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I'm delighted to announce that the IE zone rebuilds are now more frequent.
The new zone rebuild times are:
10:00, 12:00, 17:00 and 22:00
AND it is set to rebuild 7 days a week, 365 days a year!
This is a major improvement for IE domain holders, as now updates, changes and new registrations will be processed much more efficiently.
Today is a historical day for the IE namespace, as it has finally breached the one hundred thousand domain barrier.
The graph below shows growth over time
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the namespace to double again in size.
Compared to some of our EU neighbours 100 thousand domains is a very small number. The UK registry, Nominet, handles in excess of 100 thousand new registrations every month!
Of course it's a bit unfair to draw parallels between the UK and Ireland.
While there have been considerable improvements in the registration process many registrants still feel that the process is quite arduous compared to that of .com.
In many ways the biggest improvement was the introduction of an API, which allows companies such as ourselves to send registration requests, updates and deletions directly to the registry.
In real terms that means that as soon as you place an order for an IE domain on our site (and pay us) it gets sent into the registry's queue.
So, if you do a WHOIS lookup you'd see:
% Application Pending - There is currently an application being processed for % the domain name you have requested. If unsuccessful, the application would % expire on the date above.
While the technology has improved some of the policies haven't, which leads to many of us having a certain love/hate relationship with the namespace.
Personally I have mixed feelings about it.
On the one hand I've been more than happy to support the growth of the IE namespace over the last few years.
The relaxation of some of the rules has made it significantly easier to register domains, but there is always room for improvement.
On the other hand I can appreciate the frustration felt by many registrants.
Being forced to provide the infamous "supporting documentation" for each and every new domain name could be seen as having a very negative impact on the growth of ecommerce in Ireland.
Whether that perception is valid or not is debatable.
If you have a valid reason to register a domain name providing the documentation shouldn't be that arduous a task.
Unlike .com there are still literally thousands of excellent names available. If you have a look at some of the recently deleted domains you might find inspiration.
Want to setup a photography business? Album.ie is currently available to register
Or maybe you are an ET fan? Alien.ie is up for grabs, or at least it was when I looked a minute ago!
One of the strong points of the IE namespace is also its perceived weakness.
Being a "managed" registry end users should have some comfort and security when they interact with a website using the .ie extension. Security, however, is not without its price.
In the .com world it is arguably "too easy" to register a domain, provide false details and setup a scam. If you want to do the same thing in IE namespace you'd have to be willing to put in a lot more work!
At times I feel like I'm a broken record. I keep finding myself saying the same thing to people, possibly using different words or turns of phrase, but the message is essentially the same.
If you register a domain name and pay for it you have certain rights. Of course you also have certain obligations, but most of them aren't particularly cumbersome.
What I wrote last year still hold true.
Basics:
You are entitled to access to your EPP key for your .com without paying a fee. Registrars should provide that to you in a timely fashion.
If you want to transfer the billing of a .ie domain you DO NOT need to deal with the original IEDR reseller. If you only want to move the hosting you DO NOT need to move the actual billing.
If you want to move your hosting you should be able to do so.
Unfortunately there are no clear guidelines from ICANN mandating how resellers should handle things, so you may need to refer back to the actual registrar that the reseller is using if you run into issues.
We recently had yet another issue with a particular UK company that refuses to handover clients' domains without levying a wholly unreasonable fee. If that happens to you you should try reporting them to their upstream registrar who may be in a position to take action against them.
Another "old chestnut" is the unreasonable locking of domains by some registrars after a domain has changed hands. While the argument that it is to prevent "hijacking" holds some water it's also rather "convenient" for them, as they often get another year's registration fees from clients as a result of the restriction.
ICANN recently clarified a very important policy point - inter-registrar transfers. Hopefully this will be on the agenda at the next ICANN meeting, which is scheduled for June in Paris.
The key point raised is worth repeating here:
A registrant change to Whois information is not a valid basis for denying a transfer request.
One very large US based registrar has been denying transfers for a long time based on this. I won't name them, but it doesn't take a lot of work to find out who they are.
