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What to do when your registrar (NSI) ignores you?
Frustrated Webmaster writes "For the past two days, I've been trying to make modifications on a domain name I registered through NSI/Verisign. The problem is, they refuse to accept changes through email, and their login system is apparently broken. What are my options? How do I transfer the domain away from NSI if I can't even login to their system?" CD: When I heard that NSI was going to go through yet another interface change, I moved the domains that mattered to me to another registrar. For what it is worth, I can totally reccomend EasyDNS.
I personally think dotster is the best. They have great online management tools and bulk management tools for managing all your dumb novelty domains at once.
They're cheap and the customer support is good too.
I don't work for them, I just like them, disclaimer, etc.
They've been really responsive when I've suggested features or had a question, typically responding in under an hour business days, and same day even on Sundays.
I don't know if they have an e-mail interface, but after NetSol, I sure as hell don't miss that. The web interface is nice, letting you apply changes to one or all domains at once, view domains sorted by expiry date, and there are no locks on company names like NetSol and all have or had.
That's typical registrar behavior, especially with NSI/Verisign. Since they have had to deal with competition, they have been doing some pretty nasty things including not doing domain transfers. Their reasoning is that they don't know whether it is actually the owner requesting the domain being transfered, and they don't want to be liable for domain jacking. Well, that should be solved by a phone call and maybe a fax of ID, right? Wrong. They have made it super tough to transfer a domain because to transfer a domain means they are losing business to competition so they are going to hold onto your domain for as long as they can. Call it Reverse Domain Jacking if you will.
These ones spam:
NSI/Verisign/Register.com
Joker.com
Dotster
You can find out more by asking on news.admin.net-abuse.email. However, here's some that don't spam, haven't given any problems, and are groovy all around.
DomainDiscover
GANDI.net
Stargateinc.com
awregistry.net
netwiz.net
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
They rock. They're cheap. They do dynamic DNS, a store and forward MX...
I haven't found a better service.
BlackNova Traders
i've been using Joker as my sole registrar for the past 2 years. Super cheap, free dns, easy interface, good service. Only minus would be the sometimes awkward translated website / documents (they are a german registrar)....
--BlueLines "The cost of living hasn't affected it's popularity." -anonymous
I had a similar problem. We had transfered our company website to another server, and I needed to transfer DNS record information over in NSI.
Unfortunately the MAIN e-mail for their records was going to a non existent e-mail matth@ptd.xxx. Yet, on the contact it listed matth@shell.xxxxx.com. I still dont' totally understand it, they said something about how that e-mail address is hard coded when you setup the account and you can't change it... so I'd either have to send an e-mail from the @shell.xxxx.com address or the @ptd.xxx address.
Our mail system runs on a dynamic DNS system. My e-mail would come from: matth@shell.xxxxxxx.com
but for some reason NSI would read it as our dynamic DNS name which would be: matth@andromeda-xxx.dyndns.org. Needless to say, they said I needed to fax a document over with identification like a phone bill or drivers license ID. I said, umm look here, there aren't any phone bills that come to the business because it's a home business, and my drivers licenes doesn't have the business address, because I don't live here! They were like, ok then just fax it over, and exlpain that. I did.. it came back.. you must include ID. After several days I called them again, and said, that I'd like to know why their e-mail system is reading my dynamic domain instead of the domain I'm sending e-mail from, they said it wasn't their problem. How can you argue with someone who's reading from a script and doesn't understand what you're talking about!??! even when I got someone who understood, somehow they still seemed to find an intellegent way to not answer the question. In the long run I ended up forging an e-mail from the main e-mail address for the account which no longer existed (the main problem in the beginning) matth@ptd.xxx. So I forged the e-mail, and forged a return form, and got the domain trasnfered. *sigh* Why does NSI make me do things illegally in order to transfer my DOMAIN? I even went over this on the phone with the lady.. I said.. look why do I need to fax you all this junk? I could just forge an e-mail from my old address, and have it work. she's like well I'm sorry that's how things are.
OpenSRS resellers have a super-easy set of password-protected web forms for updating all of your info. The cool thing is, if for some reason your reseller goes out of business (imagine that!), you can still do maintenance through opensrs.org.
Two that I like and have used are
Domainmonger
and 000domains
Plus, the price is usually cheap ($13-17 per year).
It's easy to switch from NSI/Verisign to these guys. The instructions are on the sites.
Also, Domain Discover makes it incredibly easy to transfer your domain to them. They have a SSL web based interface for making changes.
Note: I don't work for them, but I do have ~15 personal domains registered through them so.. Slightly more expensive them some of the other registrars out there, but I think its worth it to know that my registrar won't steal my domain name if it suits their interests...
