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What Alternative Domain Registrants are out There?
Zigg asks: "With the story on NSI's webmail "service" and the rant I posted therein, I got a little more information with regards to alternative registrars that have apparently been around a few months now, thanks to ICANN. I was hoping that Slashdot readers could contribute stories of their experiences with some of these guys, to see if any of them really are better than NSI or are just worth checking out because they're not NSI?"
I recently registered three domains trough register.com.
They use the same prices as NSI, but their service is much better:
- They provide free DNS services, but you are still able to run your own DNS servers. (A combination is also possible)
- You can update your domain settings trough a web interface and updates are therefore almost instant (and not three months like NSI).
- Tech support is very knowledgeable and usually responds within a few hours (even outside office hours!!).
The only bad thing I have to say is that their upstream provider had some connectivity problems a few weeks ago and because their free DNS servers are on the same network my whole domain did not work. However, these issues seem to be resolved and of course you are free to add one of your own DNS servers to theirs.
If their web hosting business is anything like their domain services, they suck ass.
9 months ago I asked if I could add a delegated subdomain to one of the domains I was hosting there. After 5 or 6 e-mails of clarification (they couldn't figure out what I was asking), their answer was "yep. just let us know."
3-4 months later I asked again, just to be ABSOLUTELY sure they could do this before I went out and bought hardware to act as name server for the delegated subdomain, etc. I've had experience in 2 other past instances where they've said "yep" one day and "sorry you were misinformed" the next, so I felt it crucial that I be totally certain that they understood what I was asking and could do what I needed. Again, their response (after another 5-6 clarifications) was "yep. no problem. just let us know."
So a couple of weeks ago I say "OK, I'm all set up on this end, please add this to your name servers.."
"Uhh, sorry for the past misinformation, but we can't do that."
WHAT?? I just spent several hundred dollars going on information you'd explicitely given me in the past, and now you can't even offer me the courtesy of a single line in my domain's zone files? They wouldn't budge. As soon as DNS fully updates for all of my domains, I'm cancelling my accounts.
They even advised me not to post copies of the e-mail correspondence I've had with their techs on a web page. Embarrassed? I do think so. Then they started talking about slander and libel and how they take that sort of thing very seriously. Hell, all I wanted was to post verbatim copies of the e-mails. I think they speak for themselves nicely.
*Horrible* tech support in general, 2-3 day tech support runs. Their *phone* support isn't even staffed by the techs that answer your e-mails. You can't ever contact them by phone in the event you need something resolved quickly.
I should not have to be suspicious (and correct in my suspicion) that the tech that answered my e-mail thought I meant "Perl" when I said "mod_perl."
I have had nothing but bad experiences with Alabanza.
Now, of course, their domain registration services might be operated completely differently, but somehow I doubt it...
Any DNS change takes 2-3 days to fully propogate through the 'Net. This is based on the TTL setting in your name servers, which determine how long other name servers should keep your DNS info cached (to avoid excessive/redundant lookups). Once the TTL expires, the information is refreshed from an authoritative source, and propogation is complete.
If you change your name server settings for your domain, it's just another DNS change (but at a top level) and will require 2-3 days to fully propogate.
If you know in advance you're about to make a major change, sometimes it helps to adjust the TTL values in your name server a few days beforehand so that things refresh more quickly. You then avoid the lengthy propogation period.
I've never used Register.Com, but it is a bit unfair to pin this on crappy service from them.
What is the proper etiquette for registering your family name with a TLD?
There has been none. Its a finite physical space, or address that must be unique. That may be why the price of land in areas, such as San Jose, are so high. Just like TLD's, computers have an affinity to give each item unique addresses.
I was too late to get attaway.com, so I am happy with an org. With the current trend of sue happy people in the USA (the US seems to have an inordinate amount of control over the internet,) I'm sure I'll find someone of my last name trying to assert rights over the address I have chosen.
Last names cause conflicts in the telephone book too. My mom has a business in her maiden last name in Kansas City (I won't mention it here, because credit card companies use maiden names like passwords!) Its not a popular last name, but there happened to be another business in the city of that name. She had the first entry in the telephone book.
