Gandi Bar - Gandi

A new ICANN registrar agreement is on the way - What does it mean for Gandi customers?

Thomas — Sat, 11 May 2013 11:59:00 -0700

With the arrival of new gTLD extensions set for late 2013, ICANN has, more or less in agreement with registrars like Gandi, decided to implement a new registrar accreditation agreement. We will be required to sign this new contract to continue registering new domains. This will have ripple effects through the industry for everyone who holds domain registrations, and is therefore subject to ICANN's contracts. The effects will mainly have to do with the validity of customer data in the whois database.
With the arrival of new gTLD extensions set for late 2013, ICANN has, more or less in agreement with registrars like Gandi, decided to implement a new registrar accreditation agreement. We will be required to sign this new contract to continue registering new domains. This will have ripple effects through the industry for everyone who holds domain registrations, and is therefore subject to ICANN's contracts. The effects will mainly have to do with the validity of customer data in the whois database.
1) Registrars will be required to validate the consistency of customer data.
We already do this in some areas, but now we will be forced to go further, validating contact data for public or private entities around the world (!) This rule will apply to all registrars. It will be enforced for new domain registrations, and also for old domains upon renewal.
2) Registrars should verify the reachability of contacts.
We'll have to check the email address of the owner by sending a validation link, check the phone by calling it or sending a validation SMS, etc. This rule will apply to all new contacts or all existing contacts who make changes to their data. If these validations go unanswered, all related records may be suspended or destroyed.
3) Customers will need to keep their data up to date.
You will now have 7 days to inform us of any change of address, email or phone. If, when we email you as required (under WDRP) every year, we find that your email address is no longer functional, or we proactively ask to update your data, your non-response within 15 days may result in suspension or removal of domains.
4) We will have to keep your data longer
The new contract requires us to keep all of your data (account transactions, IP addresses, etc.) for 2 years after the removal or transfer of your domain. There will be exceptions to this rule if it violates local data protection laws. Today, when you have no more contracts with us, you can delete your account.
5) You should no longer receive fake renewal reminders from other companies
ICANN has added an interrupt contract clause for any registrar that sends fake renewal reminders. If they are caught doing this, they have to cease very quickly or lose accrediation. Perhaps this will mean the end of "DROA" and other fake "Internet Registries". It will be interesting to see how these unethical companies react!
6) Private whois services are (finally!) properly regulated
Note that all the registrars that offered this service up till now did so without clear regulations. This has led to problems, and, in some cases to lost domains from some registrars. Now it will be easier for registrars to offer this service in a consistent manner that preserves the ownership of the domain by the registrant, which is what Gandi has always done. Registrars who plan to offer this service will now need to arrange for a verified backup of certain contact information in their private whois records. These backups will be held in secure escrow by ICANN, and used should the registrar somehow be unable to continue, like if they lose accreditation or go bankrupt.
7) The display format for whois information is now standardized
To stop the practice of some registrars providing an exotic whois format that prevents transfer to another registrar, a standard format and content is now imposed. This should make transfers of some exotic top-level domains much easier.

The new contract is currently being validated, and we should be able to sign it in about two months. However, ICANN gives everyone until January 1st 2014 to comply with all of these rules.

The new Gandi cloud is on its way!

Thomas — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:37:00 -0700

We are making huge changes to our Cloud VPS systems. In a few weeks, several features that the market expects and that our customers have been demanding will be available. This will mean big improvements in the flexibility and operation of our IaaS products.

We are making huge changes to our Cloud VPS systems. In a few weeks, several features that the market expects and that our customers have been demanding will be available. This will mean big improvements in the flexibility and operation of our IaaS products.

First, for Gandi Cloud VPS servers, payment in advance for resources will vanish. It will be replaced by a single, simple, Gandi credit unit. You will be able to purchase these credits on demand from your Gandi prepaid account, or in packs at a discount proportional to the amount you buy. The more you commit to spend in Gandi credits, the bigger a discount you get.

To enhance flexibility, we are switching from a daily charge period to an "hourly" model, allowing us to charge for use with precise granularity, and to free ourselves from the concept of "shares".

Yes, the famous "share" will disappear, allowing you to resize your servers according to your whim, with the resources you want, when you want. You can kind of do this now, with a rather coarse daily scale, but the new system is much better, allowing you to pay just for what you play.

If you need more CPU, it will no longer be necessary to have CPU resources available in your account: you just add the desired number of processors, and the number of credits consumed per hour changes, and that's all. When you no longer need the extra power, you lower the number of CPUs, and this lowers the hourly consumption and price, and that's all. Really.

Another great (and frequently requested) benefit is the synchronization of the renewal dates for resources. All that remains is for you to keep an eye on the number of credits and the estimated time remaining for your use of resources available in your account. No more calculations for available resources!

We have included a cost-saving gradual reduction of price, based on the resources used per server. That means, for example, a single server with 8 CPUs and 8 GB of RAM will consume a little less credit than 8 servers with 1 GB of RAM each. You will see the levels of price reduction when you create your server:

To give you even more flexibility, if you want to stop a configured server and return to it later, just stop it. You will only pay for the static resources it consumes, namely the storage and IP address. When you want to restart the server, click it to wake it up

The billing will also be much easier. You will always have access to a clear picture of what you consume, by resource and by server, and the corresponding credit/cash balance.
You also can set alerts, and automatically purchase credit packs.

All these simplifications make use of the API, which is much easier as well!

Bandwidth management is also improving. The current model requires you to buy more shares to access more bandwidth, but soon, when the famous share disappears, you will be able to freely create your network interfaces, giving them limits of 1 to 100Mbps. Throughput will now be charged for, based on consumption per month. We will charge for use that is more than 90% of the maximum our current customers use, so nothing will change for the vast majority of users. For the remaining 10%, the reduction in price/resources on large servers offsets the additional cost for the extra bandwidth. For just a handful of high-bandwidth consumers, the rate will increase, and so will correspond much more precisely to our costs.