One of these days i'm going to find this 'peer' guy and reset HIS connection!
Before you do anything like that read the terms of use from your cc. This is not an acceptable form of use. Your card may be suspended. Call their 1-800 and let the charge accumulate untill someone responds.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Network Solutions is BY FAR the WORST place to register a domain.
Their forms are confusing, even when you know exactly what you're doing. And that assumes you can find the right form in the first place -- even the list of them is confusing! Changing basic things like DNS servers is a nightmare.
Compare to Domain Maniac. It's a snap to change basic info -- you just log in and do it.
So on a purely technical basis, pretty much anything is better than NS.
Oh yeah, then there's the fact that DM charges less than half of what NS charges.
I applied for the .BIZ domain for my company,
.BIZ domain, they told me they aren't administering it, it's neulevel that takes care of it...(that sounded like a ping pong game is about to start).. I asked who to contact at neulevel, neulevel told me NSI would take care of it (ARGH), anyways last time I tried was 2 weeks ago when the .BIZ was supposed to be online, asked them what was wrong, they told me they had a database screwup (good timing guys) and they would get the Neulevel transfer within a week and mail me the new password... that was around november 8th if I recall.... so it's more than a week now and still nothing... god...
I've had nothing but troubles with NSI.
First: The application, they gave me a customer #, a login and a password... few days later, I couldn't log back in the account to see if my application passed, if my domain was accepted or if my company credit card was billed (although I could see it from the receipt generated by the CC company).
Second: Tech support, forget about their email reply, they NEVER reply
Third: I went online with their chatroom stuff, I thought "hey that's a good service" (I hate using the phone), finally they answer your question, it makes sense (I asked why my account wasn't working, they replied they didn't have an account or domain under what I registered, but if I check the neulevel whois database, I'm there (?) , so they told me they would send a password back within a day... of course it never happened).
After a week, I went back to check with them what was happening with the BIZ domain, they told me they didn't have my account and no record of me applying... funny, my credit card does!
I asked what the Fsck was going on, how come I couldn't access my
This brings me to stargate Inc, saw them by a pure coincidence, guess what? 8$/domain when you register at least 2... you get: Email fowarding, static web page, unlimited DNS/NS changing with a nice configuration toolbox, *FAST* service, *FAST* confirmation, heck, Why are companies like NSI still around when you get that kind of royal treatment for a mere 8$??? I was really shocked (and still pissed at NSI). If you can't carry a buisness, let the others do it, we don't have to pay for their incompetence nor the fact that their tech support people don't even know the earth is round yet (so imagine anything having to do with your account).
Anyways, thanks for bringing this up, I almost forgot about it, I'll ask stargate if they can transfer the authorization, and if I'm lucky, maybe I'll be able to actually USE that domain before it expires and I have to renew it...
I don't know about you guys, but they claim software piracy costs BILLIONS per year, but calculare how much is lost in time wasted if we calculate 1-2 hours a week per IT administrator such as myself times the amount of companies that went thru NSI. 35$/yr for a domain might be cheap for corporate usage, but 2 hours/week to fix domain issues and bouncing paperwork around adds to quite a lot, this could almost be worth a class action suit, maybe the management would wake up.
Any of a number of people have suggested transferring your domain away from NSI, and have suggested replacements. There is one big hiccup to beware of, however:
... they wanted $150 for a year. Calls to customer service to get the mess straight proved totally fruitless. We're still unable to register it with another registrar because NSI won't let it go, and NSI won't reregister it for anything like the usual price.
If you try to transfer your domain away from NSI by letting your domain expire and then reregistering it with another registrar, you may find that NSI is holding it hostage.
A customer of mine let one of her domains expire for lack of funds; when the money came in to pay the $30 registration fee, NSI didn't want $30 or $35 or even $70 to re-up it
Also, I moved a domain from NSI to another registrar back in July; in September I started getting bills from NSI for the domains' registration which expires in October, 2005.
Remove the caps and hold to a mirror.
I highly recommend checking out the DomainNameBuyersGuide to see how various registrars rank among various dimensions (legal, pricing, etc). This is how I found my excellent registrar, DomainDiscover, which has proved to be great.
For the record, I too, am a huge fane of EasyDNS; they provide 4 secondary DNS sites and 2 backup MX for $15 yearly.
When I moved my domain, neverending.org, away from NSI, I didn't have to deal with NSI at all. I just told DomainDiscover that I wanted them to take over control of my domain, and after filling out the proper paperwork, I was homefree. I never had plow through NSI roadblocks.
I remember getting an email from NSI saying "We're so sorry to see you go; could you fill out this form and rank us?" I filled out the form, just to vent the problems I saw with NSI.
