Alternative registration experiences?
Jim Kingdon
> are open for business; has anyone had positive or negative experiences
> with any of them yet?
Oh, I vaguely recall hearing good things about register.com. But this
wasn't firsthand or even secondhand.
> The only major gripes I have with Network Solutions are the way they've
> dumbed down the whole process
Well, the old system was moderately bad in terms of getting status
about what was going on (they once sent me a refund check out of the
blue - I never did figure out what for, after making several phone
calls and eventually giving up).
Of course, <cynicism>I have plenty of faith in their ability to
combine the bad parts of the old system with dumbing down, broken web
forms, and other advanced technology</cynicism>.
Matt McLeod
that Jim Kingdon did write:
>> It appears that the long-heralded alternative registrars in com/net/org
>> are open for business; has anyone had positive or negative experiences
>> with any of them yet?
>
>Oh, I vaguely recall hearing good things about register.com. But this
>wasn't firsthand or even secondhand.
I haven't paid[0] for a registration with INA, but they're *probably*
better than Network Solutions. .au ISPs love to hate them (particularly
for their rather inconsistent application of their "no generic names"
rule in .com.au), but they do at least have rather a lot of experience
in the field -- they're owned by the University of Melbourne, who
used to pretty much run DNS in .au.
This isn't a recommendation as such. Even if I'd have really good
experiences with INA I couldn't do that -- I work for said University,
at least in theory.
Matt
[0] although I do have three .com domains in my name through them --
freebies for Melbourne IT employees when the new system was set up.
--
"I prefer rogues to imbeciles, because they sometimes take a rest."
-- Alexandre Dumas (fils)
omnimpotence
Jim Kingdon <kin...@panix.com> wrote:
>> It appears that the long-heralded alternative registrars in com/net/org
>> are open for business; has anyone had positive or negative experiences
>> with any of them yet?
>Oh, I vaguely recall hearing good things about register.com. But this
>wasn't firsthand or even secondhand.
I have not. It seems that their agreement is even worse than NetSol's
(something to the tune of "We own your domain name outright, you have
no rights, neener neener.")
>> The only major gripes I have with Network Solutions are the way they've
>> dumbed down the whole process
That's the least of the problem. They're thoroughly incompetent, slow
as hell, their dispute policy sucks, and they've managed to re-up the
contract with the US gubmint again.
Switching your domain to a different registry might be too much of a
pain to make it worth while, but i would definitely suggest finding
another registry if you want to get a new domain. I forget what the
URL is that lists all domain registries, but i have it at work.
rone
--
Some philosopher realized that the way to make philosophy into a lucrative
profession was to add the word "Internet" to it -- but made the description
too turgid to be marketable. I'm not surprised.
- John F. Woods <j...@jfwhome.funhouse.com>
Richard J. Sexton
The only registrar with a Carl Oppedahl approved dispute
policy is namesecure.com. Worth a try.
Register.com seems to be especially sleezy. One guy I know claims
to have proof they monitor whois then register good names for themselevs.
I know that when I was working with NSI on the SRS register
pushed real hard to be first out of the box and they were
less ready than other registrars - you couldnt change nameserves
with one of their domains for about 3 weeks after they
launched.
For al the bitching about NSI I've never had a problem. I email
off a template and it comes back in a couple of hours telling
you the domain will work after the next named restart. For changes,
if they havn't gone thouhg fast enough I call Chuck Gomes who
tells Duane Stone to take this ticket number (the important part)
and process it, and he does.
The email interface is going to go away soon though and nobody
is supporting that - a casualty to CORE's whining about pay up
front.
--
Richard Sexton | ric...@tangled.web | http://dns.vrx.net/tech/rootzone
http://killifish.vrx.net http://www.mbz.org http://lists.aquaria.net
Bannockburn, Ontario, Canada, 70 & 72 280SE, 83 300SD +1 (613) 473-1719
Jim Kingdon
> policy is namesecure.com. Worth a try.
Cool, that's http://www.namesecure.com/services/dispute_policy.cfm and
the policy is basically "we play no role in domain name disputes".
Which, if you've been following this stuff, is the preferred policy of
the EFF and the other most lucent commentators in one of the recent
rounds of ICANN public comments.
Don't know anything about the rest of namesecure.com but that part
does look good.
> For al the bitching about NSI I've never had a problem. . . .
> For changes, if they havn't gone thouhg fast enough I call Chuck Gomes
> who tells Duane Stone
:-). Helps to know which names to drop....
> The email interface is going to go away soon though and nobody
> is supporting that - a casualty to CORE's whining about pay up
> front.
Well, the problems with "the best names are taken" and name disputes
do get worse if people can register a bunch of names without paying.
So I support trying to get pay up front one way or another.
