L’environnement de production des noms de domaine .com et .net sera en maintenance chez Verisign le dimanche 27 juillet 2008.

Date: dimanche 27 juillet 2008
Heures: 01h00 à 01h45
Durée: 45 Minutes
Objet: Maintenance

The Com/Net Production environment will be taken offline on Sunday, July 27, 2008 UTC (Saturday, July 26, 2008 EDT) for a scheduled maintenance.

Date: Sunday, July 27, 2008 UTC (Saturday, July 26, 2008 EDT)
Time: 0100 hrs - 0145 hrs UTC (2100 hrs - 2145 hrs EDT)
Duration: 45 Minutes
Purpose: Routine Maintenance

L’environnement de production des .com/.net sera en maintenance le dimanche 28 septembre 2008.

Date: dimanche 28 septembre 2008
Heures: de 00h00 à 04h00
Durée: 4 heures
Objet: Hardware Upgrades

The Com/Net Production environment will be taken offline on Sunday, September 28, 2008 UTC (Saturday, September 27, 2008 EDT) for a scheduled maintenance.

Date: Sunday, September 28, 2008 UTC (Saturday, September 27, 2008 EDT)
Time: 0000 hrs - 0400 hrs UTC (2000 hrs - 0000 hrs EDT)
Duration: 4 hours
Purpose: Hardware Upgrades

L’environnement de production des .net et .com sera en maintenance le dimanche 29 juin 2008.

Date: dimanche 29 juin 2008
Heures: de 01h00 à 01h45
Durée: 45 Minutes
Objet: Maintenance

The Com/Net Production environment will be taken offline on Sunday, June 29, 2008 UTC (Saturday, June 28, 2008 EDT) for a scheduled maintenance.

Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008 UTC (Saturday, June 28, 2008 EDT)
Time: 0100 hrs - 0145 hrs UTC (2100 hrs - 2145 hrs EDT)
Duration: 45 Minutes
Purpose: Routine Maintenance

UPDATE: INSTANT DOMAIN SEARCH IS NOT MOST LIKELY NOT STEALING YOUR IDEAS PERSONALLY. THE NAME RESEARCH IS BEING COMPROMISED SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY. THE FOLLOWING SCENARIO MAY HAPPEN THROUGH ANY DOMAIN RESEARCH TOOL. BE CAREFUL

I am working with a few associates on project for a client who is starting a new website. Part of the project is to brand the company which includes naming the company and acquiring a domain name. I have been using Instant Domain Search for while now as it is a quick and easy way to find available names. My associate has been using what looks to be a GoDaddy affiliate/clone that she calls Name Intelligence.

We came up with a list of names(that contained some keywords of course) and my associate checked quite a few on Monday to see if they were available. I checked through almost all the names and then some on Tuesday. We went back to purchase a few and found that most of the names we had searched for had been bought up by the same company on Wednesday(damn it). This was too weird to be a coincidence so I did a bit of research.

Here is the company that bought the domains:
Organization: Maltuzi LLC
Email: admin@maltuzi.com
Address: 800 West El Camino Real Suite 180 Mountain View, CA, 94040
Phone: 1.6508146730

According to IPWalk, Maltuzzi LLC owns 1,768,141 domains (WOW) as of Jan 21,2007.

I found a thread on Webmaster World that discusses the same thing happening to some other folks by Maltuzi.

So as you can see these Maltuzi guys are a bunch of bastards. However I must ask, why in the hell did they want these domains? I can’t tell you the names we were thinking of, but really they weren’t gonna be the next Amazon or anything.

How Did Maltuzi Hijack my domain name research?

While I am still not sure which of the above querying services contributed to my research being comprised, I did find some information in an article by Larry Seltzer in eWeek titled Who is Hijacking my Domain Name Research. Larry does a great job of explaining the possibilities of how this name research may have been compromised. In Larry’s case it was a company name Chesteron Holdings buying up the domains after they had been searched for using CNets domain research tool.

