Lately I’ve seen many people searching my blog on Network Solutions. Specifically, if the domain registrar has been hacked or broken into. I wasn’t aware of any hacking or computer attacks then. So, I did a little checking. It turned out Network Solutions had another recent incident. They first posted about it in their Facebook page last April 11, 2013:     The domain registrar also wrote about that on their “Solutions Are Power” blog. To be expected, many people weren’t happy about it at all. Can’t blame them, of course. Soon after that, Network Solutions made another update:     To be fair, at least the domain registrar somehow notified everyone involved. It’s the least they could (and should) do, after all. What they said gave a clue, namely WordPress. So I looked around online. It turned out that there had been a string of computer attacks, especially targeting websites that use WordPress and Joomla. ArsTechnica has more:   Security analysts have detected an ongoing attack that uses a huge number of computers from across the Internet to commandeer servers that run the WordPress blogging application. The unknown people behind the highly distributed attack are using more than 90,000 [...]

In just a moment, I’m about to share with you a domain theft / hijacking story. It’s not like any I’ve encountered before, although others might have. By international, I mean it involves different parties in different countries. Three, to be exact. The owner originated in Country A, the domain registrar is in Country B, and the thief (or thieves as you’re about to find out) in Country C. Just by those three details alone, you can probably imagine how difficult this situation is. Especially for the owner from Country A. On the face of it, it seemed tough. Dire, even. When I first learned about the story, I was skeptical. Skeptical in the sense that it can be fixed, if ever. I dealt with a few domain theft cases before. None of them were easy to resolve. Not one. At all. What more if it involved parties who lived far apart from one another? Here’s his story on February 2012:   My name is Goran Zinic. Some of you know me as the owner of Indigitalworks.com. On February 22nd, I became a victim of huge Internet fraud, which I would like to share with you. Domain name IndigitalWorks.com and [...]

Imagine a day you visit your domain registrar’s website. It’s time to renew your domain name. After you type in your registrar’s website name on your browser and you click ENTER, what do you get? Nothing. No logo, no log-in page, nothing. Or okay, let’s say their website does show up. Everything’s (seemingly) fine. You click log-in, enter your username and password, click Submit, and… …nothing happens. You get concerned. “I can’t log into my account to renew,” you say to yourself. No problem, you can use your registrar’s password recovery options. You choose the easiest one. Only, none of them seem to work, either. And that’s in spite of making sure you’re doing everything right. “Okay”, you sigh. “I’d better call/email them.” You call their phone number. And what do you get?   “The number you are dialing cannot be reached.”   Or something like that. Still, not a good sign. You then email asking how to renew your domain name because you can’t log in. And you need to renew it fast. Days pass, and there’s no answer. Now you’re getting worried. How can you renew your domain name if you can’t log in? Then you search online for any answers. [...]

Transfer an expired domain name? Some people asked that interesting question soon after I wrote on ICANN’s upcoming Expired Registration Recovery Policy. So now you may be thinking, “Wait, transfer an expired domain name to another registrar? Is that allowed?” On the surface, one might think no. After all, any online service attached to an expired domain name stops working after some time.   Believe it or not, it actually is possible.   It’s okay if you feel like rubbing your eyes around in disbelief. I did, too, when I first learned about it. But, you read it right that it’s possible to transfer an expired domain name to another registrar. Not just possible, but doable to a point. How do I know, you ask? Well, I’ve also done it myself… …twice. Of course, that was about three to four years ago if I remember correctly. It’s been a while since I last pulled off that stunt. Normally you transfer your domain name to another registrar before it expires rather than after. So, how’s that possible? Before I explain how, I actually and strongly recommend transferring before the domain’s expiration. Preferably, do it at least one month before. You actually can start the process even a [...]

A new domain expiry policy is coming up courtesy of ICANN. Until otherwise, the upcoming Expired Registration Recovery Policy (ERRP) takes effect on August 31, 2013. In spite of best practices, many people still inadvertently let their domain names expire – to the point that they permanently lose them. The upcoming ERRP puts in writing how domain registrars will handle them moving forward. You can read the policy in its entirety here. I’ll try to accurately summarize and highlight some important points, though. Section two of ERRP deals with the domain expiry phase itself. The first part says that registrars must send at least three renewal notices: the first at least one month before expiration, the second at least one week prior, and the third at least five days after that. The above shouldn’t be a problem because many registrars do them, anyway. Some send so many notices prior, to the point of…well…pissing off some customers even. While the second part of section two states that registrars may delete domain names anytime after expiry, many of them still give as much “grace period” (up to 45 days) as they can afford. It also says that whether or not a domain [...]

