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VeriSign Accuses Competitors Of 'Slamming'
Da_Big_G writes: "Newsbytes is carrying this story about how Verisign (owner of Network Solutions) is accusing other registrars (particularly register.com and Tucows/OpenSRS) of impropriety in transferring domains. This is in response to those registrar's complaints over Verisign's new transfer procedure which makes it nearly impossible to transfer a domain away from NetSlo." sally_tor supplied more URLs: Verisign's complaint letter, and a draft response in the making. So let's get this straight: Verisign charges 5 times more than other registrars do, provides much worse service (for instance, my preferred domain registrar provides DNS service, email redirection, prompt web-based changes - all for $12/year), is now interfering with transfers by requiring additional "confirmations" via a system that doesn't accept those confirmations, holds onto domain names after they expire so that it can a) sell the names themselves for inflated prices and b) sell the service of watching for the names to expire, and they have the gall to complain that people are leaving them for other registrars!
In the past, as a technical contact for a large number of domains that I may or may not have been the registrant of, I could make changes to the domain's contact assignments and DNS info via e-mail (using PGP to authenticate the request, of course). This was good because it could be automated and repeated without having any bit of information that was unique to each domain.
Under the new/recent system, domains registered are assigned an account number (it's possible to have 1 account number to N domains) with a password, and that information is required to make changes to the domain. The technical contact no longer has the authority to make changes unless he/she is given the username/password by the registrant.
There are definite security advantages here, don't get me wrong. But after pressing the NetSol tech on it for a while, he admitted that they have no provision for folks like me that may need to update a large number of domains at once. We were able to determine together that my options are:
A) obtain the account info and password for every domain and make the change myself, or
B) send the change information to every customer/domain registrant, and ask them to change it.
The horror or either option should be apparent, especially in that neither scales well at all.
To make things worse, NetSol is planning ("in the next few months", according to the tech) to assign account numbers and passwords to all the old-school domain registrations that can still be updated by e-mail. This will finally lock me out (as the tech contact) of any control for all of our hosted domains until I contact each customer and ask them to hand over their password.
Don't mean to whine - you can see where I'm going here. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an alternate registrar that allows e-mail based change requests (preferrably with PGP) or otherwise provides some tools to ISPs for bulk updates?
From my experience, NSI is very knowledgable about fraud.
We've had a slew of "invoice moments" over the past several years dealing with NSI's unique practice of sending an invoice to multiple parties (admin, tech, and billing contacts).
As I'm listed as the admin contact for a good amount of domains (having built the first ISP in these parts and dealt primarily with business accounts), I updated my NIC handle to have my current address and company two years ago when I took on a new position/company.
Suddenly, the NSI deliquent-looking domain deletion scare invoices started coming in to my new employer (for domains that had nothing to do with that company). If you've never worked in a good sized company, let me tell you how much fun it is explaining why all these bills are coming in for things that appear to be outside projects (especially when they belong to other well-known companies in town).
"Why are we getting billed for Youknowwho's domains?" "What do you mean, ignore the invoices? We can't do that. We're accounting!" "What do you mean you can't make them stop coming?" "How are we to believe that you didn't incur the expense on our behalf? It says our name right there (it sure does)."
I had numerous discussions with the CFO, COO and CEO explaining that these were bogus invoices (hard to believe, yes, from a "real" company) double billed, and only received by us because I was left as the admin contact for the domain. (The only solution I found was getting myself removed from the domains as admin contact - using multiple NIC handles is a pain, and since I've got a single number NIC handle, it's no fun to go get a 5-digit one).
And then the real fun comes when you found out that the idiots in accounting went ahead and paid them... and so did the real owner of the domain... and NSI pocketed the bonus.
Of course, anyone who gets compensated under government contract, and then turns around and double bills the users for what they're doing under contract, ought to have the double billing scam down well.
*scoove*
I got a letter from Network Solutions a few months ago sternly warning me that "Your domain name is about to expire!" In the letter they included a link to renew the name with them. It took me several minutes of web-browsing and head-scratching to realize that the name wasn't registered with NSI in the first place - it was registered with Register.com! They weren't literally slamming, because if you read things carefully, they said they were going to transfer the name to NSI and renew it for two years. But still, it was a rather deceptive tactic - it looked very much like their normal, legitimate renewal notices. I wish I'd saved the letter, so I could post it to back me up. It seems too bizarre that they'd be accusing others of slamming now.
