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Grex > Coop12 > #143: Should Grex change registrars for its domain names? | |
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| Author |
Message |
aruba
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Should Grex change registrars for its domain names?
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Nov 7 20:33 UTC 2002 |
cyberspace.org is up for renewal on 1/14/2003, and grex.org on 2/27/2003.
VeriSign wants $35 each to renew them for one year, or $75 each to renew
them for 3 years. Should we go ahead and renew with VeriSign, or try to
change registrars?
I'd particularly like to hear from anyone who has moved a domain name from
one registrar to another about how much trouble and risk is involved.
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| 59 responses total. |
polytarp
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response 1 of 59:
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Nov 7 22:09 UTC 2002 |
Who cares what you think? I think that's very rude.
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gull
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response 2 of 59:
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Nov 7 23:33 UTC 2002 |
I've heard Verisign makes it very hard to transfer domains to other
registrars.
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other
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response 3 of 59:
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Nov 7 23:39 UTC 2002 |
I think direct experience would be more useful here than what we've heard
from other people, but if we do reference such third-party experience,
please be specific about the nature of the problems encountered.
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gull
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response 4 of 59:
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Nov 8 00:35 UTC 2002 |
What I heard is that they don't allow it. That may not be true, it's just
what someone who has a domain hosted by them told me.
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russ
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response 5 of 59:
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Nov 8 05:00 UTC 2002 |
Kudos to aruba for thinking this far ahead!
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i
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response 6 of 59:
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Nov 8 12:10 UTC 2002 |
We deal with lots of this at work. Verisign is generally sleazy, very
difficult to deal with, and expensive. We should move quickly if we
want to transfer - one of Verisign's tricks is to "invoice" the renewal
many weeks before the domain name expires, then require that one pay
the invoice before they'll allow a transfer.
If you know what you're doing on the technical side (DNS mostly) and
don't pick a worse registrar to move to (no name comes to mind), i don't
think there's substantial risk in trying to transfer. A quick peek at
'whois' doesn't suggest any special problem, but don't be surprised at
a lot of hold music, run-around, and wasted time from Verisign.
(Example Verisign trick - after a couple weeks of run-around with "can't
find" the fax you sent to the fax number LISTED ON THEIR WEB SITE, they
admit that they've never heard of that fax number, and give you a new
number to fax your paperwork to.)
I'd favor transferring on moral grounds alone, but i don't want to
nominate aruba for what MAY be many hour of hassles.
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gelinas
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response 7 of 59:
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Nov 8 13:57 UTC 2002 |
I agree with Walter's last paragraph.
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gelinas
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response 8 of 59:
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Nov 8 13:58 UTC 2002 |
I should have read more carefully, though: substitute "WILL" for "MAY" in
the last line.
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krj
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response 9 of 59:
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Nov 8 14:47 UTC 2002 |
What would be the maximum benefit to Grex of making a registrar switch?
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aruba
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response 10 of 59:
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Nov 8 15:42 UTC 2002 |
Well, we received a solicitation from Domain Registry of America which
offers us 5 years for $85 - that would save us $30 over VeriSign. I
received another solicitation for a domain name I manage from register.com
offering one year for $14.95.
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ea
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response 11 of 59:
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Nov 8 17:00 UTC 2002 |
The domain registrar I use is 10-domains.com. I haven't had any
problems with them. I transferred a domain from Verisign to 10-domains,
and all I had to do was fax a form to 10-domains.
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i
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response 12 of 59:
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Nov 8 18:37 UTC 2002 |
Maximum benefit to grex is being with a "real" registrar when getting-
worse-all-the-time Verisign *would have* really screwed up; the money is
relatively minor.
Pretty hard to measure this benefit without a crystal ball, though.
We resell Dotster at work. They're not perfect, but do respond when we
yell at 'em. I'd pick a registar far more by reputation & reference than
by price or junk mailing.
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aruba
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response 13 of 59:
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Nov 8 18:58 UTC 2002 |
VeriSign (when they were Network Solutions) did indeed screw us out of some
money a few years ago. That was before there were any tested options, so we
just paid the bill and moved on.
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mdw
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response 14 of 59:
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Nov 9 03:55 UTC 2002 |
I'd recommend staying away from registrars that use junk e-mail just on
principle. It may be worth transitioning grex.org and cyberspace.org
seaprately, if possible. It would be ok if they end up at the same
place, but it would be nice they expired, say, 6 months apart. At quick
glance, hamjud.com and provide.net still use networksolutions. ic.net
uses Tucows.
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scg
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response 15 of 59:
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Nov 12 07:20 UTC 2002 |
It's worth noting that the others are essentially resellers of Verisign.
Verisign still runs the registry, but the other companies can now put stuff
in. It's been several years since I dealt with anything other than my own
domain names, so I don't know what this means in terms of getting problems
solved fast.
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i
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response 16 of 59:
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Nov 12 12:08 UTC 2002 |
Re: #15
Yes, but the functions that the Verisign offloads onto their "resellers"
are precisely the functions that Verisign screws up the worst themselves.
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heyguy
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response 17 of 59:
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Nov 16 19:00 UTC 2002 |
I had one domain registered through Tucows and one through VeriSign.
When VeriSign attempted to "invoice" me for the domain I never had
registered through them, I switched it to Tucows in protest.
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other
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response 18 of 59:
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Nov 16 22:23 UTC 2002 |
Did you have any difficulty making the switch? If so, what happened?
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heyguy
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response 19 of 59:
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Nov 16 23:49 UTC 2002 |
I didn't have any difficulty, but then again, I didn't do it myself. I got
a deal through tigertech.net and they handled it all for me.
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gelinas
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response 20 of 59:
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Nov 19 02:12 UTC 2002 |
In the most recent Board Minutes item, I mentioned knowing a domain
registrar and volunteered to ask about the services offered. So I asked:
$10.00/year, plus $5.00 per transaction. A ten-year registration is
$105.00. He can also provide DNS hosting, if we need it.
He said we can use the form at
http://www.deathstar.org/opensrs/reg_system.cgi
to transfer the domain and work out billing later.
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cmcgee
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response 21 of 59:
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Nov 19 02:13 UTC 2002 |
what is a "transaction?"
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gelinas
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response 22 of 59:
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Nov 19 02:19 UTC 2002 |
Filling out and submitting the form.
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mary
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response 23 of 59:
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Nov 19 02:34 UTC 2002 |
Any financial savings aside, would we be exposing ourselves
to a higher risk of serious screw-ups by changing registrars or
staying with VeriSign?
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gelinas
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response 24 of 59:
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Nov 19 02:47 UTC 2002 |
What do you mean by "serious screw-ups"? The root servers losing track of
which names servers are responsible for the domain? "whois" not showing the
appropriate contact for the domain? If so, then it probably doesn't matter
which registrar we choose; I don't think either is very likely with any
registrar.
From what I've seen, the biggest problem is simply the expiration of a domain
and thus the domain being removed from the root name servers.
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