Gandi Bar - Internet

The gold rush to new extensions

Ryan — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:01:00 +0200

Some time ago we published an entry discussing certain changes in this market, and notably PPC (Pay Per Click), or: "how to purchase millions of domain names in order to pollute the internet with websites for which the sole purpose is to display an advertisement".

And pocket millions from the web surfers that we all are, rather than to perform our role as a virtual notary that is honest (even though it pays less).

This "evolution", which personally seems to me to be more of a "regression", has since obviously become an important growth factor for the majority of actors in this market. Except for us, but you know that already.

As you may have already read about, ICANN has just announced that there will be a degree of liberalization in the creation of new extensions. Soon, there will be dozens, or even hundreds of new ones, right next to the ones that are already well known (.com, .net, .org, .info., .de., .co.uk...), and this, thanks to a rather non-discriminative selection process ($70k in capital, and $500k in insurance).

The level of excitement on the part of market professionals (web hosts, registrars, and also established registries) is indescribable. At this very moment, in the hallways of this ICANN convention in Paris, there are many whose sole motivation is to build their own extension, the one that will make them even more rich than they already are.

And I assure you, it really makes for an interesting sight. Did I evoke the image of the Far West?

We are, however, not being sarcastic here: I will say it again, we consider this as an additional chance for everyone to make their own place on the Internet, their own 'identity' in the most professional and personalized way possible. And we hope that in the long term, our brand will fit the image of those people and companies that are looking to do so.

I would like, however, to clarify for our customers, our colleagues at Gandi, and our share holders, as well as to our competitors and all those that have us in mind for becoming a registry of an extension that, NO we do not wish to give in to the trend of mixing roles (ok, perhaps just for the .gandi, but that is even unlikely ^^).

Our wish is to provide an irreproachable level of service, and we cannot do this if we are both the judge and the party, the supplier and the reseller, the regulation authority and the distributor. A notary cannot simultaneously be a real estate agent and promoter: this is exactly, at any rate for us, the same problem that is applied to Internet addresses and to the websites that are on them.

However, this is what has been happening in recent years, because all of the actors believe that the market is so stupid that it will not wake up one day from its torpor. We are betting on the contrary in the long term, and the negative consequence that it will surely have for some. At the least, we can do our job with the head held high, and that is priceless.

It is quite clear: ICANN had just let loose the wave of excess speculation, by opening Pandora's box of new extensions.

Without a doubt, it will be impossible to determine the rules governing the non-cumulation of mandates in a market that is so profitable and controlled by only a handful of people around the world. Also without a doubt, the appearance of new actors, coming from different backgrounds and lured by the prospects, will allow for a "upwards" normalization of this market.

Or not.

Whatever happens, we will still be here for those that would like to give us their trust, which we will do our utmost to honor by taking such a stand.

Network Solutions Caught Red-Handed

Ryan — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 10:23:00 +0100

Have you ever gone to register a domain name, only to discover that that between the time you made your whois search (perhaps you looked it up during your lunch break at work), and the time that you purchased it (say, when you came home in the evening), that the domain name was suddenly no longer available? That the domain name you once thought could be yours for 12 euros at Gandi was now being sold on a restricted basis for a higher price and at a different registrar?
What happened?

"Front running" is a term to describe what occurs when an unscrupulous system logs the domain name searches that you type into a whois search engine, and if the domain name is available, the system automatically registers the domain name for itself. For what purpose? For selling the domain name at a higher price, and for only their customers...

It has just been publicly acknowledged that Network Solutions engages in just this practice.

Incredible. If you go to Network Solutions' website and enter any domain name in their whois search engine, it will be automatically registered with Network Solutions as the owner and contacts. Then, if you try to register the domain name at a later time (within 5 days), you will only be able to register it at Network Solutions, and at a higher price than normal!

The excuse given by Network Solutions is that - if you can believe it - is that they are doing this to protect their customers. As far as I know, however, one does not become a customer by simply doing a whois search, and I hardly see how the practice of front running protects one from front runners...

Though there are now many bloggers and reporters discussing this, you can read about it in more detail here, and see an example of this being done before your eyes.

Needless to say, Gandi does not engage in this practice. Anyone is free to search domains using our whois search engine with the knowledge that we will never go behind your back to steal your domain and try and sell it at a higher price to you, or the best bidder. Want proof? Use our whois search engine to test random domains - you will see that they will remain free

We will be happy to answer any of your questions regarding this, and welcome any discussion regarding domain name registration or the whois database. Has something like this happened to you before? Please share your story!

Top Spammer Put Behind Bars

Ryan — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:38:00 +0200

As you can read in the Spamhaus News, Robert Soloway, one of the world's most prolific spammers, was arrested yesterday by United States federal agents after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of identity theft, money laundering, and mail, wire, and e-mail fraud.

For those that follow the latest developments in the tug-of-war between spammers and anti-spammers, the announcement of Robert Soloway's arrest is welcome news. The putting behind bars of Mr. Soloway will definitely reduce the amount of spam received, and will serve as an example to other spammers, that such activity does not go unnoticed and unpunished.

Spam does not come out of the blue - indeed, there is a person behind each and every e-mail that is sent out, and these people are not beyond the arm of the law.

While Spamhaus and Gandi are working together in this fight against spam and providing the very information that law enforcement needs to protect your inbox and identity, you can also play a role.

By complaining to the registrars and web hosts that allow their services to be used by these criminals, and by contacting your local political representatives to encourage them to take action against spam and spammers, you too can be responsible for reducing the amount of unsolicited junk mail in the world.

I don't know about you, but having the absolute need for anti-spam filters on my e-mail accounts to putting iron bars over the windows of my house. Wouldn't it be nice if when "you got mail", it was actually from someone you hoped to hear from?