I'm aware of other Attaway's on the internet, musicians (my sister is one,) teachers, scientists, and one Attaway-Electronics beat me to getting a trademark.
People and nations go to war over land. I'm sure that attitude will infect the internet too. Hopefully there will be enough productive discussion to cure this ill.
What many people don't realize is that domain name registrar competition is largely illusory. NSI still holds a monopoly for the database holding the com, org, and net top level domains. All the other registrars still pay NSI $9/year per domain for access to this database.
Thus, the only real competition is in billing and customer service. Given NSI's track record on these matters, the "alternative" registrars have a wide-open opportunity to do better, and I think this is a good thing. But the fact that NSI retains the monopoly on the database itself suggests that we're not going to see fundamental improvements any time soon.
LILO boot: linux init=/usr/bin/emacs
Alabanza are absolutely AWFUL. They are one of the worst companies I have ever come across. Taking over THREE MONTHS to provide proper reverse dns, an incredibly simple thing to do (especially when provided with correct db files they need!) is unacceptable. No offence to you or your friend, but do not go with them.
--
Everything I know in life I learnt from
Considering their prices (DM80/USD$40 for the first 2 years) they are a no-frills provider, so you'll have to take care of the DNS hosting, etc, yourself.
however, at least I don't have to worry about my information being 'owned' by NIC.
Anyway, for .com, .net, or .org, I say go with joker.com.
~mindlace
There is a company around here called Alabanza. My friend works there, and he assures me that everyone knows what they're doing, and that nobody there is a moron. Try here.
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"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational, I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot"
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My understanding for the categorisation was that they represent separate databases. When a server resolves a name it checks to see which database it should look in, it then strips off the .net .com or whatever and searches that database for the relevant string.
.shmoe domain. Which would mean you would have to have a server connected and maintained for your domain to even work.
.sig in Winnt and it worked for me.
Because the database is split up into smaller components the search is faster than it would be if there was no categorisation.
Strangely this means that the most obscure top levels should resolve fastest...
Back to your point if we didn't have any structure and anybody could register a top level domain then our Internet would be practicaly unusable. Besides you would proabably find that you would be responsible for the authorative resolution of your
Now what is this TLDNS stuff? The web link you gave me doesn't seem to really explain what it does and I'm hardly one to blindly install software I download to find out what it does.
PS I did echo "hmm" >
hmm
I think there are some major fundamental problems here that having multiple DNS root servers will just paper over. The major issue is that certain vested interests want to turn addresses into property rights (with associated price and thus shareholder value). Unfortunately it fails one fundamental test in that a name is not unique. Thus while a physical property has well defined boundaries as recorded by land deeds (remember that your forefathers fought for this by carving out a homestead in the wilderness), there is no natural constraints on a name/address pair. If the impact of the participants weren't so serious on the rest of the world, it'll form the basis of a Monty Python sketch ...
....
.... "I'll like to name him Bill Gates the CCCLXVII", "sorry, all booked out until DCLXV". "How about XYsaer sfgyuer". "No can do, apparently reserved for a punk rock group sometime next decade. Those music companies are really getting desperate nowadays to come up with half a good idea". "Sigh, OK, looks like I'll have to settle for a random lottery draw instead. "Will 345694857 do?"
:-). Frankly, the role of branding has gotten way out of control like a hydra on amphetimines. Whether it is one variety of sugared water or another variation on a PC is becoming too mind-numbing to keep up. If the Net doesn't collapse from sheer marketing hype, the collective ennui from watching the same ads day after day will turn people off. If there was sanity in the world, I hope another Postel-in-training comes up with a naming distribution system that is not dependent on centralised roots. Alternatively emigrate to the far side of the moon just to get away from the cybernoise and pollution.