What about migration? We will start in May. The first thing we will do is send you an email (soon!) summarizing the resources available in your account, and the equivalent credits you will be given to replace them in the new model. Your servers, of course, will continue to run without any changes to the originally-contracted expiration dates. Unused resources in your account will be automatically removed, and converted to equivalent credits, which you can then use to run the servers you have, or for more resources or servers. Credits awarded in this way also come with a discount, based on the current commitment. Credits will not be refundable. They will be like a server is now with an annual commitment.

We are sure that you have a lot of questions about the details, specific operations, etc., so we have created this little FAQ in our wiki on these new features. If you do not find an answer for your question there, you can leave us a comment here, or email us directly at feedback@gandi.net . Please use email if you have a question that is specific to your account.

We are absolutely sure that this new model will simplify your life, by making your servers more flexible and easier to manage.

Setting up your domain with Google Apps Has Just Been Made Easier

Thomas — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 15:27:00 -0800

If you want to join the thousands of users who use Gmail, Google Docs, and all the Google Apps on your personal domain, Gandi just made it really easy. Find out how!

A few years ago, when Gmail was gaining in popularity as a free email platform, Google started releasing complementary applications to go along with it. Google Apps, as the collection is called, has since become an invaluable resource for millions of business users.

The fact that you can economically use Google for company email and collaboration, including Google Docs, as a paid SaaS (Software as a Service) offering has made it a vital competitor to in-house offerings from Microsoft like MS Exchange and MS Sharepoint.

Previously, if you wanted to use Google Apps with your domain, some specific MX records needed to be added to your DNS zone file. If that doesn't scare you, and your domain is at Gandi, then you can easily do it yourself following instructions here. But starting today, things are changing for the better!

In the same way that Google has made the Internet accessible to millions by making it easy, Gandi and Google have partnered to automate the changes to DNS. Now with this new innovation, you can configure the domain for Google Apps with the touch of an authenticated button. No more editing the zone file, copying and pasting records. Thanks, Google!

Something new for Gandi.net...

Thomas — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:36:00 -0700

We hope you like our new look!

After a little over 12 years of refinements, we are pleased to release our 4th version of the Gandi web site graphical front end. It's deeper, cleaner, more colorful, clearer, more complete, and best of all, it can be customized to your preference and needs.

Our goal was not to radically change the interface. Most of you like the Gandi web site, and we don't want you to have to learn how everything works all over again. All the same knobs and buttons are there, in the same places. It's as if we did the wallpaper, floor and ceiling tiles, but left the doors and light switches in the same places. You can still find your way around in the dark.

We did fix things that were broken, or clunky, clarifying and adding text and making the different translations more grammatically correct, consistent, and clear. Text is higher-contrast and more readable, and the code, while invisible, has been reduced for display performance and to comply more closely with web coding standards. Finally, we took a look at how all the pages look as a whole, and tried to make them more consistent in appearance, while differentiated enough so you always know where you are.

Customization features!

The biggest change we made is one we didn't make, but left for you to do. We recognize that there are lots of users on Gandi.net, some of whom have very different ways of using the interface. With hundreds of thousands of active users, some individuals, some businesses, retailers, associations, etc. it's difficult to create an optimal display for everyone. In particular the tabular lists (domains, zone files, email packages, hosting, certificates, etc.) are hard to optimize across applications and use cases. To solve this conundrum, we developed a feature that allows you to choose what you want to display in these lists. A picture is worth a thousand words, so a video is worth, what? Ten thousand? Anyway, here is a short video showing how to customize a tabular list with your choice of fields.

Another new feature is that the screen space for the application is now bigger, and we have added a little extra feature on the right of the screen. Click the question mark tab on the right to display context-sensitive help, and see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for section you are in. You will also see our support people showing up in online chat on selected screens, so you can get quick answers to most questions, right there when you need them. Our agents are actual humans, and are fluent in the language you select from the menu when you go to chat. Our agents are all highly trained and experienced, but sometimes will have to answer you by email to get you the best answer possible, and maintain our support quality standards. If it's an easy answer, you will get it right away in chat, and if it needs research and actions by us, you will see it in email after a delay. If we can't answer you right away in chat, do not be disappointed. You will be able to ask your question via the usual support contact form, and get an answer in your email.

For those of you who are nostalgic and/or allergic to change, ye olde version v3 of the interface will still be available for a few days here. You can also use this to compare the two versions, or do something that you can't figure out how to do on our new version. If this happens, though, or if you find any problems, please do not hesitate to contact us on this email address so we can quickly address the issue. And if you have ideas for improvement, remember we always make our wishlists available, by product category, to guide our developers with your advice.
We have tested this new version internally for several weeks, but it's always possible we missed something obvious (headslap) or embarassing (facepalm)...

Finally, we will just mention that while this project required a lot of our time and energy for the last few months, now that it is available we will turn our attention to many usability improvements and new features that should delight many of you! We hope you will share your feedback, praise, criticism, and kudos! Thanks for reading.

Gandi likes Non-Profit associations

Ryan — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:55:00 +0200

Non-profit associations make the world a better place, and we want the world to be better. That's why we just launched a program to help those associations successful in making significant changes by allowing them to benefit from our services at exceptionally low rates, or even in some cases, for free.

We are talking of course about non-profit associations/organizations that help or run Open-Source projects and/or share our values.

Yes, I know this is vague, but nobody likes to read a long list of criteria; let's say that the criteria we use are somewhat similar to those we use for our Gandi Supports projects.

What do we offer? Very attractive (or better) prices on our hosting solutions. Up to 50% discount on our Simple Hosting offers, and on our dedicated VPS cloud hosting shares. This will give these associations a better presence on the internet, enabling more effective action. That means a better world.

