August 2009 Archives

With .cm's launch delayed yet again someone was bound to start poking fun at them (click to enlarge):

Via ChefPatrick

The .cm "go live" has been postponed.

Unfortunately this isn't the first time it's been delayed.

This time round, however, there doesn't seem to be any indication as to when the .cm registry will be in a position to actually launch.

According to COCCA, who are running the backend for .cm, the DNS servers from Cameroon's Telco, Camtel, are not reliable enough to be used!

"The Go Live of .CM set for 27th August 2009 ( 00:00:01 UTC ) has been postponed by CoCCA.

The servers under the control of Camtel require further testing. Pulling the .cm Zones from the CoCCA Registry and loading them onto the .CM TLD servers is still not reliable enough at this point for CoCCA to approve the use of our system for processing second level .CM applications.

CoCCA provides the Register System but does not provide DNS services. The administrators of the various ccTLDs that we host on our platform generally use Anycast technology and reliable third party DNS providers with whom with we have a close working relationship. This include UltraDNS, DynTLD and PCH - all of which have proven and reliable DNS networks.

The .CM DNS is managed by Camtel, - Cameroon's Telecom company ( not Netcom.cm SARL or CoCCA ). CoCCA has been working with Netcom.cm SARL who has in turn been working with the regulator in Cameroon to improve the reliability of the .CM DNS. These efforts are not sufficiently advanced for COCCA to be comfortable in assisting in bringing this product to the market for “Live” registrations."

Full details over on the COCCA site

The TRAFFIC conference will be held in the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas from January 21 to 23rd 2010.

TRAFFIC, which has been running since 2004, is one of the more popular conference series in the domain industry. 2010 will see the event being held in the US, Europe and Asia - which is a first for them.

Further details are available on the official site.

ICANN's Post-Expiry Domain Name Recovery Working Group (bit of a mouthful!) has opened a comment period.

The questions being asked are as follows:
   1.   Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names;
   2. Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough;
   3. Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations;
   4. Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that once a domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or other options to be determined);
   5. Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the Redemption Grace Period (RGP).

Full details may be found on the ICANN site.

If you have an opinion on any of the questions please let your opinion be known.

(Disclosure: I am a member of the working group)

DNS.be, the registry operator for the .be namespace, has released figures on .be usage.
According to the report, which was released earlier today, there are over 600 thousand websites using .be. In real terms this means that roughly 7 out of 10 .be domains is actively being used for websites. Of course, as the report points out, just because a .be doesn't direct to a website does not mean that is not being used for email or other services.

Some more figures:
"43% of all websites consists of just one page, while 27% have more than one page.
 - 14% of domain names direct visitors to another domain name.
 - Only 16% of domain names have no website. Which does not mean they are not being used, because you can also create your own e-mail addresses when you have a domain name.
 - On average, each homepage at a Belgian website features 13 links.
- 57% feature JavaScript, used mainly for interactive applications in a website
 - 56% have CSS, which streamlines the layout of all the pages of a website
 - 11% use Flash to display animations and web-videos
 - 27% feature keywords that indicate search engines what the website is about
"

It would be interesting to see if the single page sites were merely placeholders or parked, but the press release does not go into that much detail.

In any case, it's always interesting to see what people are actually doing with domains.
More information is available on the registry's site.

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....

AFNIC, in common with a lot of registry operators, maintains a list of members / registrars on its website. It's probably the most complete list you can find.

On Friday evening French registrar and hosting provider OVH decided to abuse the database and sent spam to a large number of the AFNIC members. The email, which used scaremongering language, was to push OVH's services on smaller AFNIC member companies.

According to AFNIC's own website's terms and conditions this abuse of the data is forbidden, as you would expect. Now the question remains whether AFNIC will take any punitive action against OVH for the abuse.

All registry operators have maintenance windows. In some cases they last a few minutes, while in others they can last a few hours.

But DK Hostmaster has to "take the biscuit".

They're shutting down all operations for a full 24 hours! While existing domains will continue to function as normal, the registry will be closed for all other operations for a full 24 hours.

Is this some new record?

Here's the email they sent out to nameserver managers:

"In connection with an upgrade of the DK Hostmaster systems, a number of
services, including the redelegation option, will shut down for 24 hours.
For further details, see below.

On 30 August 2009, users of the DK Hostmaster website will benefit from an
improved self-service facility. Our website will have a new, user-friendly
design to match the upgraded self-service facility. At the same time, we
will be implementing a new ERP system with new functionality and a new
invoice layout. These initiatives will enable us to introduce new system
functionality to meet user requirements in the future.

Due to the upgrade, it will not be possible to use our systems from
Saturday, 29 August 2009 at 6 am to Sunday, 30 August 2009 at 6 am. The
facilities affected include:

.    Self-service
.    Payments
.    Waiting list
.    Redelegation of .dk domain names

It will still be possible to apply for new .dk domain names. The
applications will be received, time-stamped and given a track number as
usual, but no domain names will be created during this period. The name
service will not be affected, but changes to the DK zone will NOT be
processed."

For a country as advanced as Denmark to have a registry operator like this is truly amazing.
Unfortunately Afilias' bid to takeover the management of the DK registry failed, leaving the incumbent in place.

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

The DotFM registry is migrating to EPP at the end of the month.