These 'people' (actually I'm not sure if they are people, I've certainly never been able to speak to a human there. I suspect it might be more of an evil artificial intelligence) are the worst. I have been trying to update an out of date email for an admin contact for months. Last time I faxed them official company letterheads, drivers licences, you name it and other than the automated email "we got your request" they maintain a stony silience and the domain info remains the same.
They are more evil than microsoft. I wish someone would declare a Jihad against them.
:wq
Of couse Network Solutions would not answer any of my email or phone calls, for which they are infamous.
So I had to register the domain name "mindsprinc.com" (with ANOTHER registrar, of course -- I never used Network Solutions after that), and then I simply sent them email from that domain name asking their automated system to fix it.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
How do I transfer the domain away from NSI if I can't even login to their system?
;)
Well, take a peek at the link you've been using, and you'll be one step closer to your goal.
Granted I am a bit biased, since we are a Tucows/OpenSRS reseller. However, I have not found a more reliable and friendly company to work with than Tucows. The development team is awesome and their support staff is more than willing to work with you. We have been registering our domains through them over a year and a half now, and have never once regretted the move from first NSI and then later registrars.com
We currently retail domains at $13.00 per year (which isn't the cheapest price out there) after buying them wholesale from Tucows at $10.00 year.
If you are serious about registering lots of domains I strongly suggest becoming a Tucows reseller.
Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
www.haidacarver.com
You really should remember about the whole aol.com fiasco where their domain was hijacked by some crackers with a simple forged email to NSI. You shouldn't use email as the method of change and hopefully NSI has disabled this feature.
The book http://www.realworldlinuxsecurity.com/ should provide more information on this front.
http://www.stargateinc.com -- I moved to them after Domain Bank started spamming me. I've found Stargate to be very inexpensive ($8.85/domain), and they have a full-blown web-based configuration section where domain owners can make whatever changes they want at any time.
As for the service, Stargate really does make NSI look like the sick joke they've become. When I had some minor trouble assigning two new domain names I'd registered to my own DNS boxes, I simply dropped a note to Stargate's tech support. The problem was promptly fixed in less than 24 hours, and I had a courteous and informative response to show for it.
Whatever registrar you select, let THEM take care of the transfer paperwork for you. SG did an outstanding job here as well.
FWIW: I wouldn't go with Dotster. They support spammers. Avoid register.com as well -- big-time spam support, despite their ToS.
Good hunting.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
I feel your pain. A couple of months ago, I had to transfer some domains for a few websites that I was taking over when the last webmaster quit and the host went bankrupt. I've done this before and never had any problems, BUT there were two emails set up to allow changes to the domains, and neither email was active anymore. So I made some phone calls, and I'm pretty sure that verisign has all of their tech support done in call centers in India. I was listening to the BBC a while back and they were talking about how its a big business over there to have call centers for US companies since it's so much cheaper for them rather than having it in the continental US.
Anyway, I appreciate the hard work phone tech support people do, they have a tough job, but I could not understand anyone from their end. I called back every other day for 4 weeks because nothing was done to make changes, and everyone gave me the same story.... "wait for 2 days, the system just takes a little while to get everythign through" Talking to their supervisors did nothing to expedite this either. It took over 1 month to finally change all of the DNS settings, and the sites were down in the meantime which meant lost business (and a lot of explaining on my part). My advice is to make sure you know that email address and it's active, give verisign plenty of time to make any changes, and just hope your host doesnt go out of business, because if you have to call Verisign to make changes, you're in for a big headache.
I worked for a hosting company and it was my job to deal with NSI daily. They only way to get anything done is to CALL Verisign and ask to speak to the BAO (Business Affairs Office). They are the ONLY people there that have any power. The customer service reps that you talk to sound like indians for a reason.. Verisign uses a Call Center in India (no lie).
Virginia Office
21355 Ridgetop Circle
Dulles, VA 20166
Main Number: 703-742-0400
Good luck!
I read once (I forget where) where someone was describing their expierence with network solutions. Their software was choking on their email, it had something to do with not liking how most mail software creates mail headers. This person had to use trial and error to figure out which one, then forge a 'properly' formatted email from himself.*
Another solution would be to get a decent regristrar, but that can cause other problems and can take even longer to sort out. Once you get it sorted out it will probably be very good, but actually making the transfer will make you question why you are doing it.
The easiest solution is likely to figure out what it doesn't like about your email, and forge one it does like.*
*Note to U.S. government. This is merely offered up as a hypothetical solution. I do not advocate the forging of email, nor the impersonation of oneself.
There is a civil war coming in the United States. Remember which side has most of the guns