There is no fine print to this offer. None. However you should know that there is far from enough space in our systems to accommodate everyone we would like to. Nevertheless we will take the time to review all applications, but we have to reserve the right to reject an application without sending a letter justifying why we did so.

What we want is to help out as many like-minded projects as we reasonably can, by sharing our expertise and hosting solutions with them.

If you feel that your project meets these criteria, and if you would like to benefit from this opportunity to strengthen your presence on the web, please contact us!

Gandi BaseKit: it's live!

Ryan — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 17:17:00 +0200

We spoke earlier about a new website creation tool that we really liked. After having taken the time to make a special version of it and seamlessly integrate it into Gandi's website, we are pleased to announce that it is finally live and available to everyone!

What is Gandi Basekit?

Gandi Basekit is a complete website creation tool that is based on HTML5 and CSS standards. It will let you create websites without needing any particular knowledge of these languages and uses a type of interface called "WYSIWYG" (for, What You See Is What You Get). In other words, its a graphic interface that you can use to create a website, similar to SiteMaker, already available at gandi.net.

What can it do that SiteMaker can't?

First of all, this is an additional product and not a replacement. Our die-hard Gandi SiteMaker fans can be assured that we are maintaining it. Gandi BaseKit is, unlike SiteMaker, clearly oriented towards standard languages such as HTML5 and CSS, and is therefore more open and easier to edit (the CSS is completely accessible and can be totally customized with the "Professional" pack), and it also has (for the moment) more e-commerce features.

The tool itself is *really* different, and many of you will prefer it

Price-wise?

First of all, as a domain name customer at Gandi you will automatically benefit from two free BaseKit pages, just like we previously did with SiteMaker. If you have one or more domains and no SiteMaker website activated (1 domain = the right to create 2 free pages), you can then create a free 2-page Gandi BaseKit website to see what it looks like. And if you already have a free Gandi SiteMaker website, don't worry, you can keep it

There are three Gandi BaseKit packs that are for a subscription fee that give you more or less pages and content type. For more information on this visit this page to see a comparison of the offers.

I would also like to draw your attention to the fact that you are no longer currently obliged to have your domain name at Gandi in order to purchase a Gandi SiteMaker or Gandi BaseKit website (but this is too bad for your domain ;)).

How about features?

The features are similar, though there is a large panel of the most frequently used tools, including a bunch of Widgets that are directly integrated into the options, complete and functional e-commerce solutions (PayPal and Google CheckOut), communication tools that link to social networks, etc. Everything is available there I think

Getting started is easy, though very different from SiteMaker, and you will find a large number of guides and even a dedicated YouTube channel that visibly demonstrate how to do things, as well as show you some useful tips!

An offer that can be upgraded??

Yes, of course! And there are two types of upgrading:

the tool itself. This is because the BaseKit developers continue to work on their tool, every day, fixing problems, adding new features, improving processes... Their updating schedule is about every two months and we work with them to see which improvements should be made to our offer right away or which should wait until the next cycle. However, know that the tool is constantly maintained and kept up to date.

of the pack to a higher offer. Just like Gandi SiteMaker, it is impossible to downgrade however. This is not to hold you hostage, but simply because we don't have any way to control the content, and it is not possible, with the tool, to remove pages, features, images, or storage space to make it correspond to a lower offer. You will therefore want to be sure to choose to upgrade your website when you determine that is really is necessary...

And for import/export?

At present, there is no tool that is integrated into BaseKit that will allow you to export or backup your website, however with the help of the BaseKit development team, this tool will soon be available. And for those that know a bit, since this is standard HTML5 and CSS, a simple website scraper will let you make a local copy, while waiting for the integrated tool to arrive

However the possibility of easily and freely exporting your website is an absolute priority for us and we are doing everything possible so that this feature will be available to you soon.

Well, here it is for the general presentation, and the answer to some basic questions that you are bound to have I think. There will surely be others, though in the meantime, I'll invite you to have a look at some of the available themes, so that you can see the professional look of the website creation tool, and if you have a domain at Gandi and you want to test it out it's over here !

Zone file management: many new improvements

Ryan — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 14:14:00 +0200

Zone file management at Gandi is one of the critical aspects of domain names. While efficient, our interfaces remained unchanged since 2006. The new version is the result of much internal discussion, and was designed in such a way as to bring you the improvements that were requested on our wishlist as well as the ones that we would have liked to see as customers ourselves

First of all, it is worth mentioning that our new interface exclusively uses our new API which, as a reminder, is publicly available.

What changes

We have deleted the so-called "simple" interface, which despite it's nice name, was more often than not the source of error for our customers. Though don't worry, the "Normal" interface is very clear and easy to use. The other interface, "Expert", is reserved to those that know how to make direct changes to a BIND zone file.

One of the most important improvements is that you now have the ability to view the entire list of zones used by your domains at a glance. This list is currently available to you by clicking on the button on your Control Panel area that is to the right of "Domain Names", or by going directly there. In this list, you will also see the type of zone file (public or private), as well as its current version number, the possibility of seeing the domains that use it as well as a quick view of its contents. All these changes should lead to a considerable gain in time for many of you

Error prevention

Changing the zone file of a domain that is active is frequently a stressful operation for those of you that have a high-volume website of which the domain name is also the object of this very modification. Just one little error can lead to a connection loss of your website and therefore even your whole operation, and can last several hours.

In the new zone file management interface, you cannot edit the zone file that is active and in use: you need to first make a copy of it, which will then be the new version (identical to the one currently being used, though which can be edited and which is not yet in use). Once you have made the necessary modifications, you need to choose to activate that zone. In the event of an error, you can quickly go back to the previous version of the zone, and therefore limit the damage.

If you want to explore our online documentation to see how it works, the zone file information is here.

Gandi on Facebook: Win a free T-shirt!

Ryan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 12:07:00 +0200

Just like our Twitter drawing in April, today we are launching a Facebook operation to get lots of fans, and you, lots of t-shirts!