{humor on}
News Flash: The McDonald clan descended on the embattered hamburger chain waving haggis and yelling war cries, claiming the appropriation of their proud Scottish ancestry by a burger flipping clown was an insult to their heritage and the direct cause of the 75% unemployment rate in the internet economy. PR spokeman declinced to comment noting that kilt-wearing assistants would lead to an immediate decline in sales
Switch to Hospital Bedside: Expectant mother
The conflict is that NSI is wanting to act simulatneous roles of registrar (usually government fixed-fee recording service), data developer (in holding onto its yellow pages database for perhaps advertising purposes) and judge/jury in resolving name conflicts (with associated legal vigorish). There are specific reasons why land property rights have evolved separate functional groups as it has been found to be a workable solution for the last 500 odd years. Asking a bunch of companies to divvy up a name space limited by the number of recognisable English words of 7 characters or less (let's face it, most people can't remember much more than 1-2 syllables) is a sure way to degrade the language (yeah, invent more useless buzzwords). I expect a patent any day for adding new letters to the alphabet
LL
There's a sponsorship agreement between The Public DNS Service and register.com. If you're going to use register.com and might use the Public DNS Service, follow one of the links from the Public DNS Service to register.com so they get credit (and hopefully money) for the referral.
I think people should register with a non-US registrar - expecially if they are not American either. Since most people who get sued by large companies over their domain names are sued by US companies, having the registrar abroad will put them out of reach from the US laws, and make the trial complex, long and costly. In many countries your familly name is yours, no matter if it is copyrighted, so a US company with your familly name would be in trouble to get it back if you happen to have a registrar in one of those friendly nations.
BTW Does anyone know if it is possible to transfer a domain from a registrar to another one ? I want to leave NSI as soon as possible.
If you go through the details of the policy statements, you encounter some annoying details:
1) If you have problems with the credit card, the registar may take a look at the domain name and decide not to register it, even if you can pay them. And if you do, there's a 200-300 $ "reinstatement" fee (pricey for a $35/year contract).
"We will reinstate your domain name registration solely at our discretion, and subject to our receipt of the initial registration or renewal fee and our then-current reinstatement fee, currently set at US$200."
2) They "own" your telephone # and other details:
"You further agree and
acknowledge that we own the following information for those registrations for which we are the registrar:
(a) the original creation date of the registration,
(b) the expiration date of the registration,
(c) the name, postal address, e-mail address, voice telephone number, and where available fax number of the technical
contact, administrative contact, zone contact and billing contact for the domain name registration"
3) A 7 day notice to cancel your domain:
"You also agree that register.com shall have the right in its sole discretion to suspend, cancel, transfer or otherwise modify a
domain name registration upon seven (7) calendar days prior written notice, or at such time as register.com receives a
properly authenticated order from a court of competent jurisdiction"
I find a 200 or 300 $ reinstatement fee quite high (my auto insurance takes a 10% reinstatement fee, and for domain names, it's more than 600%?), and the other details are also quite demanding. Sure, you may argue that they are not likely to enforce it, but that's not the point - the agreement shouldn't be such a sell-your-soul and expect-us-to-cancel-when-we-want deal.
Also interesting is the fact that all the terms and conditions for the various registrars are almost identical, word by word. I think this field still needs a lot of competition.
L.
PS - If you've had good or bad experiences, please post them. A friend of mine is about to register and wants to know which company to go with. Price, quality, etc. - post the details. It will help us all.
I have a question which I'd like yer opinion on:
What is the proper etiquette for registering your family name with a TLD?
That is, say my name is John Doe. I could register doe.org, and then my email could be john@doe.org. However, what if someone I don't know at all wants to be jane@doe.org? Why should she be denied that priviledge? Is it alright if I let anyone who shares my last name to get email forwarding for free? Or should I leave it alone and become jd@john-doe.org?
Related to this, are there any efforts out there to start a web directory for doing this sort of family-name-registration forwarding-for-free type of activity?
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I've registered a domain with Register.com, in hopes that they wouldn't be NSI. However, all I got in return is lackluster service and domain updates that take 3 days to propigate throughout the net.