Here is what’s possible, based on what I know:

CNet, or someone at CNet, could be passing the requests on to Chesterton. I don’t believe this for a second.
• One of the hosting services that CNet is checking with (and there could be more than they indicate) could be passing data on to Chesterton. This seems unlikely to me.
• Chesterton could have compromised one of the servers involved in the process, for instance the whois server used by one of the hosting services. This seems possible to me. There are a number of other hacking techniques, DNS cache poisoning for example, that could indirectly give Chesterton access to data from these queries.
• Verisign could be passing the data on to Chesterton. I don’t believe this, either.

How can these companies afford all these domain names?

Larry has another article about Domain Tasting which explains how these companies can afford to buy all these domain names. The short explanation is there is a 5 day grace period on domain name registration so the companies buy a domain, throw up some ads, and taste to see if the site makes any money. If no ads were click during the tasting period the domains are released and a refund is given. If the domains show potential, they are kept.

So who can you trust for domain name research. I am not sure at this point. I am hoping that a command line whois query is still safe but I am really not sure. I think you just have to have a list ready to go and if a name on your list is available, make the purchase right away.

I can only hope that my names will be freed in 5 days. I’ll post back with in update. In the meantime, be careful when you are searching for an available domain to buy!

Source Mike, The Internet Guy

It has happened to most of us:

• A perfect domain name pops into your mind.
• A quick check at your favorite domain registrar reveals that the domain is still available.
• For some reason, you put off the actual registration for a few days.
• And when you come back to finally register the domain, it’s taken by someone else!

In many cases, this is simply a coincidence. But there are increasing reports of domain search data being sold to domain tasting companies which then register your domain ideas to see if they attract any traffic.

No traffic? No problem. The domain taster simply drops the domain after five days. But if the domain proves popular, the taster will keep it and monetize its traffic through PPC (pay per click) ads.

Bob Parsons of GoDaddy.com was one of the first to raise hell about domain tasting. He focused on what he calls “domain kiting” - repeatedly registering a domain and dropping it right before the end of Verisign’s 5 days refund period, only to reregister it shortly thereafter. This strategy ensures that the domain taster never actually pays for the domain, even though his payment is “on deposit” with Verisign and therefore tied up permanently.

GoDaddy and its associated companies do not engage in domain tasting, according to Parsons. Not that they would have to: GoDaddy already earns millions of dollars in PPC revenue off their client’s newly registered and/or unused domains.

While the Daily Domainer considers random domain tasting to be a legitimate business, we believe that leeching off the domain searches of others (who expect their domain ideas to remain private) differs by several orders of ethical magnitude. Recent mainstream press reports about domain tasting in general are bad enough already.

For example, last night an Associated Press article made the rounds (read the full version here) and the arguments are predictable: Domain tasting is defended by those who are engaged in it and attacked by those who either missed the boat or consider themselves too “above-board” to take advantage of the opportunity.

Until recently, prospective domain tasters had to set up their own domain registrar to get started. But even individual domainers can now use registrars such as Dynadot or Moniker to register domains and give them back within 4 to 5 days at no charge (Dynadot). This is very helpful if you’re eying several domains and are undecided which ones to use.

So what can domain owners learn from this?

• Delay searching for available domains until you’re actually prepared to follow through with the registration. Better still, search for and register new domain ideas immediately whenever inspiration strikes you.
• If one of your domain searches is registered by a domain taster shortly after you checked availability of the domain, and you still want the domain, wait five days and it might become available again. Do not visit the domain during these five days, otherwise the domain taster will believe that the domain gets enough traffic to warrant adding it to his permanent portfolio!
• If you’re thinking of several domains for a project and are undecided which one to use, register all of your domain ideas immediately. If you use a registrar like Moniker or Dynadot, you’ll have 4-5 days to decide if you actually want to keep a domain once you have registered it. This practically eliminates the danger of impulse registrations that you might regret later.

Finally, if after reading this post and despite all our warnings you are thinking about joining the “dark side” of domain leeches and spies, here’s how you could go about it.