As we mentioned in our article on our Twitter operation in April, Gandi does not spend a penny in the advertisement world. We prefer to get the word out by word-of-mouth, a term that has in recent years been changed to "viral marketing" to a certain degree. And these social networking tools are a very good way to share our name on the internet, and to be known.

This time around, it will be through our official Facebook page that we would like to promote this little drawing. The lucky winners will get a special limited edition Gandi t-shirt like this:

How to play?

It's super easy: go to the drawing's application, which is found on our official Facebook page and click on "I like Gandi". Then, select the country where you would like your t-shirt delivered to as well as your email address so that we can send you your free promo code if you win!

This drawing will run all week long (from June 4th to the 8th), and will have 100 lucky winners each day. Everyone that likes gandi will be put back in the pool for the next day's drawing for another chance - though the winners will be removed of course

If you are a lucky drawing winner, you will get a promo code that you can use at the end of the t-shirt ordering process to get it for free. Just to be really clear, the promo code can ONLY be used for the special Facebook t-shirt and it also includes shipping. So don't be surprised if you choose a different t-shirt design and are asked to pay

You'll find the t-shirt order page here. As to when you can expect to get your shirt, know that we will start printing the shirts when the drawing is over, and will ship by zone. You can therefore expect to get your t-shirt about a week or so (around June 15th) after the end of the drawing.

Once again, a super big thanks to all of you who chose to like Gandi.net! - you are helping us get the word out about what we do, which remains focused on domain names and hosting (new extensions, technology, and our monthly newsletter).

Finally, you can be sure too that WE LOVE YOU!

Gandi Stands in Opposition to CISPA

Thomas — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 13:45:00 -0700

Some of you may have heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. Gandi took a position against this legislation for good reasons. The US Congress is once again considering acts that abrogate existing privacy law on the Internet, this time in the name of stopping cyber attacks. One particularly heinous act is called CISPA, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act.

The problem is, CISPA is worse than SOPA. Here is a breakdown of some of what CISPA would do:

Extend the National Security Act to cover "cybersecurity" threats, loosely defined.
Allow US intelligence services and private companies to monitor and collect information we users place on the Internet, including emails, text messages, VOIP calls, web sites we visit, etc.
Allow US intelligence services to legally share the data gathered with private companies, and allow private companies to share data they collect with US intelligence services.
Allow private companies and/or US intelligence services to block or even modify data sent over the Internet.

Given these powers, the US government would have unprecedented power to snoop on data from any site they do not like, in the name of “cybersecurity”. Oversight is minimal; in fact, even with recent amendments, the bill explicitly limits public oversight of enforcement of its provisions. The data they snoop can then be used in the prosecution of "cybercrime", presumably in an effort to shut down such sites. They just need a "significant" purpose. Sound vague to you? It is.

Originally CISPA included “theft of intellectual property” in its definition of cybersecurity threats. That made it an effective tool for the US government to go after file-sharing sites and copyright violators. That language was removed under pressure from advocacy groups, but the remaining language is so vague that it leaves open the possibility of defining at least some violations of IP law as "cybersecurity related".

It is interesting to consider that a site such as Wikileaks might fall under the definition of a cybersecurity threat in CISPA. One wonders if that is what the US government really wants to shut down: the exposure of embarrassing truths on the Internet?

We at Gandi are a multi-cultural, multi-opinionated team of Internet experts. Unlike the bill's sponsors (which include AT&T, Facebook, and Google) we do not think that CISPA is the right approach to stopping cyber attacks on government agencies and private companies. We get our fair share of attacks, and trust us, we don’t like it, but what is the real price of fighting these bad actors with laws? We feel the comprehensive nature of the CISPA legislation offers a bazooka-to-swat-a-horsefly approach, and bazookas always cause collateral damage. We know what that phrase means from the Bush era: innocent people getting hurt. That price is too high. Try again, US lawmakers. You can do better (See Cybersecurity's 7-Step Plan for Internet Freedom, from the Center for Democracy and Technology, for example).

Read the bill! Form your own opinion and share it! Do you agree with us? Take action with the EFF, or Avaaz.

UPDATE: 5/17/2012: CISPA Passes the House of Representatives, heads to an uncertain future in the senate, and a veto threat from Obama. See this link.

UPDATE: 8/9/2012: CISPA has been rejected by the Senate 52-49, on August second. We expect it will return, possibly with another name, in the next session, so our work in opposing legislation that restricts our rights to free speech is far from over.

We want to hear your thoughts. Do you care what your registrar and web host has to say about these repeated legislative assaults on internet users? How important are these issues to you? Let us know in the comments.

Gandi Spring Fashion! : 500 Free t-shirts via Twitter

Thomas — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 01:19:00 -0700

Did you know Gandi doesn't advertise? We have no TV ads, magazine spreads, or radio spots. Our philosophy from the start has been that advertising is unnecessary, and that our customers good words are the only trustworthy way people should learn about us.

Obviously, without the open channel of paid ads, our ability to spread the word and gain new customers is limited. It's up to you, happy Gandi customers, to do your part and let others know we exist.

The way we see it, we offer you the same services we would use in your position, if we had a team of specialists to set them up for us. These products have to work, because only customers who like what they are getting will recommend us. That's you, our sales team. Every time you mention Gandi, our alternative approach and the services you enjoy, you make it possible for more people to discover us and join the Gandi community.

That's why we're putting up a little marketing operation on the Twitter social network:

From April 10 to 14, you have the chance to win a fantastic Gandi "#no_bullshit" T-shirt! Just re-tweet one of our messages from the @gandibar account
We will award 100 t-shirts every day, drawing at random from the list of users who retweeted one of the messages listed below, or any news you like that we tweet, to @gandibar.