DotFM, which is managed by BRSMedia who are also pitching for .radio, has chosen COCCA's Espresso platform which offers full EPP, ipv6 and DNSSEC.

The DotAM will follow suit at some point in the future, though they have not announced a firm date for its migration.

Further information is available on the dotFM registry site

The new TLD process is occupying a lot of people in the domain name industry at present.

While some people are obviously very much against the entire concept of new TLDs, there are plenty of people and organisations who support the project.

But what happens when you have more than one organisation vying for the same namespace?

While the ICANN new TLD application process itself has its own way of dealing with competing bids there's nothing to stop the interested parties in "duking it out" in public.

Seemingly the competition between two rival bids for .eco (doteco) has been getting more than a little dirty in the past few weeks.

Earlier this evening Dot Eco LLC, which is backed by Al Gore, the Sierra Club, the Alliance for Climate Protection and Surfrider Foundation, issued what they called an "open examination" of the competing bids. Anyone reading it would be excused for seeing it as a gauntlet being thrown by Dot Eco LLC in the face of Big Room's competing bid - and its partner Afilias.

The document, which runs to 17 pages, makes for interesting reading and examines the credentials of both bids, while also questioning the viability and chances of success of the rival bid.

For example, the economic analysis draws on the financials of PIR, which runs .org. PIR uses Afilias to run their backend, so it would not be unreasonable to assume that any arrangements Afilias has made with that registry would be emulated with others.

Of course this is a theory - not fact, but it is one that has been logically argued and demonstrated using data based on existing TLDs.

Having said that, Dot Eco LLC have been very open about the costs they will face from their chosen backend provider - Minds and Machines.

Minds and Machines have, in turn, also made a public commitment to "going green" and will also be incentivising their registrar partners to adopt "green" policies.

Have Afilias done anything similar?

While the public catfight between the two competing bids may be interesting to watch as it plays out it does, from an observer's perspective, raise a couple of interesting issues.

Presuming that other strings are going to be as attractive as .eco is for the two rivals mentioned (and without even mentioning the potential bid for .green),  can expect to see a certain degree of this sort of mudslinging between future rival bids?

If some of the new TLD bids are going to have "agendas" attached to them, will they be viable or will we end up with a bunch of tiny namespaces that nobody uses or really cares about?

While it is clear that not all TLD projects are motivated purely by economics a lot of them will have taken on outside investors. If the investors do not get some form of return, will they walk away?

In many respects this kind of public catfight could act as just the first sign of worse to come.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Rival Green Groups Bid To Snatch .eco Domain (news.slashdot.org)
• Rivals bid to snatch green domain (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Al Gore Vs Mikhail Gorbachev? The Latest on the .eco Domain Battle (treehugger.com)
• .Eco: The Domain Extension for Treehuggers (mashable.com)
• Groups battle to rule dot-eco registry (thestar.com)
• Al Gore and Mikhail Gorbachev battle over green domain name (telegraph.co.uk)
• Bits: Do We Need .More .Top .Level .Domains? (bits.blogs.nytimes.com)
• ICANN't Believe It's .butter (marketingpilgrim.com)

Blacknight, which I founded, has launched a new site to help end users get to grips with the "new domains" ie. the new TLD project.

If anyone has any feedback or would like to assist please let us know:
marketing [at] blacknight.com

ICANN has announced that three more registrars have lost their accreditation due to non-compliance with the RAA.

The three registrars have been informed that their agreements with ICANN will not be renewed.

South American Domains (NameFrog), Simply Named and Tahoe Domains have been sent letters by ICANN outlining the decision and the reasons for it.

So what now?

On the plus side, as ICANN's compliance team is becoming more active in pursuing non-compliant registrars the processes for handling the domains held by de-accredited registrars is becoming more finely tuned.

Expect to see an announcement very shortly asking for other registrars to takeover the various portfolios, though this time round they are incredibly small.

According to the latest figures I was able to access the breakdown would be as follows:

• Namefrog appears to have less than 300 gTLD domains
• Simply Named about the same number
• Tahoe less than 250

So why did they lose their accreditations?

• Namefrog did not have a whois server
• Simply Named wasn't escrowing registrant data and hadn't paid their ICANN fees
• Tahoe no data escrow and owed fees to ICANN
  

In related news, Lead Networks are now seeking arbitration!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Lead Networks Lose ICANN Accreditation (isquattedyour.eu)
• Tucows Takes Over Parava's Domains (isquattedyour.eu)

Trademark holders do funny things with domains.

Bebo.ie, which was registered in bad faith, was handed back to its rightful owners last year.

However Bebo Inc obviously don't care enough about the .ie domain to hold onto it, so it's been dropped.

So will anyone try to grab it again?

It will be interesting to see if someone else makes a play for it. With the number of active Irish users on Bebo the domain would probably generate quite a bit of type in traffic.

Nominet, which runs the *.uk namespace, has been maintaining several mailing lists for its members for years. Starting in September the mailing lists will be replaced with a forum, which will have an email function.

According to the announcement members may opt to continue using email to interact with it, or use the web based forum.

Personally I'm not overly impressed with this move, as I find mailing lists are a lot easier to follow and interact with.

How the email to web interface will work in reality remains to be seen.