1. Set up your own domain search tool or approach registrars that will sell you their search data (not GoDaddy of course, they are too ethical to even consider doing something like that! ).
2. Once you have gained access to the domain search data, analyze it and register promising domains to test them for traffic. The faster you do this, the better.
3. Keep domains that earn at least 5% to 10% of their annual registration fee during the first five days. Drop all others.

And last not least: Be prepared for a massive backlash from disappointed end users who will publicly accuse you of having “stolen” their domain!

“La société américaine Verisign vient d’ annoncer une augmentation sensible des tarifs annuels de gros pour l’enregistrement des noms de domaines avec extensions .com ou .net. Les premiers passeront ainsi de 6 à 6,42 dollars (+ 7 %), les seconds de 3,5 à 3,85 dollars (+ 10 %). Cette nouvelle grille tarifaire s’appliquera à partir du 15 octobre prochain.

Un joli pactole

C’est la première fois depuis 1999, selon Verisign, qu’une hausse des prix est appliquée sur ces deux extensions, qui sont de loin les plus utilisées sur la planète. Sur l’ensemble des plus de 87 millions de noms de domaines dans le monde, 65 millions se terminent par .com et 9 millions par .net. Un rapide calcul montre que Verisign, qui détient depuis plusieurs années le monopole pour la gestion de ces deux ‘ particules ‘, va ainsi générer des revenus supplémentaires de l’ordre 30 millions de dollars par an. Ce qui n’est pas rien.

En réalité, cette hausse était attendue. En mars 2006, Verisign a pu reconduire, auprès de l’organisme américain Icann, son contrat exclusif pour la gestion des noms de domaines. Ce nouvel accord lui donne le droit d’augmenter ses tarifs de
7 % par an, voire plus si les coûts le justifient. C’est d’ailleurs la raison invoquée par Verisign. Pour absorber l’augmentation considérable des noms de domaines et des attaques en déni de service, la société compte muscler son infrastructure .

Les bureaux d’enregistrement, qui revendent aux entreprises ou aux particuliers les noms de domaines achetés auprès de Verisign, ne savent pas encore à quelle hauteur ils vont répercuter cette hausse auprès de leurs clients. ‘ L’augmentation est, certes, importante, mais ce n’est pas la seule variable. Le taux de change euro/dollar est au moins aussi important, tout comme la croissance du marché. Il faudra analyser en détail ce que cela va donner ‘, explique Dominique Morvan, directeur général de Namebay. Une baisse du dollar et une croissance forte du marché pourraient donc absorber tout ou partie de cette augmentation.

Les discounters en première ligne

Le scénario le plus probable reste néanmoins une augmentation générale des tarifs. Dans ce cas, l’impact sera surtout gênant pour les fournisseurs qui vendent les noms de domaines à un prix proche du prix coûtant. ‘ Les discounters subiront l’impact en premier, car ils n’ont pas de marge de manoeuvre. Ils seront obligés de répercuter l’augmentation tarifaire ‘, explique Stéphane Vangelder, directeur général d’Indom.

Cette répercussion se fera en priorité auprès des particuliers et des TPE, principale clientèle des discounters. Les PME et les grands comptes n’auront pas, à priori, de soucis à se faire. Leur gestion des noms de domaines est généralement diluée dans des offres globales d’hébergement, dont les prix ne devraient pas varier. ‘ Nous ne comptons pas répercuter cette hausse sur nos clients et allons conserver la même tarification pour nos packages, précise ainsi Eric Sansonny, directeur commercial et marketing d’Amen. Nous préférons rogner sur notre marge opérationnelle. ‘

Ce comportement altruiste pourrait changer rapidement, si Verisign décide d’augmenter ses prix aussi l’année prochaine. A suivre.”

Source : 01Net

Une maintenance de l’environnement de production de NameStore sera effectuée le vendredi 30 mars 2007 UTC.

Date : vendredi 30 mars 2007
Temps : de 1h00 à 3h30

Durée : 2 heures, 30 minutes

But : Entretien courant