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Hi,

The best thing to do is to register a .co.uk or any domain looked after by Nominet. http://www.nominet.org.uk/
If you join Nominet as a registrar it costs it's £400 + VAT joining fee and £100 + VAT per annum.
That allows you to register at wholesale prices and control your domain via PGP instructions. (Or it was the last time I was a member)

So:

a) Updates are secure by PGP
b) Your domain is protected by Nominet and UK laws, which compared to other legal jurisdictions are i) cheaper ii) more sensible

If you cannot afford this route.

You can register a domain via someone like 123-reg.co.uk for a maximum of 10 years £34.90
Transfer the registrar IPSTAG to NOMINET and enable your Nominet account for 2FA
In the last month of the 10 years, transfer the registrar back to a cheap registrar, add another 10 years
Transfer the registrar back Nominet
Wash and repeat

Non-member renewal is £80+VAT per two years - so the above makes sense!
http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-d...

I reckon this is just about the cheapest way to actually "secure" a domain's ownership.

As a UK citizen, I am nervous that any of my .com domains could just be ripped off me. In such a way I never afford to recover them.

Hi,

The best thing to do is to register a .co.uk or any domain looked after by Nominet. http://www.nominet.org.uk/
If you join Nominet as a registrar it costs it's £400 + VAT joining fee and £100 + VAT per annum.
That allows you to register at wholesale prices and control your domain via PGP instructions. (Or it was the last time I was a member)

So:

a) Updates are secure by PGP
b) Your domain is protected by Nominet and UK laws, which compared to other legal jurisdictions are i) cheaper ii) more sensible

If you cannot afford this route.

You can register a domain via someone like 123-reg.co.uk for a maximum of 10 years £34.90
Transfer the registrar IPSTAG to NOMINET and enable your Nominet account for 2FA
In the last month of the 10 years, transfer the registrar back to a cheap registrar, add another 10 years
Transfer the registrar back Nominet
Wash and repeat

Non-member renewal is £80+VAT per two years - so the above makes sense!
http://www.nominet.org.uk/uk-d...

I reckon this is just about the cheapest way to actually "secure" a domain's ownership.

As a UK citizen, I am nervous that any of my .com domains could just be ripped off me. In such a way I never afford to recover them.

Yeah, looks like a lot of registrars are price gouging - according to Nominet, the wholesale price is the same. And definitely don't ever use 123Reg because they'll even charge you to switch. Fuckers!

The only registrar I've found thus-far with the same price for .co.uk and .uk is Mythic Beasts although they're a bit pricey unless you're registering for 10 years.

Gandi.net don't appear to have .uk pricing yet unless I'm missing something!

First, there's no doubt that 123-reg have handled this badly, need to change their advertising and probably need to eat a few £10 fees and apologies. So I'm not totally defending them. However, I do wonder exactly how much 'service' people expect for the few pounds a year per domain that these 'budget registrars' charge. I'd guess that straightforward registrations are a loss leader for them, and they rely on selling 'cherished' domains, ads on 'parked' domains and hosting sales for actual profit.

The 'IPS tag' change is an extra (at least c.f. .com/.org) step required for 'co.uk/org.uk' names managed by the UK central registry, Nominet. You can make this change yourself via the Nominet site, but they'll charge you £10 as well. That's more than 123-reg charge per year for a regular .co.uk. Even if they get a reduced rate it's going to eat their profit - in fact, without this change I could transfer in a domain, and transfer it out again before it expired without paying 123-reg a penny.

I notice that Nominet has just changed its contract for registrars and while life's too short for me to plough through 10 pages of legalese, so maybe the timing is not a coincidence.

First, there's no doubt that 123-reg have handled this badly, need to change their advertising and probably need to eat a few £10 fees and apologies. So I'm not totally defending them. However, I do wonder exactly how much 'service' people expect for the few pounds a year per domain that these 'budget registrars' charge. I'd guess that straightforward registrations are a loss leader for them, and they rely on selling 'cherished' domains, ads on 'parked' domains and hosting sales for actual profit.

