"So, slax.org seems to have been slashdotted before the actual story was posted?"
Their sysadmin must have incredible foresight;) slax.org has likely been off for a couple of months. The domain is pending delete with the PIR registry, and this normally doesn't happen for 70+ days after the domain expires.
Domain ID:D93147523-LROR Domain Name:SLAX.ORG Created On:16-Dec-2002 01:17:30 UTC Last Updated On:22-Jan-2004 11:56:14 UTC Expiration Date:16-Dec-2004 01:17:30 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:R71-LROR Status:PENDING DELETE Status:HOLD
"Obviously the sysadmin for the slax.org webserver is some sort of psychic and chose to take the site down than receive a slashdotting."
With some great foresight too;)
The domain's pending deletion from the PIR registry, so it's likely been off for a couple of months. Often when a domain is expired, its DNS is inactive. Domains usually are not deleted at the registry level for 70+ days after expiry.
Yea, getting domains away from NSI can be difficult, I've helped a lot of people to do this.
Often the transfers get denied because the NSI require you confirm transfering out before they'll let you go. Things go bad often because the registrant's admin email address is no longer valid. I've also had a lot of reports that the confirmation request email simply doesn't arrive even when the address is good. Seems to be more common on the first attempt to transfer out.
If the admin email address on your domain is invalid, Verisign (& all registrars) are required to to update your contact information for the domain. This is required by the registration agreement all registrars & domain owners are bound to, and reminding them of this can help. When our clients have trouble transfering away from NSI, this usually helps.
BTW, the registrar the domain is going to is the one that's responsible to obtain confirmation for the transfer, not the other way around. We for example don't require confirmation to transfer out, but a lot of registrar (NSI, Register.com, Godaddy...) do. OpenSRS leaves this choice up to the reseller.
Verisign does keep the money you've already spent with them, but you keep the time you've paid for. When you transfer your domain from Verisign to another registrar, you pay for a year's renewal, and this is added to the existing time on your domain. Your domain will be good to 2008. Your transfer will also help keep NetworkSolutions as the fastest shrinking registrar.
Your transfer away won't make NSI or Verisign more profitable, their expenses for your future years of registration are already paid to the registry (in this case of course themselves).
Of course I'm biased who you should choose. Choose someone who looks at registration as a service industry, and not you or your domains as commodities.
There's also a good thread on the OpenSRS discuss-list mailing list. <a href="http://www.opensrs.org/archives/discuss-list/0203/">OpenSRS discuss-list archive.</a>
What is disturbing to me with this is that while similar renewal scams have been running for some time, these have usually been run from small time registration service providers like Domain Registry of America/Canada. This one is from Verisign, and they've the money behind them to hit a lot of domain holders with this.
Their notice also includes a reply date which is timed 40 days following the expiry date of the domain, the day that most other registrars will drop the domain if not renewed.,
The notice itself is entitled Domain Name Expiration Notice, and looks as close to a renewal form as possible.
If you have received one of these & paid it, you should contact your bank/credit card company about reversing the charge. Verisign won't be able to complete the transfer without you authorising it by an email that is sent to the existing admin email contact for your domain.
You may also want to visit http://www.usps.com and in the search box type in "false billing". You will find the first result link is for: "False Billing Schemes Against Business".
"Notify your local postmaster or nearest Postal Inspector if you receive a questionable invoice or have been taken in a false billing scheme. This will help postal inspectors protect other companies with weak controls."
Burning DVD's is something I've been looking at as an alternative to CD's, but the one thing that has kept me away is the price of blanks. At ~$20 per disk that I've seen locally, they're not far off the same price/G as hard disks. Anyone seen better prices on this?
832x624 is only supported for the Mac. PC modes available are 640x480, and 800x600. The headset supports relatively high refresh rates, which should keep flickering to a minimum. I found more info on this headset, including a table of supported resolutions. Follow the links at http://www.cgsd.com. They're offering the set for $1850. Better, but still on the pricy side.
Slashdot Mirror
"So, slax.org seems to have been slashdotted before the actual story was posted?"
