web servers at the hosting company. Neither require domain names. I've seen plenty of spam websites with IP addresses only. Unless Gandi was directly hosting/forwarding the email/html, there's little they can do.

Also, if I was a customer of Gandi, I'd sue their arse off if they revoked my domain name without clear and unambigious evidence of any wrongdoing. That's what the court system is there for.

So short answer, complain to Gandi and wait 15 days or whatever. If they don't satisfy you, complain to ICANN.

I'd suggest the following.

If there is obviously inaccurate information on Whois (eg letters in phone numbers), then Gandi should be contacted via email with a reference to someone violating their Terms and Conditions. Also read their FAQs topics, here and here. Note that you cannot submit anonymous complaints. Also note that Gandi helpfully tells you that you can complain to ICANN if Gandi isn't doing their job, see this too.

With spam, I'd think they need much more evidence than simply one complaint. After all, email can be forged. But as I said before, complain to ICANN if all else fails.

You should also give Gandi some slack. The fundamental problem with spam are open relays and web servers at the hosting company. Neither require domain names. I've seen plenty of spam websites with IP addresses only. Unless Gandi was directly hosting/forwarding the email/html, there's little they can do.

Also, if I was a customer of Gandi, I'd sue their arse off if they revoked my domain name without clear and unambigious evidence of any wrongdoing. That's what the court system is there for.

So short answer, complain to Gandi and wait 15 days or whatever. If they don't satisfy you, complain to ICANN.

https://www.gandi.net/contract.en.txt

"The Client owns the Domain Name registered. Gandi simply acts on the Client's behalf."

No, I'm not affiliated with Gandi, but I do use them for my registration services. They're the only company who makes such a statement in their contract (AFAIK).

How about don't let your webhost register domains for you, and don't give your webhost administrative contact status in your domain? Do it yourself at a registrar that respects your rights, like GANDI.

You don't "own" the domain - you lease it from the registrars/ICANN/whatever.

Especially with some VERY good Overseas Registrars. (12 Euros a year, with great services, tech support, etc. In Paris, France). We have to get it into the politicians heads that it's not DARPANet, and it really shouldn't be under Congressional control or oversight.

I wonder what kind of neat swag i can get out of them for each one of those.

Troll. Even if you did register MikeRoweSoftOffice.com, that would be prima-facie evidence of intent to deceive, since your other domain is registered under a different name.

And the next three I checked weren't registered by anybody.

I wonder what kind of neat swag i can get out of them for each one of those.

Troll. Even if you did register MikeRoweSoftOffice.com, that would be prima-facie evidence of intent to deceive, since your other domain is registered under a different name.

And the next three I checked weren't registered by anybody.

There were only 43 4-letter words left from the .com namespace, junk like "frib", and "odso".

Looks like there are less than 41 words left by now, since frib.com and odso.com have been registered since...

There were only 43 4-letter words left from the .com namespace, junk like "frib", and "odso".

Looks like there are less than 41 words left by now, since frib.com and odso.com have been registered since...

I don't think I've seen anyone post this yet or not, but ICANN maintains a list of all accredited registars. You may be surprised how many there are. It also lists which TLDs each one can register for you.

Naturally, some are probably much better than others. I'd recommend godaddy.com, gandi.net, or joker.com.

Additionally, if do not want your contact information to be public, you can use DomainsByProxy.com. You register through a registrar that's one of DBP's affiliates and pay an extra $15/year or so and they act as a proxy for the domain contact. They list their postal and email addresses for your domain, and forward you anything that is sent, optionally filtering for spam. You still own the domain name, and the default if anything comes up (i.e. they suspect you of spamming or something) is that the registration information reverts to your own true contact information... So it's kind of "fail-safe" in that respect.

Check out their "why use Gandi?" page.

Check out their "why use Gandi?" page.

Check out their "why use Gandi?" page.

I've used them for years with no hassle. But they have a don't-screw-the-customer policy I like. The first thing in their contract is: The Client owns the Domain Name registered. That's a big difference from other places, like NetSol, who don't view names as property and feel like they can keep it (and auction it off to the highest bidder) should you ever quit hosting the name with them.

Also, when I joined, Gandi was a not-for-profit service... I can't find that on their webpage now, but that's the spirit they operate under.

I can't recommend Gandi.net enough. About $12/year for a domain and their service is top notch.

Well, you might have received spam from Gandi, or you might have just received spam that *appeared* to be from Gandi at first glance. You might want to read this and see if it applies to you. I've certainly had no trouble with them, and I use multiple domain registrars.

I have been using Gandi for several years and been very happy with their service.

They offer domain registration in .com/.org/.net/.biz/.info/.name/.be for EUR12 a year (about $14 dollars, lately). That includes optional free web redirection, email redirection, DNS hosting, and secondary DNS. Almost all administration is automated on their website and very easy to use. I have zero complaints and nothing but compliments for them, and have been recommending them to friends for low-cost, high-quality domain registration.

From their site:

GANDI SARL is a french company created in 1999 by four persons known in the french Internet world (Pierre Beyssac, Laurent Chemla, Valentin Lacambre et David Nahmias).

Our service focuses primarily on individuals and non profit organisations. Gandi's aim is to provide to individuals domain names easily (for the technical and administratrive part) and for a price as low as possible.

-XDG

Well, I used one of those discount registrars for a group of addresses, and I deeply regretted the decision.

