Entries tagged with “registrars” from Domains / Internet Technology News - DNS News

Eurid, the registry operator for .eu, have released a report in relation to how registrants register their .eu domain names ie. if you are based in country X, are you more likely to use a registrar based "in country" or go overseas?

The results show that 65% of registrants stay with a domestic registrar, 18% choose another registrar in the EU, while 17% choose a registrar from outside the EU.

The results are probably a bit biased, as some of the largest registrars in terms of reseller networks are from outside the EU and probably account for a very large portion of the non-EU registrar sales. Whether the registrants are even aware of this or not is an entirely different matter.

Further information is available on the Eurid site.

Switch, the registry operator for the Swiss ccTLD (.ch), has been the target of a scammer judging by emails they sent to registrants.

In the email the company underlines their stable position as registry operator and explains that another company has been trying to undermine them:

Email below:

You are receiving this e-mail because you have registered one or more .ch or .li domain names with SWITCH. At the moment, customers of SWITCH are being asked by third parties to transfer their domain name from SWITCH to a different supplier. The reason given for this is that it will soon no longer be possible to register domain names with SWITCH.

In order to prevent any misunderstandings and uncertainty, we would like to correct this misinformation as follows:

SWITCH registers and administers the .ch domain names on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM). The contract between SWITCH and OFCOM runs until 2015. It is possible for the contract to be renewed. You are thus in good hands with SWITCH and do not need to take any action.

With the setting up of our subsidiary switchplus, we have laid the foundations for the future - independently of our contract with OFCOM and its renewal. switchplus already offers e-mail and web hosting in addition to the registration of domain names.

As an independent foundation, SWITCH has established the internet for the Swiss universities in Switzerland. We make a key contribution to the stability of the internet and offer high-quality services for universities and third parties.

If you have any questions, our helpdesk will always be pleased to assist you.

With kind regards,

SWITCH Internet Domains

The board has put forward a motion to decide vertical integration once and for all. There will no cross-ownership allowed.

The board's decision is very interesting.

They are, to quote Dennis Jennings, setting a baseline, but will bow to any policy decision that comes from the GNSO.

There is now a GNSO PDP (Policy Development Process) to discuss vertical integration.

Nominet, the registry operator that manages *.uk, is planning on releasing both single and two character domain names.

In common with a lot of other ccTLD registry operators, Nominet had blocked single and two character domain names from being registered. However they are now planning on releasing them to the public in a phased plan.

The exact details of "how" the domains will become available have not been decided, which is why the registry is now conducting a consultation period with the public.

The current proposal is not drastically different to the kind of methodology used by several of the gTLD registry operators to handle similar scenarios, although there are a few extra twists. To start with Nominet is speaking of the entire project in terms of "cost recovery", whereas other registries have used this kind of release as a revenue generator. The other thing which is quite interesting is how they plan to differentiate based on the second level ie. org.uk domains, according to their proposal, should be given to charities and not for profits, while co.uk should go to business users. While this is very logical it's still interesting to note that they've "gone back to basics" in some respects.

You can view full details of what Nominet are planning on their site and share your thoughts.

It will be interesting to see how the Nominet registrars and the public react to this news.

SIDN, the registry operator for .nl, has announced the introduction of a new service for its registrars. The new phishing alert service harnesses data provided by Netcraft and will automatically email the registrar of record of any .nl domain name that is flagged as being used in a phishing attack.

Every five minutes or so, SIDN checks Netcraft's suspect URL database,
which is constantly being updated. Every time a .nl URL is added to the
database, an e-mail message is automatically sent to the relevant
registrar's administrative contact e-mail address. In other words, the
system does not rely on periodic reporting, but on almost immediate
individualised e-mail contact. It therefore provides a basis for very
rapid intervention. The service is due to enter use on February 15,
2010.

Message content
The e-mail sent to draw a registrar's attention to the fact that a
client is running a website that may be fraudulent will include the
following information:

- Suspected phishing site URL
- Host: the IP address of the system running the website
- Country: the country of origin of the IP address
- Date: the date and time that the suspect site was detected
- Target: the name of the company that seems to be targeted

SIDN are conscious of the danger of such a service and warn registrars that there may be false alarms.

It will be interesting to see how registrars and the wider internet community react to the introduction of this service.

ICANN has terminated DNGlobe LLC's ICANN accreditation effective February 22 2010.

In a letter to DNGlobe ICANN outlined why the registrar's accreditation is being pulled. Apart from anything else they do not have a WHOIS server accessible on port 80 ie. via a browser. Their website is currently unreachable as well, which is not a good sign.