What's up? - week 02

Arti — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:13:00 +0100

Here are the changes made to Gandi since....oh my...a while now

New DNS system!
Optimization of the prepaid system for resellers
Installation of the new Mail servers (we have nearly tripled our capacity)

A year that takes off for my "What's up" entries with brand new acts - it's touching
Due to the number of changes that will be rapidly announced, entry after entry, the conclusion of long hard months of gruelling development heated by coal furnaces and illuminated by torches...What? I am told that I am getting carried away. Ok, but the work has been intense and the team, right on the front line of the battlefield, is very pleased to present to you, along with its season's greetings, the result of its work.

We will therefore, while awaiting for next week, for the entry of "Homemade DNS". A project that has been greatly anticipated by many of you, that will allow you even greater flexibility with regards to the management of your domain name, and this, via a really simple interface. A post by Romuald, in charge of the project, is available here.
For my part, I invite you to look forward to my next "What's up", which will be just as revolutionary as this one!

It's DNS.BE's turn for V2

Arti — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 18:10:00 +0100

The .be registry has just informed us that they will be shutting down their machines during a brief transition to the V2 of their technical platform tonite at midnight, and this - for un unknown length of time.
During this time, which may last at best several hours, or worse, a very long time or even worse than that (Murphy's law), all operations concerning .be domains will be suspended (if they depend on passing on a request to the registry of course).
We will let you know as soon as our Belgian friends plug it back in!

.EU at half-mast

Arti — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 15:12:00 +0200

You may have noticed that the .EU is experiencing some problems today. The EURID Registery is out-of-service and the information we received from them is brief. We were informed at 10:40 this morning by Eurid of its temporary unavailability without being given a precise hour when normal service would return. Thus, we are waiting and will keep you informed as soon as we have more news.

***EDIT***
5:00 PM, the .EU is back and ready to roll

.eu landrush

Stephan — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 17:16:00 +0200

Some news on the .eu goldrush and the Eurid chaos ...
First, sorry for the inconvenience about the latency of our website : our machines are slowed because of the Eurid ones, waiting for an open connection, and it does impact all our systems.

From the checks we made, we are pretty much less impacted than lots of our competitors, but it doesn't comfort me that much.

It's so far a success (+1m), let's see if this will be confirmed over time.

If you have any question about the situation of your domains with us, please use this email address :

support (dash) eu (dash) en (at) support (dot) gandi (dot) net

The .eu… or how to make easy money.

Stephan — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:41:00 +0100

It’s beautiful, my .eu… but not so easy to understand it. Let’s try to fathom it out…

Some feedback about the .eu launch, and its Sunrises.

Prologue: I won’t go on and on – on purpose – about the pre-registration period of the pre-registrations launched by certain providers at great cost and at the edge of what's legal (and often beyond) before the official Sunrises. Despite their emails announcing revolutionary technologies and other "exclusive thingamajigs", it’s all about urging you to register a domain name with them without any supplementary guarantee of results and, on the contrary, we can see this by the rush they’re in. The only thing you’ll be able to be sure of, is that money will be taken out of your credit card. I hope for you that the contradictions and blatant abuses in their marketing allow you to figure it out. At Gandi, we have made the choice to wait for the official "Sunrise", so as to correctly organize, notably all the administrative and accounting aspects, the depositing of your domain names and to communicate this unambiguously. To work on Quality rather than Quantity, to sign us up for the long term… utopian, but I love the idea. ^^

Overall, two choices are going to be possible:

*You are eligible (to easily check you are eligible) and you have the means => Take a chance (to improve the probability of obtaining it… in theory) from now on. Please note that family names, except in the particular case of celebrities, will be possible only from April 7th, 2006 for sure ("landrush", therefore on February 7th for well-known people).

Where things get complicated is when you get into the details.

If you’re eligible, you can place your request now. Yes, but. The rather complex administrative process (see the official 46-page presentation in .pdf) is such that, if you make a mistake, or if Eurid decides that you don’t fit the criteria, your request will be denied. But, of course, not the money that you have spent on this…

Worse, say that you didn’t make an error in all the red tape (written proof), that Eurid confirms your request… well, the validation of your property could take up to… one year (and not 40 days as "some" try to make you believe, this whole subject really ticks me off…). Plus, during this period, you will be "on hold" without being able to use the domain name. In short, this is going to be long, this is going to be expensive, and maybe it won’t even make you an owner of whatever it is, despite the unavoidable sums you have had to pay out… but at least you will have calmed your fears, and enriched the people who want only the best for you.

Now, you’re demoralized, you say to yourself that I will say just anything, in brief, you doubt. Certainly. Some of you might now understand why we chose not to store your credit card numbers and personal info for months while waiting for a hypothetical availability of your domain (cf Prologue).

Take the case where you’re not eligible for the Sunrise periods. You say to yourselves, OK, I’ll wait until April 7th, 2006 to buy my .eu. There, you will pay the minimum (let’s say about 12 euros if we offer a service worthy of its name), and you will immediately have an answer concerning the availability. Inconvenient, of course: in the meantime your name could have been deposited by another company in Europe, which wanted the same domain name as you, possessing the rights to it, didn’t make errors in its application and made its request before you... I have been told this could happen ;).

To sum it up:

* Big company, well-known brand and/or no money worries (from 16 to 103 euros in reputable companies) don’t wait and deposit your domain names whenever you wantwith the profile you want.

* Private individuals, or if you think that the domain name of your company will not be deposited by another company having the same name as you in Europe (because there’s a lot of paperwork involved) wait for 2006. You will have it at once, for just a few euros and more importantly ready immediately, with the condition you find a domain name that’s available, but you will be creative^^.