The 'IPS tag' change is an extra (at least c.f. .com/.org) step required for 'co.uk/org.uk' names managed by the UK central registry, Nominet. You can make this change yourself via the Nominet site, but they'll charge you £10 as well. That's more than 123-reg charge per year for a regular .co.uk. Even if they get a reduced rate it's going to eat their profit - in fact, without this change I could transfer in a domain, and transfer it out again before it expired without paying 123-reg a penny.

I notice that Nominet has just changed its contract for registrars and while life's too short for me to plough through 10 pages of legalese, so maybe the timing is not a coincidence.

A couple of years ago I nearly applied to be an ICANN arbiter, only for nominet (the UK agency). Part of the application involved looking at a few previous cases to see the kind of thing you'd be getting into, and expected to do.

In this case, the xboxone.com domain contains nothing, its a godaddy holding page, so the owner obviously has either no attempt to turn it into a real site, or failed to do so (for whatever means), so given that, I would have handed it over to MS. Now, if the owner had put something on there, maybe a games site dedicated to xboxes and called it the number one site for xbox stuff... then he would have kept it, no problem at all (and MS could have offered him money for it). A real-life example would be Lego Juris A/S v Out Of Warranty Ltd for the domain legopolice.co.uk - something that could have been a real site and not just a name held hostage for a payout. (search for D00012699 on the link I gave earlier) or for an example where the name stayed put, search for D00012519 - Robot Wars Limited v Mr Denys Ostashko over robotwars.co.uk

The web is full of people who think they can get big payouts for just holding a name, that's not what it should be about. Use it or lose it should be a watchword here.

As for registrations - some registrars will show a list of recently searched for domains. I think you can see what their business model really involves.

A couple of years ago I nearly applied to be an ICANN arbiter, only for nominet (the UK agency). Part of the application involved looking at a few previous cases to see the kind of thing you'd be getting into, and expected to do.

In this case, the xboxone.com domain contains nothing, its a godaddy holding page, so the owner obviously has either no attempt to turn it into a real site, or failed to do so (for whatever means), so given that, I would have handed it over to MS. Now, if the owner had put something on there, maybe a games site dedicated to xboxes and called it the number one site for xbox stuff... then he would have kept it, no problem at all (and MS could have offered him money for it). A real-life example would be Lego Juris A/S v Out Of Warranty Ltd for the domain legopolice.co.uk - something that could have been a real site and not just a name held hostage for a payout. (search for D00012699 on the link I gave earlier) or for an example where the name stayed put, search for D00012519 - Robot Wars Limited v Mr Denys Ostashko over robotwars.co.uk

The web is full of people who think they can get big payouts for just holding a name, that's not what it should be about. Use it or lose it should be a watchword here.

As for registrations - some registrars will show a list of recently searched for domains. I think you can see what their business model really involves.

Just because you see a shared memory segment used by apache doesn't mean that you're infected. Apache sometimes legitimately uses shared memory segments. See, for example: http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/2008/03/26/apache-shared-memory/

Thank you. That is an interesting use case, one that I had never encountered. Obviously, if Apache has been configured to share memory across processes then seeing it do so is not clear sign of infection. However, if Apache has not been explicitly configured to do so, then seeing Apache sharing memory with another process is a real red flag.

Your linked blog is great, there are quite a few gems in there. Thanks!

It hasn't been abandoned see their news release http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/latest/update-directuk The problem was that in the original proposal they intended to give priority to trademark proprietors but this was campaigned against mainly by domainers who stood to loose out. A majority of useful .co.uk domains are held by domain prospectors and the original proposal would have meant that other people would have had a chance at registering a domain by showing some sort of entitlement to it. Now however nominet are suggesting that they look at changing the proposal to "A revised phased release mechanism based largely on the prior registrations of domains in existing third levels within .uk" effectively making it a simple domain tax where exiting .co.uk & org.uk domain registrants will feel obliged to take the option to get the .uk version of their domain. The whole idea is is a farce and nothing more than a money making exercise for nominet. They claim that there was broad support for new 'features' such as addres verification. They have however not demonstrated an valid reason as to why they need to start selling domains in the .uk space rather than simply applying these new 'features' to the existing system. Nobody stands to gain anything from the direct.uk proposal but despite that nominet seems the be determined to try again, what does that tell you ? I would encourage people to send in their complaints to policy@nominet.org.uk

What you've apparently missed (as you mentioned .org but not this) is that the .org folks (PIR) just got ICANN board approval to deploy DNSSEC at their gTLD level. This occurred at the 32nd Annual ICANN meeting in Paris (in June, I believe). Apparently PIR has been pushing DNSSEC for some time and is pretty much ready to go, altho it'll still take some time to actually get up and running.