However, registering with NuNames was a wonderful thing. If they nixed their $10 service charge for domain changes, it'd be a perfect deal: $40 for two years! Hells yeah!
This offer is in an experimental / testing phase at the moment and they are planning to begin at the end of this year. You can register .org .com .net names only. I'd say; check it out... You can find this at http://www.namezero.com/default.htm. I allready registered my domain name hoping it will work out.
"The Internet Namespace Cooperative" is trying
to subvert the whole system by setting up an
alternet set of root nameservers that point to
the current roots, but also allow them to set
up their own top level domains, e.g. ".sex", etc.
---Eludom
-------------from http://www.tinc-org.com ----
We are a group of internet users who have decided to try and put an end to the conflict of interest
inherent in having the "root zone" (the list of servers of the top level domains) managed by the
same organization that runs the largest registries.
What We Are Doing
We are currently providing an alternative to the root name servers. These alternative root servers
point to all of the top level domains that the internic currently lists, and also contains additional top
level domains that meet the guidelines we have developed. These are only pointers, the
organizations responsible for the domains themselves remain in control. The service we're
providing is simply a disinterested third party integrating the traditional and independent name
registries.
-- I HATE TOP LEVEL DOMAINS --
.com addresses...the dumbest, most ambiguous endings possible. What the hell is "com" supposed to mean? Commercial? What the hell kind of category is that? It more likely should stand for "common". If I have to spend money, I should be able to get an address that I really want...like
.web top level domain, Microsoft will demand this one too. If you created a top level domain .tractors there is a good chance that Microsoft would try to take it, even though the law allows for two companies to hold the same trademark, if they are in unrelated fields.
= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Everyone is fighting over
www.joe.shmoe
Or for famous corporations...
www.microsoft.inc
Or for specialized products...
www.redhat.linux
WHY WHY WHY is it that ICANN and/or Network Solutions still feels it is necessary to try and group things into categories?
It's all BS. No one respects the categories. A big company like Microsoft is going to have microsoft.com microsoft.net microsoft.org. If you create a
On the other hand, if there ARE no stupid categories, and you can have infinite choice, then companies can register their LEGAL name (like Microsoft, Incorporated is www.microsoft.inc) and I can do get www.microsoft.sucks or whatever else I want. There are simply too many possible domain combinations for TLDNS (http://www.tldns.com/download/) is trying to accomplish. If we could get major browsers to automatically install TLDNS support then suddenly the Internet would be a whole new world overnight.
- JoeShmoe
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-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
NSI sucks. But I still recommend them to clients! And it's not just the "nobody was ever fired for..." syndrome. They have some terrible policies, have been corporate jerks, and can take months to resolve simple change requests. But with NSI, I know pretty well how much they suck, and in what areas they suck, when I register.
.COMs: register.com, netwiz.net, and nominalia.com in Spain. Unless the name contains a dirty word that NSI won't register, I'd stick with NSI. They offer the best security options to prevent unauthorized domain changes, and seem the most stable of the companies. On the downside, they can be slow making authorized changes as well, which can be a big problem.
.coms, they expect a turnaround soon, and hope to go public in a year or two. Netwiz.net offers $60 2-year registrations, unlike NSI's $70. But what happens if a netwiz.net goes out of business? I suspect some solution would be worked out, but it would be a sticky situation, and if your domain name is important to you, it represents a risk.
I've used three alternative registrars for
Concerning stability, register.com is losing money, although like many big
You also need to worry about domain heists, either transferring administrative ownership, or merely redirecting the DNS listings (this is done to successful sites to steal traffic for a while). Some of the "off-brand" registrars initiate changes based solely on a form or e-mail request! Some e-mail back for confirmation, some use encrypted passwords, and so on. NSI, of the four companies I've used, is the only one that offered all those, plus PGP-encrypted change requests. Of course they still have plenty of thefts, since they don't > require you to enable good security.
To date, I don't believe there's a secure means of transferring domain names between registrars, so wherever you register, that's where your domain stays. Register.com's web site suggests this will be changing in the near future.