Domains & DNS: January 2006 Archives
The Swiss domain registry has announced that it will be dropping its pricing on new registrations from March 1 2006:
SWITCH, the registry for domain names ending in.ch and .li, is discontinuing the registration fee of CHF 40 as of 1 March 2006. The annual fee of CHF 35 will remain unchanged. This price reduction has been made possible through the continuing growth in the number of domain names and the introduction of the new registration application on 1 October 2005, which will reduce the extra outlay involved in registrations. "We naturally wish to pass these cost savings on to our customers", explains Urs Eppenberger, new Head of "Internet Domains" at SWITCH. For domain names that are registered up to and including 28 February 2006, SWITCH will charge the registration fee of CHF 40 that has been applicable to date.Full story here via
I've added a few more blogs to planet. If you know of any blogs that carry relevant content please let me know
Anthony mentions a new blog focussing on the ccTLD aftermarket in domain names.
No mention of IE namespace as yet though :)
We've just added asp.net 2.0 support to our windows 2003 hosting plans
Continue reading Free Asp.net 2.0 Hosting with Free Domain!.
Anthony Van Couvering posts an interesting article examining the DomainsBot study on the parts of speech found in 4304 domains sold on Afternic.
Continue reading Applying Linguistics to Domains.
An industry colleague pointed out a rather intriguing thread on boards.ie to me where one of our competitors service and pricing is criticised.
When the competitor in question replied with the following I nearly fell of my chair:
The Irish Domain Registry has made some changes to its price structure earlier this month in response to public pressure from our company. We will shortly be passing on these benefits.I'm sorry, but which company did you say you were again? I've already gone into IE domain pricing more than once, but if you haven't read them my previous pieces are here, here and here (you'll find more in the archives) And don't forget.. With Blacknight our pricing is real and transparent unlike with other companies .....
Bret Fausett posts a very enlightening and scary tale about a domain suspension caused by phishers abusing a host which led to the suspension of their domain (including their nameservers)
Continue reading Phishing Side-effects.
The consultation period for the Electronic Communications Miscellaneous Provisions Bill (MS Word Doc) is currently open.
One of the areas that the bill mentions is the IE domain registry:
Head 12 - Regulation of the Internet .ie Domain Name by ComReg 12.1 ComReg may by Regulation provide for: • the transfer of powers, in relation to the regulation of the .ie domain name, vested in the Minister to ComReg • access by ComReg to the .ie domain name database on an ongoing basis • the creation of an offence, where the operator of the Internet .ie domain name, fails to comply with regulations introduced by ComReg. • Provide for increase of summary fine under subsection (3) of Section 31 of the above Act to €5,000. Notes 12.1 Section 31 of the Electronic Commerce Act, 2000 provides powers to the Minister to make regulations in respect of the management of the .ie domain name. To date the Minister has not made any such regulations. The purpose of this Section is to transfer the Minister’s powers to ComReg and for the creation of an offence where the operator of the .ie domain name fails to comply with regulations introduced by ComReg. The Section also intends to provide ComReg with access to the .ie domain database to ensure that the list of registered users is at all times kept up to date and functioning on the Internet.If the IEDR were to introduce a proper registrar / registry system then they could pass a lot of this burden onto the current resellers. In some regards this could be a good opportunity for the IEDR to some maintenance of their contacts' database. In other respects some industry commentators see it as an opportunity for people to attack the IEDR. Why is it that the IE namespace has so many issues? Is it the registry's fault or the fault of some of the hypocrites reselling the domains? As of January 1st 2006 both the retail and wholesale cost of IE domain registration was cut. Why hasn't the "champion" of the IE namespace pricing cut their prices? I think we all know the answer to that one .....
In a perfect world everybody would have their own domain name and hosting account (with us of course :) ), but the reality is that for many people free email services like the one provided by Microsoft's Hotmail service are here to stay.
Continue reading Improve Email Delivery Rate To Hotmail.
Last year GoDaddy ran a "risque" advert during the Super Bowl. I put risque in inverted commas, as by European standards it would hardly have qualified as such. It may be mildly sexist, but it would hardly upset a European audience.
Continue reading Risque Advertising - GoDaddy and the Super Bowl.