Just found out that domain registrar NameCheap sets January 22, 2013 as an important day. Better mark that in your calendars. Rather than go on a long-winded explanation, it’s better to quote exactly what they said. So, here goes:   On January 22, 2013 Namecheap is having an official Move Your Domains Day. Starting just after midnight EST we are offering $3.99 transfers for com, net, org, info, and biz domains! Some limits will apply and a $0.18 ICANN fee will be added to each com and net domains.   Reason for that is this:   As you may know, Namecheap is the leading domain name registrar focused on Internet freedoms. Last year, we had a successful campaign to further this goal and donated over $60,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). This year, we’re doing it again. For each domain transferred to Namecheap on Move Your Domain Day, we will donate between $0.50 & $1.50, per domain, to EFF.   In case you just came in, someone in Reddit suggested boycotting domain registrar Go Daddy for their then-support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) bill. The bill would’ve created lots of problems for website owners. That time, NameCheap [...]

Pardon for the rather sensationalist headline. I do hope that gets your attention, though. Just bear with me for a moment. Especially if you’re not aware of this just yet, you’re about to find out why. As the headline goes, domain registrar Go Daddy is demanding one of its clients $199 due to a spam complaint. That happens when someone complains to Go Daddy of an alleged spam email coming from a domain name registered with them. I found out about this incident in the Warrior Forum. However, the situation described there is rather unique (or at least one I haven’t heard of until now). The original poster (OP) of that thread (which is linked at the bottom as a source) says that he never spams anyone, and I’m inclined to believe him. When Go Daddy forwarded to him the spam complaint, it turns out to be caused by an affiliate of that OP / client of the domain registrar. From what I gathered, the OP is in the medical device industry and periodically accepts affiliates. My guess is one of the affiliates emailed someone about the OP’s offer, that someone thought it’s spam, then reported it to Go Daddy. [...]

I normally don’t do this. However, I think this recent posting merits attention. If what’s written in that posting is correct, there’s a strong possibility that registering a domain name – or maintaining one – is going to become more difficult. That’s because law enforcement has been haggling ICANN and registrars to do something about it for the longest time. I’m going to copy and paste the article in its entirety here. I hope CircleID won’t mind, and I’ll understand their sentiments should they contact me about it. So, read on. Then maybe mark on your calendar the date mentioned at the bottom of that posting: Here goes: “Question: why has air travel become so painful? Because the threat posed by bad actors requires making everyone jump through hoops before letting them board a plane. To the point that, despite obvious requirements to ensure air safety, some are now openly questioning if the cure is not worse than the disease. Registering a domain name could be about to go the same way. Simply put, the cops that police the Internet are working on some major hoops for domain owners. The disease they are taking aim at is cybercrime. Is their [...]

I was just made aware of another case of a domain name having been stolen. This one involved a three-letter domain name, ezq.com. In domaining circles, three-letter domain names are particular targets because of their rarity. All three-character domain names – letters, numbers and combinations of both – have been registered ever since. In this instance, ezq.com belonged to a computer retailer named EZQuest Inc. and managed by a person named Ebrahim Zmehrir. The news report said that Mr. Zmehrir checked his email and got messages saying the domain name was transferring from Go Daddy to a China-based registrar. Once a domain name moves to another registrar, recovery becomes difficult if not impossible. All the more in cases of a stolen domain name moved to an overseas registrar. If a domain name is stolen, normally the first step is to contact the registrar about it right away. Unfortunately it seems Go Daddy just couldn’t get it back or compel the registrar to return the domain name. The result?   The ensuing three months have plunged Zmehrir into a legal battle and cost his small company an estimated $500,000 in lost sales. … “People keep calling and asking, ‘Are you in [...]

Recently I read someone alleging that domain registrar Go Daddy is engaging in what’s since labeled as domain front running. If you just came in, domain front running is referred to the practice of looking up someone’s domain search and registering that available domain name before s/he could. Domain front running was a big problem years ago. Many customers search and find available domain names but didn’t register them on the spot, only to find them taken a day or two after. Many customers believed the registrars they used to search those domain names were behind that event, to the point some registrars reported increased complaints over time even though (for the most part) they had nothing to do with that. Complaints grew enough that registrars finally complained and asked ICANN to do something about it, even giving some suggestions how. ICANN since addressed that domain front running issue. While I don’t know (and I personally doubt) if domain front running is completely eliminated, I’ve seen far less complaints these past few years than when they were first reported. Until now, that is. Recently that someone blogged about his experience, to the point – unsurprisingly – of accusing Go Daddy [...]