One other unrelated NSI gripe that doesn't seem to have been mentioned above is the cost of transferring ownership of a domain with Network Solutions. When you transfer ownership from one party to another within the same registrar, it's up to the registrar what to charge. Network Solutions charges their normal (though irritating) $35 annual fee, and adds a year to the expiration date. However, the transfer takes up to two months to complete!!!! If you want "expedited service," where they'll change ownership within about two business days, there's an additional $199 service charge!! See this for details. Other registrars I've used let you change ownership in a couple minutes with password and e-mail confirmations, and while the security there is arguably too lax, a 2 month wait for a domain already protected with Crypt-PW or PGP protection is absurd.
Microsoft accuses Redhat of bullying
Andover.net posts a profit, hires all slashdot posters
-ted
I am in this situation right now. My domain at NetSol is expiring early August, so I decided to transfer it to register.com. After I paid $35 transfer fee, I received an e-mail from NetSol asking me to authorize the transfer. I did authorize it, but just a few days ago register.com sent me an e-mail that NetSol denied my transfer request.
I sent an e-mail to Customer Service at NetSol, but they haven't responded to it. Neither was I successful at trying to contact them by the phone.
I don't want to wait till my domain expires in order to renew it, and i DEFINITELY don't want to pay NetSol any more. They're probably the worst registrar out there right now. I am hoping this will get resolved, otherwise I might lose my domain, which would suck severely.
I am hoping /. is read by the VeriSign people and it gets through to their head how dissatisfied people are with their service.
If you open yourself to the foo, You and foo become one.
Now I have all my domains registered with Dotster, who are a joy to deal with. Everything is quick and web based, the site is decidedly non-Byzantine and has loads of nifty features, and they're pretty damn cheap too.
Disclaimer: I do not work for Dotster. I just like 'em a lot.
--
NO TOUCH MONKEY!
After about a 60 day "grace period" the domain goes "on hold" for about six days and then it expires at a few minutes after 6:30 am Eastern.
For the complete dynamics of domain expiring read this;
http://www.ecommercebase.com/article.php/352/20
This article has three parts, be sure you don't miss one. Also, there are links to the authors website, and he has more useful links.
These two companies "watch domains";
http://www.snapnames.com
http://www.dnsresearch.com
I have used the DNS Research service for a domain that I really wanted, but they were unsuccessful in registering it for me. At $99 with no guarantee It's pretty expensive. I didn't use snapnames as the snapback was already sold for that domain (so I knew I had competition). However, snapnames didn't register it for the customer either (I could tell because of the registries used).
If you have tried to register a domain at 6:30 am, you can tell that registries really seem to crumble under the load. So when a domain expires (and they do expire) they are only up for grabs for a few seconds. Thus the appearence that "they never expire". The name checker on enom.com website is current, so you can "watch" a name drop (that is if everbody is not trying to grab it - otherwise by time you hit refresh it's already registered). You have to be careful though, because the whois *is not* updated in real time, and many registrars use that to check name availability. You have to try to register the name to see if its available or not.
So, if you are trying to grab an expiring domain, chances are slim as you are a small fish among big fish trying to do the same thing. And yeah, the Koreans have rooms filled with machines trying to grab that "one good" domain so they can squat it. Read the above links for the full details.
If Verisign/ICANN actaully thought about fairness they could change things and make he "drop" a little bit more fair by enforcing the rules (they don't) and perhaps making the daily "drop" a little more random. In other words, ICANN would have to care, and we all know how much ICANN cares....
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Their name totally engenders trust.
Veri - Coming from the English "Very" meaning "a lot" or "to an absurd extreme" and
Sign - A derivative of the mathematical term "sin" meaning "opposite over hypotenuse" or "wrong" (e.g. Jesus done committed no sins)
Since "Veri" implies a plural, "Verisign" translates to "At least two wrongs" which in turn is equivalent to "not right" or "left" put simply. Since the "left" is the party of bleeding hearts and goodwill and brotherhood to all, it follows that Verisign was trying to invoke this feeling when thinking about the company name.
I feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.
Dancin Santa