Their sysadmin must have incredible foresight;) slax.org has likely been off for a couple of months. The domain is pending delete with the PIR registry, and this normally doesn't happen for 70+ days after the domain expires.
Domain ID:D93147523-LROR
Domain Name:SLAX.ORG
Created On:16-Dec-2002 01:17:30 UTC
Last Updated On:22-Jan-2004 11:56:14 UTC
Expiration Date:16-Dec-2004 01:17:30 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:R71-LROR
Status:PENDING DELETE
Status:HOLD
"Obviously the sysadmin for the slax.org webserver is some sort of psychic and chose to take the site down than receive a slashdotting."
With some great foresight too;)
The domain's pending deletion from the PIR registry, so it's likely been off for a couple of months. Often when a domain is expired, its DNS is inactive. Domains usually are not deleted at the registry level for 70+ days after expiry.
Yea, getting domains away from NSI can be difficult, I've helped a lot of people to do this.
Often the transfers get denied because the NSI require you confirm transfering out before they'll let you go. Things go bad often because the registrant's admin email address is no longer valid. I've also had a lot of reports that the confirmation request email simply doesn't arrive even when the address is good. Seems to be more common on the first attempt to transfer out.
If the admin email address on your domain is invalid, Verisign (& all registrars) are required to to update your contact information for the domain. This is required by the registration agreement all registrars & domain owners are bound to, and reminding them of this can help. When our clients have trouble transfering away from NSI, this usually helps.
BTW, the registrar the domain is going to is the one that's responsible to obtain confirmation for the transfer, not the other way around. We for example don't require confirmation to transfer out, but a lot of registrar (NSI, Register.com, Godaddy...) do. OpenSRS leaves this choice up to the reseller.
Verisign does keep the money you've already spent with them, but you keep the time you've paid for. When you transfer your domain from Verisign to another registrar, you pay for a year's renewal, and this is added to the existing time on your domain. Your domain will be good to 2008. Your transfer will also help keep NetworkSolutions as the fastest shrinking registrar.
Your transfer away won't make NSI or Verisign more profitable, their expenses for your future years of registration are already paid to the registry (in this case of course themselves).
Of course I'm biased who you should choose. Choose someone who looks at registration as a service industry, and not you or your domains as commodities.
We've received numerous calls from customers of ours regarding this issue as well. We've posted a sample of one of these Verisign notices at:
<a href="http://domainscams.com">http://domainscam s.com</a>.
There's also a good thread on the OpenSRS discuss-list mailing list. <a href="http://www.opensrs.org/archives/discuss-lis
What is disturbing to me with this is that while similar renewal scams have been running for some time, these have usually been run from small time registration service providers like Domain Registry of America/Canada. This one is from Verisign, and they've the money behind them to hit a lot of domain holders with this.
Their notice also includes a reply date which is timed 40 days following the expiry date of the domain, the day that most other registrars will drop the domain if not renewed.,
The notice itself is entitled Domain Name Expiration Notice, and looks as close to a renewal form as possible.
If you have received one of these & paid it, you should contact your bank/credit card company about reversing the charge. Verisign won't be able to complete the transfer without you authorising it by an email that is sent to the existing admin email contact for your domain.
You may also want to visit http://www.usps.com and in the search box type in "false billing". You will find the first result link is for: "False Billing Schemes Against Business".
"Notify your local postmaster or nearest Postal Inspector if you receive a questionable invoice or have been taken in a false billing scheme. This will help postal inspectors protect other companies with weak controls."
Burning DVD's is something I've been looking at as an alternative to CD's, but the one thing that has kept me away is the price of blanks. At ~$20 per disk that I've seen locally, they're not far off the same price/G as hard disks. Anyone seen better prices on this?
832x624 is only supported for the Mac. PC modes available are 640x480, and 800x600. The headset supports relatively high refresh rates, which should keep flickering to a minimum. I found more info on this headset, including a table of supported resolutions. Follow the links at http://www.cgsd.com. They're offering the set for $1850. Better, but still on the pricy side.