You've obviously never used Gandi.

Sure, it costs me as little as the the discount registrars, *and* I find their web-based management tool to be very usable, and have no complaints about their responsiveness.

-- Cameron

Try GANDI. I have all my domains with them--they're cheap, reliable, have unambiguous (you bought it, you own it) terms of service, and offer instant domain parking if you can't get your dns server up right away.

If you're still with verisign, you've got a problem.

I'm almost sad to see that the parent is currently modded 0, Flamebait. Someone has to play Devil's Advocate, even if it's to argue a patently ridiculous point.

At the risk of feeding a troll, I'll point out a couple of things:

AFAIK they have allways delivered a decent service at decent price to their customers. Compared to normal bussiness practise they are just very ethical in their behavior. As a long time customer I must say that they are nice to deal with compared to many of those unethical companies that you find on the internet that just want to scam you.

An excellent analogy! Verisign is not as unethical as the companies that sell snake oil and redirect your phone call to Vanuatu. That's like saying I should be happy to just be beaten up in a robbery, 'cause I could have been killed outright. Thanks, I feel much better.

My only dealing with NSI (in the pre-Verisign buyout days) was when they wouldn't transfer my domain to me from the original owner because of an obscure missing piece of paper (full story here). I got around the problem by transferring the domain to Domain Direct (affiliate link) and then to the much cheaper Gandi (no kickback), and I've never looked back.

This is totally wrong.

ICANN requires that every registrar have a transfer agreement with another registrar in place in case it goes out of business.

GANDI used to have more about this, but it still has a little: GANDI FAQ.

Another poster mentioned Send Safe. Seems like an interesting company to look into...

Particularly interesting is info on their open proxy scanner.

The domain registrar is Gandi and here is their whois info.

Looks like a nice Russian front for the company.

person: Ibragimov Ruslan
nic-hdl: IR14-GANDI
address: 12 Krasnokazarmennaya
address: 111250
address: Moscow
address: Russia
phone: nophone
e-mail: rusoil@mail.ru

Anybody out Moscow way available to do more research?

Another poster mentioned Send Safe. Seems like an interesting company to look into...

Particularly interesting is info on their open proxy scanner.

The domain registrar is Gandi and here is their whois info.

Looks like a nice Russian front for the company.

person: Ibragimov Ruslan
nic-hdl: IR14-GANDI
address: 12 Krasnokazarmennaya
address: 111250
address: Moscow
address: Russia
phone: nophone
e-mail: rusoil@mail.ru

Anybody out Moscow way available to do more research?

Well, I took your suggestion. According to whois.sc, nobody has ever thought of "stillmoresex.com" as their dot-com brainstorm idea.

I couldn't resist the temptation... I went to Gandi and registered the domain. How could I pass it up?

I'll probably redirect it to the URL of this thread. I've registered it with a unique Gandi ID, so it's up for grabs for whoever wants it. Mention Slashdot, and I'll let ya have it pretty much at cost. Send a note to robert b at dixie dash chicks dot com and we'll go over the details.

Usually, I grab interesting domains to keep them from becoming porn portals! Now, I guess I've gone from Karma Whoring to Domain Whoring. So much for the purity of my Slashdot experience!

I've had huge success in attracting spam by simply registering a domain name. I use a dedicated email address for my domain registrations (if you're dying to spam me, do a whois on my domain name).

I forgot to clean out my "domains" mailbox for a couple of weeks, and I had over 240 messages waiting. It would have been higher, but the mailbox filled up to its 1 meg capacity. Every single message was spam.

Did you realize how many 1337 ways there are to spell p3n15 ?! If only that creativity could be turned away from the Dark Side..

I currently have one domain registered with Network Solutions, who are, of course eeeeeeevil, and when it comes up for expiration I'll go somewhere else.

I have another registered with Gandi. Although Gandi is cheap and doesn't send spam, that's about all I can say for them. I started trying yesterday to get a connection to their server so I could update a DNS entry to point to my new webhost. Tried around the clock at various times (including getting up at 1 a.m. my time), only got through after many many frustrating attempts. (Oh yeah, I e-mailed their support address, and got a reply saying that support was unavailable for an indefinite time.)

So who's good? I've heard good things about EasyDNS/opensrs/tucows, but they're not particularly cheap. Although I'm not a fan of Amazon's behavior (patents, labor relations,...), I'd be interested to see if they turn out to be a good registrar.

Yes, but could you help the OP in getting his domain name transferred? Or is he stuck getting netsol to approve it before he can go to you?
I use Gandi myself, they have similar service levels. I don't understand why anyone would stay with netsol.

I've got one.

I didn't buy the .name email forwarding, I just use my full domain me@john.smith.name and www.john.smith.name.

Now that the email forwarding is cheaper I may buy it if my registrar offers it. I use gandi.net, and they currently don't offer the email forwarding for .name.

I use gandi.net because they have very reasonable prices and the best contract of any registrar I've seen. (ie it's my domain and they're just my representative, instead of it's our domain and you can use it under our sufferage, and we may take it away at any time for any reason including our error and you will have no recourse!)

- Mike

Gandi, of course!

A guy named "David" runs a group whose name starts "Mothers Against..."

Likewise, a guy named "Victor" and a guy named "Fred" run the web site for a group whose name starts "Daughters of the..."