- message #1 Win one of 500 Gandi t-shirts on Twitter between April 10th and 14th! http://www.gandibar.net/post/2012/04/10/Gandi-Spring-Fashion-%3A-500-Free-t-shirts-via-Twitter
- message #2 If you have a domain name at Gandi, you get 50% off on a year of Simple Hosting. https://www.gandi.net/domaine/simple-hosting
- message #3 You get a free SSL cert with each domain at Gandi https://www.gandi.net/ssl
- message #4 DNSSEC is available at Gandi for 16 domain name extensions. http://www.gandibar.net/post/2012/03/02/DNSSEC-at-Gandi
- message #5 The Gandi April Newsletter is available online. https://www.gandi.net/news/en/2012-04-10/627-general_newsletter_april_2012/

ATTENTION: The purpose of this campaign is to convey useful information, and to find new Gandi customers, not to spam the Twitter network.
Also, we would appreciate your ethical, responsible behavior during this campaign. We will consider only a single retweet per day per user. Additional retweets within a day are welcome, but will not be considered for the drawing, even if you retweet a different message.

Another important point: we will send the winners a code by "DirectMessage", which can be used to get a t-shirt. You should follow @ gandibar so we can send you your DM, should you win.

For those allergic to Twitter, we will launch another campaign by the beginning of summer

The Importance of Our Customers

Thomas — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:37:00 -0700

Now that the redesign of our backend system is nearly complete, it's time to move on to the phase we've been internally calling Gandi V4. It will consist of an optimization of our website (for speed, usability, etc) and the introduction of Domain name and Web Hosting tools and web interfaces that some of you have been requesting for months, or even, in some cases, for years.

This is our opportunity to remind you that we are listening.

You can submit your feedback on the lower right-hand side of our contact page.
We carefully monitor this and post it publicly.
A contact address is also available, where you can submit your reactions to our updates, and of course your comments are always welcome right here at the Bar.

We test each version extensively before release, but bugs, some more annoying than others, occasionally persist. You are always welcome to submit a bug report with a link to a screenshot, for example, to our customer service team.

We also have an ongoing need for you to spread the word about what we do:

We do not buy keywords in search engines - we rely on your satisfaction and word of mouth alone.
We don't advertise, so we appreciate it when you mention our updates in your social network or directly on your website.
We don't buy banners, so our logos are available for download if you want to show that your content is hosted on our Cloud platform or that your domain name is managed with us.

It all boils down to our need to work closely with our users, because our intention is to treat you the way we would like to be treated: Our door is open to you, literally! If you are in Paris or San Francisco, don't hesitate to stop by, have a coffee and chat. We will always be available for you to talk to, be it personally, by email, by Twitter, or by blog post.

We know this is an unusual policy in our industry. We are, nonetheless, firm in our belief that it is the most ethical way to operate. The fact that we don't advertise means that your satisfaction is critical to our success; it is indeed the only way for us to reach new customers. And if that's not a source of motivation to give our existing customers the best service we can, then we don't know what is.

И лове РФ

Thomas — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 19:59:00 -0700

So, I've stumped you, right? Rest assured, I haven't been replaced by Olga the masseuse over vacation. It's just a quick introduction to the first TLD extension available at Gandi in IDN format, .RF (Russian Federation).

To find out what the title of this post means, read on.

For starters, what's an IDN?

This is a good place to start. IDN, which stands for Internationalized Domain Name, designates a domain name containing "language-native" characters (in other words, non-ASCII). The ASCII character table basically consists of all non-accented Latin characters used in English (yes, ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange). In order to "regionalize" domain names, more and more registries have established the ability to create domain names containing nonstandard characters, or IDNs.

This makes it possible to purchase "bébé.com," for example, which is distinct from bebe.com (the two domain names can have entirely different owners).

How does it work?

It works in the same way as any other domain name, with one slight exception: accommodations are made for web tools that weren't designed to display non-ASCII characters. Not to worry; these tools catch up quickly. Today, virtually any user with an up-to-date browser can already enter a domain name with accented characters and the website will appear normally.

For example, if I visit the website www.île.com in Chrome, I'll see http://www.île.com/ in my address bar, as opposed to my out-of-date version of Firefox (3.6), which still displays http://www.xn--le-pja.com/.

This isn't a display error, and it is indeed the same website, but in the latter case, the older browser displays the accented form in an ASCII format called Punycode. This is easily identifiable thanks to the "xn--" preceding the other letters.

So what's the point?

First and foremost: localization. Effectively, words can mean entirely different things depending on the accents used. For example, the site manana.com will certainly yield different content than mañana.com, yet without IDN there can only be one site with that name (It's also worth noting that Google knows the difference between the two searches.). This is a great opportunity to stake out a domain name that's perfectly suited to the meaning and language you have in mind.

Gandi already has over 50 extensions that support IDNs, including .com, .net, .eu, .de, and .es.

And while we're on the subject of extensions that support IDN, you should know that .fr IDNs will be available on July 3, 2012. There will be a two-month sunrise period where it will be possible to register IDN versions of domain names for those who already own the ASCII version.

For example, the lucky owner of the domain name cafe.fr will be first in line to register café.fr. And since the .FR rule also applies to the other AFNIC extensions (.re, .yt, .pm, .tf and .pm), they will all be IDN-ready on the same date. And don't forget that the recent opening of these extensions to Europe means that 30 new characters ( https://www.afnic.fr/en/products-and-services/idns.html ) can now be used.

Slight clarification:

Since AFNIC uses a unique identifier to identify the domain owner, the IDN version of your domain will have to be obtained through the same registrar as that where the ASCII version is registered. Finally, priority rights are only valid on the domain as a whole, i.e. the owner of cafe.fr will have priority over café.fr but not café.re!

So what about .РФ?

Still on the subject of IDNs, the extension .РФ (which translates to .rf, for Russian Federation) is a special case because here, it's the extension itself that is "IDN-ified." It's not the first IDN domain: Egypt (.مصر), Saudi Arabia (.امارات ) and the United Arab Emirates (.السعودية ) secured their respective national IDN extensions on May 5, 2010. However, the .РФ is the first in Cyrillic and the first offered by Gandi. Interest in the French community will be fairly limited, since the .fr extension doesn't accept Cyrillic characters (choose Russian as your language at checkout), but we know that some customers at Gandi will be interested in the novelty of creating a domain with cyrillic characters.