Here's one informative link I found on Google. Google for dnssec .org icann for more:

http://blog.nominet.org.uk/insight/2008/06/icann-paris-dnssec/

I expect Nominet will make a press release to correct this misrepresentation. All said and done, Nominet are (on the whole) pretty slick and I don't see ICANN shitting on country TLD operators. That said I would like to see Nominet reduce their charges for a .uk SLD, I think 10000 pounds is good, it was more than double that last I checked and hence; no takers.

As for ICANN, a TLD should be $500,000 and let it be done with.

Apparently it doesn't work well with FileVault:

I also don't see how it's going to work well with the disk images associated with virtualization technology like Parallels, or with large monolithic email folders and databases.

The problem is that Time Machine backups at the file level of granularity. Block-based backup technology like Ghost is a much better solution -- it can run in the background, perform full and incremental backups whenever you want, and the backup sets can be mounted as drives for browsing. And your backup disk won't fill up with multiple copies of your email or VM disk images because you forgot to exclude them from your backup.

Actually, no. Not all businesses operate for-profit, not even all tech businesses do. Consider, for example, Nominet.

That's not to detract from your assertion that just because a particular business operates for-profit does not necessarily make it a good investment. Businesses that operate(d) in this way include Enron, Boo.com, SCO, etc.

A nice example of Preferential Voting is the way Nominet the .UK NIC runs elections to the Policy Advisory Board.

The following gives a few common spammer mistakes which can be looked out for.

http://blog.nominet.org.uk/tech/anti-spam/2005/08/ 07/Incorrect_HELO_EHLO_information_is_widespread.h tml

This is where Nominet, the .UK domain name authority, triumphs IMHO. They send you a letter (yes a real letter via snailmail) containing a PIN number for login at their site, effectively bypassing your registrar, to keep your data upto date. As far as I can tell this information is completely seperate from the WHOIS records or the records that your registrar keep.

Go Nominet? o_O

I thought of that a second after I hit submit... :/ But my point still stands. It would definitely be an issue if Nominet did this to *.*.uk.

He has a legitimate use for a site called itunes.co.uk -- to talk about iTunes.

Then let him register itunestalk.co.uk or itunesfans.co.uk. Registering itunes.co.uk long after Apple has made the name of its product public is what's known as "passing off".

See section 3a of the Nominet Dispute Resolution Service policy document.

Nominet has never allowed blah.uk to be registered. Nominet was set up to be the registrar for .co.uk, .org.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk, all of which are intended for different things. .co.uk and .org.uk are open for all, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk are restricted respectively to ISPs/large Internet companies*, limited companies and public limited companies. To register under .ltd.uk and .plc.uk your company name must match certain conditions - mostly to do with being ultimately the same, barring hyphenation and punctuation, as the domain name you're trying to register.

There's more information about the the various .uk SLDs and who administers them at Nominet's website.

Why make people register under .co.uk or .org.uk (or others) rather than under .uk? For the same reason as we make people register blah.com or blah.org rather than just blah. To make the namespace larger (most trivially), but also so if you go to blah.org.uk you expect it to be non-profit making body, if you go to blah.co.uk you expect it to be a trading company, and if you go to blah.me.uk (a new SLD introduced recently), you expect it to be a site about Mr or Mrs Blah.

There's further intricacies (there always are) but that'll do for now.

Nominet has never allowed blah.uk to be registered. Nominet was set up to be the registrar for .co.uk, .org.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk, all of which are intended for different things. .co.uk and .org.uk are open for all, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk are restricted respectively to ISPs/large Internet companies*, limited companies and public limited companies. To register under .ltd.uk and .plc.uk your company name must match certain conditions - mostly to do with being ultimately the same, barring hyphenation and punctuation, as the domain name you're trying to register.