They also owe ICANN fees, though not as much as some registrars recently culled.

What's also interesting is the registrar in question obviously hadn't been paying their registry bills with Verisign, as the letter mentions that Verisign may begin suspending domains immediately.

Related articles by Zemanta

• ICANN Culls Three More Registrars (isquattedyour.eu)
• Bulk Transfer of Hosting365 Inc Domains To Blacknight (blacknight.com)
• New ICANN policy stops domain tasting (news.cnet.com)

ICANN has opened a public comment period on the "Inter Registrar Transfer Policy" (IRTP)

You can read more about the announcement here

What makes this comment period a bit different is that the request for comments has been published in the 6 UN languages ie. English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic and Russian.

The Swiss ccTLD operator, Switch, has announced the launch of a new company and service called "SwitchPlus".

The new entity is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switch and is aimed at providing a range of services that would, essentially, compete against the registry operator's clientele - namely registrar, hosting providers and IT service companies.

The Swiss operator claims that this move is to protect its staff:

In launching switchplus, SWITCH is also making a key contribution towards securing its own future in the field of internet domains. The contract with the Swiss Federal Office of Communications (OFCOM) for the registration of domain names runs until 2015. It is uncertain whether a follow-on contract will come into being at all - and, if so, what form it will take. This situation constitutes a substantial risk for SWITCH - firstly in terms of its revenues and secondly as regards the jobs of its employees working in this area. For that reason, SWITCH must take steps today already to secure the future of its Internet Domains business.

If I were based in Switzerland I would not be overly impressed by this move.

As was to be expected ICANN is now seeking expressions of interest in the bulk transfer of the recently deaccredited registrars.

The first one "up for grabs" is SimplyNamed's, which numbers less than 300 domains.

Expect to see the other two being listed very shortly ...

Of course with portfolios that small you'd have to wonder if many registrars will "bite". The amount of hassle taking over such a small number of domains may outweigh any possible benefits.

ICANN's latest announcement concerns the three registrars who recently lost their accreditation.

The process is now underway to transfer the domains to other registrars....

Tucows released their Q2 figures a couple of days ago, and they are impressive.

$20 million revenue is not a figure to be snorted at.

Full breakdown here and transcript of the conference call with investors here

Lead Networks, who I mentioned a few weeks ago, have lost their ICANN accreditation.

The ICANN announcement includes some of the details and ICANN are currently seeking expressions of interest from other registrars to take over the portfolio of domains (approximately 70 - 80 thousand names according to ICANN)

According to ICANN Lead Networks was escrowing data, so the registrant details are thought to be both complete and accurate. This makes a very pleasant and welcome change compared to some of the situations that have arisen with previous de-accreditations, where registrant data was not being escrowed and was not supplied by the registrar.

ICANN's compliance team seems to be working flat out at present, which is probably a good thing for the industry as a whole!

It's also interesting to note that the number of accredited registrars is dropping, as companies either merge or sell out.

Nominet are holding a number of registrar information days across the UK in the coming months

At present there are dates listed for:

• Leeds - 29 April 2009
• London - 30 June 2009
• Birmingham - 16 September 2009

Full information and booking details on their site

In the lead up to Nominet's AGM earlier this year I mentioned some of the squabbling.

While we may have had a respite, it's now "open season" once again.

The latest news is that some people are pushing a vote of no confidence in the current Nominet board and demanding that an EGM be called.

What exactly happened?

As usual trying to make sense of any debacles that breakout on the Nominet member lists is awkward, as a lot of the issues seem to have historical backgrounds that mere mortals struggle to comprehend (ie. I am as confused by it all as the next person)

What is known is that two things happened.

First off the board's October communique (pdf) referenced issues surrounding one of the board's non-executive directors, a Mr Jim Davies:

