Work :: Lavoro ::: April 2005 Archives

2005 could signal a major turnaround for the Irish Domain Registry (IEDR). In a press release issued on 26th April the registry reported a profit for 2004 of €880,000, compared with a loss of €1.2 million in 2002. The improved finances are attributed to a combination of cost-cutting measures coupled with a 32% increase in new registrations. Over the past two years the price of IE domains has been dropped by 20%, which may have contributed in part to the growth in registrations. The increased level of automation combined with more frequent zone rebuilds has also led to faster registrations. This news follows a number of significant changes to IEDR procedures in recent weeks. At the beginning of April a list of deleted domains was made public for the first time . The list, which is divided in two sections, lists a selection of both generic and three letter domains. Although it was possible to find available domains using standard whois queries no “drop list” had ever been made publicly available. Some sources speculate that this may trigger a new “after market” in previously owned domains. Another important change is that in relation to transfer policy. Previously a transfer did not extend the domain automatically by one year and, as the expiry date was not public knowledge, there was a perceived lack of transparency. Under the new policy all transfers will automatically extend the registration by 12 months, thus bringing it into line with the policy used by .com and other registries: "Renewal payments will advance the .IE domain renewal date by one year. Each time the domain Billing Contact is transferred one extra year is added to the life of the domain" In order for this to work the expiry date of domains has been made public, although they are still not visible via whois. The dates, in American format, may be viewed by running a query at: http://www.iedr.ie/dns-search.php Hopefully this will be rectified in the not too distant future, although the whois data format may still not be sufficiently verbose to satisfy some, as it unlikely that it will comply with RFC1032, due to restrictions supposedly imposed by Irish data privacy legislation. Other areas of the IEDR site have also been changed. The reseller list is now split into two sections with resellers handling more than 500 domains listed separately. There is also a section of the site containing information specific to charity domain registrations. Does all this signal a new era for the IEDR? Since David Curtin took the helm the company has changed significantly and has embraced change, although they have been haunted by the legacy of the previous management team headed by Michael Fagan. Mr Fagan finally resigned amid some legal controversy in November 2003 after being suspended on full salary in October 2002.

There is no such thing as a tooth fairy and there is definitely no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. Strangely, or not so strangely, there are still companies promoting hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth to Irish punters. To oversell is one thing, but unlimited bandwidth is more than just a mere marketing ploy - it's a dangerous myth. I wish someone would tell Switch Media, or their clients.

Sligo based Infacta have released version 5 of Group Mail. Full details are available on their site

The IEDR have released a list of some of their deleted domains to the public. The list, which can be seen here, is broken into two sections:

• General domains (aka generic)
• 3 letter

Although the list only includes a selection of the 8500 odd domains that have been deleted in the last 2 years, it is still a very interesting resource for anybody interested in the domain name business. It will be interesting to see how long it takes people to "snap up" some of the more "useful" ones. Sources close to the registry have indicated, however, that they will be paying particular attention to the documentary requirements for any of these registrations.

Somebody posted a link to a very good article that explains the concept of overselling in a clear and balanced way. It's definitely worth reading if you are getting tired of reading marketing junk from hosts claiming NOT to oversell. Of course they do, they just don't like admitting to it. Even if they think they aren't they are still part of an oversold chain. Read the article for yourself: Overselling Hosting

Whilst "playing" with the latest beta of Infacta's Group Mail last night I discovered that they had added ipv6 support. Very impressive! There are some very nice new features in the betas that I have seen (and used), including full integration with Outlook and the Group Metrics service.

I had to giggle today when I read one of our "competitors" blurb in the Tribune. They claim to offer cheap hosting, but they really should do some proper market research before making the kind of claims that they did. ".... €6.49 per month and your .com will cost €1 a month" So that means the hosting would be close to €80 per year and another €12 per year for the domain. Unless my maths are bad, that makes €92 ex-VAT. We do it for less, as do other providers... Yet they claim "What set-up costs come cheaper than this?" Do I have to answer that? They also make a very interesting claim that they will "have your existing site at the top of the google". What's that mean? It's a totally meaningless statement.