I never was a _big_ fan of the email interface (despite having used it
a number of times, I always seemed to have to think harder than I
thought I should need to, in order to fill out the forms) but if the
web forms that replace it are all broken in one way or another (which
strikes me as a good guess :-(), I can see a legitimate problem here.
Jim Kingdon
Those are registrars for the NSI registry (that is, entities which can
register you in .com, .net, and .org).
Rone was (if I understood him correctly) talking about registries
(.TO, .NU, &c) - one list is http://www.iana.org/cctld.html although
there may be others.
Richard J. Sexton
Anthony DeBoer <a...@news.onramp.ca> wrote:
>omnimpotence <^#*&$@ennui.org> wrote:
>> ... I forget what the
>>URL is that lists all domain registries, but i have it at work.
>
>
> http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html
>
>which looks to be the canonical list to me, but ICBW.
>
And for you cheap bastards:
Reseller contract terms are here:
http://www.opensrs.com/OpenSRSDRAv1.0.1.txt
------------------------------------------------------
TUCOWS Launches Open Shared Registry System
for Domain Name Registration
Move Offers ISP's Wholesale Registrations For $13 Per Year
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 26, 1999-- TUCOWS (www.tucows.com) has
revolutionized the wholesale domain name registration market with
today's launch of
OpenSRS (Open Shared Registration System at www.opensrs.com).
Internet Service Providers, web hosting firms and value added resellers
can use OpenSRS to register domain names for their
customers for just $13 per registration a year with a further discount
for TUCOWS affiliates. OpenSRS is a combined
software and service offering that enables .com, .net and .org domain
name registrations at a fraction of the cost currently
charged by the incumbent, Network Solutions Inc. and all new
competitors.
TUCOWS is once again pleased to play a significant part in the evolving
world of Internet Commerce and software services
development,`` said Ross W. Rader, Director of eCommerce for TUCOWS.com.
''Offering ISPs a means to provide an
inexpensive domain name registration service to their end users is
something that no other registrar has been willing to do. Not
only have we addressed this need, but we have given OpenSRS participants
the opportunity to leverage standards-based,
open source tools to gain access to pricing previously reserved for a
select few, high-volume registration firms.``
The OpenSRS client software has been released under the GNU Public
License which is the most popular open source license
in use today. This liberal licensing arrangement allows companies to
customize and modify the client software to ensure that it
works within their environment, an opportunity not available with
typical ``closed-source'' software.
``OpenSRS.com allows us to offer a quality service at a much more
competitive price,'' said Paul Engels, Vice President of
Marketing, I.D. Internet Direct Ltd. ``As Canada's largest independent
ISP, we register thousands of domain names. Being
able to save our customers more than 50 percent on their annual
registration costs is a win-win solution for everyone.''
``Onvia is excited to be working with TUCOWS. Based upon our initial
meetings, we are looking forward to building a great
partnership. Domain registration is a very important service offering to
our small biz members,'' says Jeff Chemeres, Director of
Business Development, Services at Onvia.com.
OpenSRS is broken down into two major components operated by TUCOWS: an
open-source client front end and a server
back-end. The net result of the process of transactions between OpenSRS
and NSI is that a customer can now register a
domain name with their local Internet Service Provider or web-hosting
company in real-time, with prices that are finally
competitive.
In order to provide quality customer support service, TUCOWS has
established a 24 hour customer service center for
OpenSRS.com, enhanced with email, pager and a emergency toll-free
number.
About TUCOWS.com Inc.
With offices in New York City; Flint, Michigan; and Toronto, Canada,
TUCOWS.com (The Ultimate Collection of Winsock
Software) is one of the largest Internet distribution sites featuring
Windows®, Macintosh®, Linux® and PDA software.
TUCOWS.com was founded in 1994 as a public service to new Internet
users. Today the privately owned and operated
company offers an array of electronic downloaded software programs that
can be accessed at over 600 affiliates in over 75
countries world-wide. The site serves more than 80 million pages per
month making TUCOWS.com one of the busiest sites on
the Internet.
Jim Kingdon
Hey, this looks cool. Here's what caught my eye:
* TUCOWS has at least a modicum of credibility in my eyes. They
maintain download sites and such.
* Open protocol (published on the web site with open source client
software), as compared with the absurd proprietary protocol of NSI.
And the background:
* This is wholesale, not retail. I didn't see a cover charge or
minimum but I wouldn't be surprised if they add a nominal one in the
future. Payment is by wire transfer and a credit check is required.
* http://www.domaindirect.com/ is the existing TUCOWS domain name
site. They are listed as registrars both at www.corenic.org and
www.icann.org. Site seems mildly broken (in the sense that it
overuses javascript) but no more than usual :-(.
omnimpotence
Actually, i meant the former. I must work harder to be understood...