Following a formal complaint against one of Nominet's non-executive Directors, Jim Davies, which was upheld in August 2008, the Board was disappointed to receive two more formal complaints concerning Jim Davies (who withdrew from all discussions and decisions about the complaints).
The first complaint was by one of our largest member/registrars, which alleged that Jim Davies had a conflict of interest and had brought the Nominet Board and company into disrepute by acting as a solicitor against them on behalf of another large member/registrar. In investigating the complaint, it emerged that Jim Davies had failed to disclose specifically - either to the Board, or to the membership prior to his election - that he had been on a retainer with the second large member/registrar since March 2008. Jim Davies stated that all relevant disclosures had been made.
The Board upheld the complaint. Angus Hanton abstained from this decision.
The second complaint was from a litigant in a domain name dispute, which alleged that Jim Davies had an interest in a contract between Nominet and a third party, and that he was in breach of his fiduciary duties to the company. In investigating this complaint, it emerged that Jim Davies had personally given a statement to the Court indicating that Nominet was in breach of contract or other duties to the third party. Jim Davies stated that all relevant disclosures had been made.
The Board upheld the complaint. Angus Hanton abstained from this decision.
The Board noted that, as advised by leading counsel, all directors have a legal duty to avoid situations of conflict and possible conflict. The Board requested that Mr Davies urgently sign written undertakings that he will not breach his duties in future.
•
The Board continued to press for Jim Davies to sign the standard Non Executive Director contract, outstanding since his election in May 2008.
•
Following the recent changes to the Companies Act, the Board reviewed a draft Conflicts of Interest Policy. The Board unanimously agreed to update the register of Directors' interests in the light of the new legislation.

Then, on 12 November, Angus Hanton, who had abstained from the votes surrounding Mr Davies, tendered his resignation from the board citing issues with how Nominet was being run and who was running it.

So what now?

I suspect that this debacle will keep growing, so the upcoming registrar conference should feature some interesting interactions between the delegates, though whether or not the current debacle will spill over into the conference proper or not remains to be seen

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rebel Nominet director calls for the heads of Chairman and CEO
• Nominet critic wins boardroom seat
• Nominet top brass reject resignation call
• Nominet director quits over boardroom rift
• UK net registry battles coup d'etat

While the news from Tucows earlier this week may not have been that positive for their staff, clients will be able to make use of their new status site and twitter service (They've also setup a page on Facebook)

According to an announcement made earlier today, Tucows has sold back its equity stake in Afilias

Stephane has an interesting post on the possible end of domain tasting.

While the debate around domain tasting has been going on for quite some time ICANN can be a very slow moving beast. In some ways it moves far too slow, but when you consider the range of different opinions that have to be taken into consideration for such a significant policy change to come into effect it's a different story.

Domain tasting grew out of a loophole. Like so many things involving the internet and governance policies, the goalposts move over time. A big issue 10 years ago may have vanished completely, but a whole new range of issues will have taken its place, so nobody could expect policy makers to "second guess" every change.

The AGP (Add Grace Period) is an important function for any registrar. It allows a registrar to delete a domain that is less than 5 days old.
Why was this needed? Is it still needed?

There are a lot of very valid reasons why a registrar might need to delete a domain shortly after its creation.
Obvious reasons would include things like credit card fraud and purely abusive registrations (eg. spammers / phishers registering domains for purely abusive usage).

Of course the entire debacle was sparked off when some registrars realised that they could use the AGP in way that ICANN and the registries had never intended.

A lot has been written about how tasting was abused, so there's no point repeating it. Suffice to say that there are some very valid reasons for blocking abuse, but whether the proposed change that is on the table will negatively impact registrars or not is another question.

Hopefully the change will lead to an improved experience for end users.

As I've mentioned a few times in the past, ICANN takes a dim view of registrars who misbehave.

EstDomains cropped up in the news a few times over the last few months, as their head honcho, Vladimir Tsastsin was embroiled in a number of legal issues in Estonia.

ICANN finally sent EstDomains a notice of termination (burnette-to-tsastsin-28oct08-en.pdf )based on Tsastsin being an officer of the company (if he isn't the termination could still be voided). ICANN have also put out a request for statements of interest from other registrars to pick up the 280000 domains held by EstDomains.

A post over on CircleID questions whether other registrars would have an interest in picking up EstDomains' portfolio.
Be that as it may, genuine registrants will need to find a new home for their domains regardless of whether EstDomains find a new home for their portfolio or if ICANN does it for them.

Related articles by Zemanta

• ICANN Flips Switch on ESTDomains Registrar Accreditation
• ICANN Slaps Joker.com and DNS.com.cn
• Countdown to ICANN Cairo
• ICANN Is Not A Free Lunch
• Blacknight IPv6 - ICANN Folllwup

Over the last year ICANN has sought expressions of interest a number of times from accredited registrars to take over the domain portfolios of registrars that have lost their accreditation.

The most recent bulk transfer was of Esoftwiz's names to Name.com

While Name.com will contact former Esoftwiz clients it's always hard to know how accurate the contact information is going to be, so any Esoftwiz clients should contact Name.com to be on the safe side.