As for the title of this post, it simply means "I love .RF."

Register a .РФ?

If you want to convert a Latin text into Cyrillic, try this link.

Simple Hosting is live!

Ryan — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:15:00 +0100

After 4 months of beta testing, the Gandi team is proud to present our new hosting offer, now available to the general public. Simple Hosting has been designed to offer you the maximum possible flexibility and simplicity at a price that will allow everyone to use it.

Since its founding, Gandi has challenged itself to combine two things which don't easily go together: We want to be at the forefront of technological innovation in our field, and also to offer our services to as broad an audience as possible.

In 2008, we were among the pioneers of Cloud hosting in Europe, developing a complete IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). This offer, which has been very successful since it was introduced, and which is still growing in users, was primarily aimed at system administrators and architects; people used to dealing with dedicated servers.

We have continued to expand our IaaS platform, which constitutes the foundation of all of our hosting solutions, and this time we wanted to make the technology available to the largest number of people possible. The idea is therefore to combine the flexibility of the Cloud with the simplicity of the traditional shared-hosting model, and to offer all of this at a price everyone can afford.

We therefore present you with a service offer based on a PaaS (Platform as a Service), which will give you all the flexibility you are used to getting from Gandi, but which will be very easy to use. This will be appreciated by webmasters who don't want to have to deal with server administration, but want to benefit from the advantages of Cloud Computing.

We are launching our Simple Hosting offer with a server that has PHP and MySQL already installed, and comes with dedicated disk, RAM, and CPU core resources. The flexibility of the offer allows you to increase or decrease the power of the server in a few clicks (and a few minutes), without the need for migration. We are also keeping the minimum commitment period to one day, so that you can easily create and use resources for only as long as you need them.

Our prices (and all prices below are listed excluding VAT), are designed to give you a very attractive offer that is economically feasible for you and for Gandi. Prices start at €4 euros per month (or an annual cost of €48), and we are both proud and happy to announce that we can guarantee this price.

The starting offer, that we call the "S", or small size, corresponds to a server with 256MB of RAM, one dedicated core, and a MySQL database whose size is limited only by the size of your disk!

We have devised 5 offers in total, for this first instance family, and have grouped them by size, in order to meet your needs. Here they are:

S Pack: $5, £3.50 or €4 per month
M Pack: $10, £7, or €8 per month
L Pack: $20, £14, or €16 per month
XL Pack: $30, £21, or €24 per month
XXL Pack: $40, £28, or €32 per month

Each size pack will give you twice as much power as the previous size, an exponential increase in power, though the price increase by pack size is basically linear. All the packs come with 10 GB of disk. However, the disk space can be increased just as it can with our IaaS offer, and at the same price: $0.25 (£0.16, or €0.18) per GB per month, up to a maximum of 1 TB (1000GB).

So, what can I run off of an "S" instance?

Many things, in fact. Our engineers have implemented a web cache system that allows us to run many simultaneous pages, as long as they are in the cache. The only real limit is the strict number of simultaneous processes. By strict, we mean simultaneous connections by X number of visitors.

In the case of "S" instances, this limiting number "X" is equal to 2. What this means is that only 2 visitors will be able to call PHP/MySQL at precisely the same instant (the others must wait until the end of the execution of the script before taking their turn, typically a few milliseconds).

Our offer is well suited to people who have created their website themselves, or done so with the help of popular tools such as Magento, Joomla!, Drupal, WordPress, punBB, etc. With predefined sFTP access and phpMyAdmin already in place, the management of such a website is surprisingly quick and easy to set up!

To help you with this, we have written up some installation guides of a few popular tools that will help you get your website published on a Gandi instance of any size.

During these 4 months of beta testing, we have been focused on the feedback we received from our testers, looking for the right balance between ease-of-use and security. We have arrived at something that we believe is really easy to use, and yet without sacrifice in the area of security, which is a constant problem, and one not dealt with adequately by some of the more "traditional" hosting offers.

We have already written several wiki pages that will answer the majority of your questions. And for those of you that are eager to get going, we have even written up a Quickstart Guide that will show you the basics in a quick and easy way. Of course, access to our customer service is included in our offer.

Currently we are only offering Simple Hosting out of the Paris datacenter, as we initially needed to validate the technology and infrastructure before ordering up the expansions needed to enable the American datacenter. This has now been done, and Simple Hosting will be available from at our American datacenter at around the beginning of April.

Of course this does not prohibit customers from around the world from benefiting from the current offer. If your visitors are mainly from the United States, however, you might want to consider waiting until our offer is available out of the Baltimore datacenter.

For our customers that have been seduced by our offer but don't yet have a hosting plan with us, we are offering a promo code to all domain name customers at Gandi.

This promo code will give you a 50% discount on the price of any instance you choose, in exchange for a one-year commitment(*). A "S" size at €2 per month, for example, will be a total of €24 for the entire year.
(*) Warning, this offer is limited to the first 3 million customers who request it

We recommend that you choose a S pack (with monthly renewal), and test your site on it, and then adjust the size of your instance as needed (since you are free to do this at any point). When you are sure, just renew your pack at the ideal size, using your promo code.

We have done everything we could to have our offer meet your needs, while staying true to our mission of helping the greatest number of people possible to profit from this wonderful platform for free speech: the Internet!