There's more information about the the various .uk SLDs and who administers them at Nominet's website.

Why make people register under .co.uk or .org.uk (or others) rather than under .uk? For the same reason as we make people register blah.com or blah.org rather than just blah. To make the namespace larger (most trivially), but also so if you go to blah.org.uk you expect it to be non-profit making body, if you go to blah.co.uk you expect it to be a trading company, and if you go to blah.me.uk (a new SLD introduced recently), you expect it to be a site about Mr or Mrs Blah.

There's further intricacies (there always are) but that'll do for now.

• Nominet is not a registrar. Nominet runs the .uk registry.
• Not having the root nameservers under direct ICANN control, and having them run independently by various unrealted entities is a very good thing for the stability of the DNS.
• Root servers go down all the time. Fortunately the DNS is robust in the face of individual root server malfunction, and the root servers are very well run so downtime is usually minimised.
• ICANN's income is quite unrelated to uptime of the root servers.

Hang on! That means there's not really a story here.

Fromm Nominet's 2000 AGM notes.

ICANN's recent attempt to invoice the ccTLD Registries had been met with a firm declaration that there was no contractual relationship between the two sides and that there should be no tax on Domain Names. However, as a gesture of goodwill, a donation of USD $100, 000 had been sent from Nominet, together with a letter making it clear that banking the cheque would imply ICANN's acceptance of the fact that it was not in payment for any specific services or any contractual obligations.

The WHOIS data publically available looks as follows:-

Domain Name: FAKEDOMAINNAME.CO.UK

Registered For: My Company Inc.

Domain Registered By: TAGHOLDER

Registered on 29-Feb-2000.

Domain servers listed in order:

DNS.YOURDOM.CO.UK 211.31.21.131
NS0.YOURISP.NET 191.171.161.31
NS1.YOURISP.NET 191.171.171.31

WHOIS database last updated at 04:10:01 16-Nov-2000

It's up to the registering company to decide how their customers specify changes and many have automated systems of their own. And if you're wondering wether this would work for large domain spaces like .com, .org and .net then the answer is almost definately a yes - .uk is the largest country specific domain space - thanks to Nominet fees being just £5 (Thats $7.20) for two years. Some companies charge this and nothing else and many ISPs give domain names away simply for using their dial-up service.

What I think ICANN should dictate is this

Your proposal is reminiscent of the situation in the UK - Nominet (my employers) run the name servers for *.uk. They do also offer direct registration services, at £70 a time.

However, they encourage people to buy through domain re-sellers (who pay Nominet an annual fee to buy domains for £5 each), and let them take the hassle. Nominet also act as ajudicators in domain disputes etc., but have no legal powers.

I frequently hear Nominet being used as an example of how a domain registrar shouldwork. I assume that means letting the employees read /. from the office ;-)

Alex

Unfortunately this is exactly what I'd expect to happen as well. I signed up for the ICANN at large elections as soon as I heard about them (On /.), I sent all the emails and jumped through all the hoops to get my voting rights but I never received a single confirmation. I'm half expecting a voting card to arrive next week :o)

Unfortunately ICANN will try and get their way - I just hope that Nominet and other regional registries can force ICANN into being more accountable - if not to the general users then at least to them.

I suspect a lot of people out there will be very happy with this, mostly the small-time 'Net companies who have a rack in Telehouse and deal with lots of smaller clients. Having said all that, I know of at least one project which is creating a not-for-profit registrar along the same lines as the UK's Nominet registry, doing it on a membership basis. It'll be interesting to see how it all develops in relation to this project.

You mention "price war". If the "cost price" is $13, then I can see people doing domains at $13.01 - after all, with the sheer volume of domains registered it'll all add up just like call minutes do with UK dialup ISPs. The real benefactors of this are likely to be the ICANN/CORE registrars who do domains at $10 or so, who will swallow the glut of the business.

It's a pity it still has to go through NSI after all that though. And the site itself is mostly "coming soon" messages :(

BR,

Joel.