One more thing: as you know, we do not purchase any advertising, or ever pay anyone to say nice things about us. It's all honest word of mouth (ok, and twitter plays a part too). So, should you like to help us continue operating like this, we would be very grateful if you would purchase a pack of Simple Hosting, but even if you don't, you can still spread the word. Thanks for your support, and we wish you a happy 2012!
The Gandi Team

New Domain Name and Email API

Ryan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0100

Those that have been following our blog closely are aware that we have been doing a complete overhaul of our domain name platform over the past year.
With this overhaul comes a new domain name and Email API, replacing that already available to resellers. As a special surprise, the new API will also be available for non-resellers too!.

A new API, but still in RPC XML

We have made the decision to make the same API available to you that we use for the gandi.net website. This means that you will benefit from all our improvements at almost the same time as we do (like new extensions, new products, etc.).
This also means that you will have access to all of the extensions that Gandi provides, and that the price catalog can be queried directly via the API (thanks to new methods that allow you to query for the price at your price rate).
You can also create lists of operations, domain names, and contacts that you can apply filters to.
Finally, you may manage your Gandi Mail out-of-office reply via the Email API.

Documentation is already available at this address, and it contains examples in Python, Php, Nodejs, Perl, and Ruby.
You will find a step-by-step tutorial on how to use it, on this page or, if you prefer, you may download it as a PDF file.

The major differences

The idea from the beginning has been not to change everything, so your migrations will be smooth, using familiar terms and calls. Since we are mentioning migration, you should know that the current (old) API will not be updated, though it will be supported until June 30th, 2012 to give you time to start using the new version.
Concerning your migration, the two APIs are compatible and you can migrate between them method by method, giving you constant control over your transition to V2.
One point that may seem a bit trivial, but which will cause problems for some: there is no longer a method for logging in with a login and password in the new version. You must use an API key, which you can get here for your Gandi interface.
Finally, remember that this new API is open to everyone, whether or not you are a reseller. The only requirement is that you must have at least one domain name at Gandi and/or have a prepaid account that has enough funds for your operations.

What is an API used for?

Our API lets you do the same thing with domain names from your website as we do on ours. For example, you can use the scripts to program renewal reminders at the dates that you choose, provide your family, friends, or customers (if you are a reseller) with your own interface that will allow them to create email or web forwarding addresses, program out-of-office replies for their email, etc.

When will it be available?

The OT&E (Operational Test and Evaluation) test platform is already available at the address https://rpc.ote.gandi.net/xmlrpc.
The production platform will be available in 3 to 4 weeks.

Changes to come

What we will soon be integrating into the new domain name API (and not into the V1 API) will please many of you. The finishing touches are being added to DNS zone file management. Additionally, we expect DNSSEC to follow a couple weeks after that. Owner changes are in the works, however we still have one more migration to do in our system before it will be compatible with the API methods.

Update: as of Feb 28, 2012, the new API is active. Documentation is available at http://doc.rpc.gandi.net/

As a reminder, if you have not yet activated your API on your account, you will need to activate it and use the API in OT

Gandi is moving!

Ryan — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:45:00 +0100

Gandi is moving it's French headquarters to a larger and more modern location in Paris this week.

This is something of a big change for us, since our headquarters at Place de la Nation in downtown Paris were getting a bit cramped. We have therefore chosen a more modern and spacious location in the southern part of the capital.

A view of our new offices:

We will be packing up our things on Thursday, December 15th and will be fully operational once again as of Monday, December 19th in the morning.

What does this mean for you? There will be a slowdown in the processing of support tickets during this period, and an interruption in telephone support for resellers from Thursday the 15th at 13:00 GMT to Monday the 19th at 8:00 GMT.

Our new address in Paris is:

Gandi SAS
63/65 boulevard Massena
75013 Paris

New website creation tool (HTML5)

Ryan — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 10:26:00 +0200

After having listened to the many pertinent remarks that our customers have made on this topic, we recognized the importance of finding a new website creation tool that we could provide you with. This tool would need to allow you to create a website in pure HTML5/CSS, import and export your website as easily as possible, and all the while being sure that it is easy to use and to create a professional looking website.

After more than a year of scouring the landscape of online website creation tools, and after looking at many different companies and projects, we are pleased to announce that we have chosen BaseKit! This London-based company is full of dedicated geeks that love what they do, continue to find new ways to improve their business, and are people-oriented. It should therefore come as no surprise that we are rather fond of them

We have a couple of projects in the works right now, and so you won't see their integration for a couple of months yet, however to let you in on what's going on behind the scenes:

BaseKit will use Gandi's VPS Cloud Hosting service,
BaseKit's domain names will also be provided by Gandi,
Gandi will integrate the BaseKit tool directly into our website by the end of the year,
You can visit their website at http://www.basekit.com to get an idea for yourself in the meantime (We are working with BaseKit to launch their site in French too, at the address http://fr.basekit.com ).

The tool will be updated shortly however; The new version is much more ergonomic and is really a joy to work with.

On a final note, I would like to stress that our strategic partnership is based on the product, and will assure that we always have the best and most up-to-date HTML tool on the market.

Happy website building!

Quicker inter-domain and server navigation

Ryan — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 17:43:00 +0200

The optimization of Gandi interfaces is something that we work hard at. We have many ideas as to how to improve things (display rapidity, ergonomics, etc.) and you, our customers, frequently submit very interesting ideas with regards to this.

We are pleased to present a new feature that will make your life easier

If you have a large number of domains and/or servers, and if you frequently make operations on them (DNS changes, website creation, checking statistics, etc.), you have probably already noticed that it is rather annoying to keep having to go back to the list of your domains.

This is why this little improvement will make those of you concerned really happy

As always, an image is worth a thousand words:

This navigation feature is therefore visible as soon as you are in the domain's or server's control panel, and if you have more than one and less than 200 (a temporary arbitrary limit).

GANDI is reinforcing its Corporate offer

Ryan — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:36:00 +0200

The idea in itself is simple: too many companies that want to have a real management of their online identity pay too much for their domain names just because they are companies, and because they are approached by providers either vaunting their service or through glossy marketing brochures. Being very aware of this, we introduced a new approach to this a while ago to try and bring about another way of handling this situation.

For many years now, we have been working with large groups, institutions, associations, SME, as well as consulting and law firms, to bring them a service that is even more customized and complete, all the while remaining ourselves, meaning, clear and honest.

A dedicated and experienced team has recently been hired to develop offers and services that are unique to this type of customer. Gandi is therefore developing its Corporate offer, with the goal of being able to provide you with an ethical alternative to your professional needs.

Thanks to their specific knowledge of this demanding market, developed over the past twelve years in dedicated companies, Michael and Stéphane bring their experience to the teams already in place and that have also (isn't it true Sophie and the others) proven their added value to our "Corporate" customers.

The creation, protection, and promotion of your brands on the internet require personal assistance, and a strong commitment. We make it a point of honor to offer you a service that is 100% customized to your specific needs. Our objective is to create a real lasting partnership with each customer.

Our values are at the foundation of our company: following-up, flexibility, transparency, dedication, and listening to our customers. Yes, this resembles the usual marketing line a bit. However, we want to truly refresh the practices of this market, all the while not making any compromises on what makes us who we are.

Therefore, our ethics will not change; no broken promises, no misleading advertisements, no over-billing for domain names: simply forcing ourselves to do our job honestly and correctly, meaning that we provide you with the best product or service for the right price, and in a way that is transparent.

We offer you a real quality of service, one that is clearly measured and explained depending on your demands. This constitutes our best sales argument, and we commit ourselves to keeping our promises. For us, this is the best guarantee of a relationship based on confidence and one that must last.

We are in the process of working on a group of services that are dedicated to the needs of companies. These services will be progressively made available by the end of the year, though some corporate services are already available such as:

Management of dedicated accounts,
Transfer and rationalization of entire portfolios,
Registration and management of domain names in extensions that we are not or cannot be accredited for,
Payment by invoice,
Management of your domain name strategy,
Local contacts.

Please do not hesitate to contact us, to tell us how the Gandi Corporate model may be extremely advantageous for your company versus the existing.

Gandi switches to 3.0.11

Arti — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:35:00 +0200

The V3.0.11 is one of the last major updates (Gandi BackEnd) before the much awaited 3.1.0, which will introduce the new reseller API.

This version includes a lot of "invisible" changes, but a few "visible" ones too:

the Gandi Mail pack now goes through the streamlined purchase process. You can still pay with the usual means of payment. You can also view the price as well as cancel a mail pack before its expiration.
we have also updated some of the contact management processes, especially for domain name transfers. Some verification mesures are now performed to follow the Registries' requirements and, thus, reduce the number of failed transfers.
the orders in progress list for your domain names is a new feature that lets you quickly view your domain name operations. It can be accessed directly from your domains list. Just click on the "Operations" button at the top, just to the right of "Domains". For example, DNS updates and glue records management are now managed in quick asynchronous mode.
you can now do a "grouped" search for various domain names on the purchase page. Here is a preview:

4 new stylish country extensions have been added to our portfolio: .GD (Grenada), .TC (Turks and Caicos Islands), .VG (British Virgin Islands), and .WS (Samoan Islands). The first three extensions are €40.00 excluding VAT/year in the "A" price list, and the last one is €24 excl. VAT/year, also in A list.
our datacentre in France now uses the same storage technology as our US one. So we now have plenty of new disks using ZFS technology, ready to serve you even faster than ever! A more technically detailed article is available in the "Gandi Kitchen".
Disk snapshots, available only for disks created in the new system, are now for public test for 2 to 3 weeks by our group of testers. Feel free to contact us if you want to be a part of it!

The 3.0.12 will allow us to finalise the migration of our internal processes for domain names (renewal, contact management among others) and billing. Once the migration is over, we will work on V3.1 in order to give everyone an access to our new domain name API.

A t-shirt for .EU

Ryan — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 14:15:00 +0100

Yes, that's right! Since Tuesday, and until April 15th, customers that purchase a .EU domain name at Gandi.net will get a promo code by email that will let them get a free Gandi.net/Eurid T-shirt.

This operation will not cost you anything (shipping is free too, as it is included in the promo code), and will let you show our colors all over Europe while also promoting your European identity (as a reminder, only residents or companies located within the European Union can register a .eu domain (more).

Here is what the T-shirt looks like:

The only limitations of this operation are the delivery address (it must of course be in the European Union), and the expiry date of your promo code: it must be used by April 24th 2011 at the latest.
There is no maximum number of t-shirts that can be given to a handle or shipped to an address: if you purchase 50 .EU domains between March 15th and April 15th, you could probably open a T-shirt store while you are at it :p

Keep in mind that only one coupon is sent by email, however (within the hour of your order) to the person that paid for the domain name, and therefore, not necessarily the owner of the domain.
Just like for Gandi's 10-year domain giveaway, remember that using your promo code is done in the following manner:

Log into our website with your Gandi handle at http://www.gandi.net/
Go to the special T-shirt page: http://www.gandi.net/tshirts
The coupons can only be used for the Gandi.eu t-shirts of course
Choose the size and gender that you would like (you can choose between women's S-M-L and men's S-M-L-XL-XXL) and then submit your order
Even if you have many promo codes, you can only choose one Gandi.eu t-shirt at a time. Our system does not support the utilization of several coupons in the same session.
Next, choose the shipping address (which must be in the European Union), if it is different than the address of your Gandi handle (yes, you can give them away as presents ),
Enter your coupon's code in the "Promo Code" field just below it,
Accept the contracts of the product, and submit

Therefore, if you have several coupons, you will need to repeat this process once per coupon. Yes, it is a bit repetitive, sorry, and we'll get that fixed later. For now, we prefer to stay focused on the new and upcoming Gandi features

One more thing: if you lost your promo codes or your emails, remember that you can get your codes on at My account - Billing - My promos: https://www.gandi.net/admin/billing/promos (more info on using gandi's promo codes here)