Journalists call from time to time asking me to talk about various internet related topics. Most of the time the publications or shows are "general interest", so you can only talk about very general things.
Last night, however, was quite different, as I was one of the guests on "Domain Masters" which is broadcast and streamed weekly at 7pm EST (11pm in Ireland, midnight CET)
The show's host last night was my good friend Jothan Frakes who is one of the domain name industry's gurus.
Although I was very nervous (which probably showed!) we had a nice chat about Blacknight, domains and the internet industry.
If anyone wants to hear the show there should be an mp3 version available on the WebmasterRadio site at some time over the next couple of days.
UPDATE: The Mp3 from last night is now available on the site http://www.webmasterradio.fm/Internet-Marketing/Domain-Masters/Geo-Domain-Expo-and-BlackKnight.htm
UPDATE 2: Of course if I provided proper hyperlinks people might be actually able to use them!
So here you go: Show details including podcast
If you are sending us documentation for your personal IE domain(s) could you please ensure that it is legible.
If you are using a photocopy or fax make sure that it is "light", as we are getting a lot of very "interesting" faxes that are completely illegible.
The best option would be to email us a scanned jpeg!
The recent introduction of "personal IE domains" has been welcomed by all parties, but I get the impression that a lot of people are still unhappy with the restrictive policies being used by the IEDR.
What would people like to see?
Should we have a more open policy?
Should it be a "free for all"?
Are there advantages to a "managed name space"?
Are there disadvantages?
At the moment there aren't that many issues with cybersquatting, spam or phishing in the IE namespace. There are issues - yes. But the barriers that exist at present render dotIE to be too awkward to be of interest to the average online criminal.
One possible solution would be to introduce a couple of subdomains such as co.ie or me.ie etc., that might help with the rules and policies.
Of course the main issue at present is that there is no formal policy development process.
Tomorrow morning personal IE domains will be made available for the first time.
We've been accepting registration requests for the last few weeks, so tomorrow morning at zero hour we will be submitting the queued requests to the IE Domain Registry.
If you haven't ordered a personal IE domain then you still have time, though obviously your choices will be more restricted if your surname is common.
For those of you who have already submitted your registration requests and sent us in the documentation you can sit back and relax. If we need anything more from you our sales team will be in touch.
Of course if there is a large volume of requests there will be delays. We've been warned by the IEDR to expect delays, so we must ask you to please be patient.
If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact our sales staff, but please bear in mind that the volume of queries may result in there being a longer delay in replies than is normal.
As a domain registrant you have certain rights. Unfortunately those rights can be abused by companies that don't believe in ethical business practices.
It would be nice and simple if the whois display were the same across all TLDs (ie. domain extensions), but they're not.
A basic right is for the domain to be registered to you and under your control.
That means that the domain details should show yours. For example a .ie domain registered to me shows:
status: Active
nserver: NS.BLACKNIGHTSOLUTIONS.COM
nserver: NS2.BLACKNIGHTSOLUTIONS.COM
source: IEDR
person: Michele Neylon
nic-hdl: ABG182-IEDR
source: IEDR
person: Blacknight.ie Hostmaster
nic-hdl: AAM456-IEDR
source: IEDR
(I'm only showing the contact parts)
The administrative contact for the domain is clearly listed as me, while the second contact (tech-c) shows Blacknight, as I obviously register my domains with my own company.
For some TLDs, such as .eu the command line whois will give out varying amounts of information and you may need to go to the web based whois server to get the full details.
In either case the registrant is listed somewhere, even if the public cannot see it easily.
If the registrant wants to move their domain between registrars that is their right.
Under ICANN rules registrars are obliged to provide the EPP codes to registrants in a timely fashion (bearing in mind that you cannot transfer newly registered .com's etc., between registrars immediately)
If they want to update their domain's nameservers then they should be able to do so.
Unfortunately this does not happen.
The reality is that a disproportionate number of companies are denying registrants basic rights.
In some cases they may be doing this by accident, but in other cases it is 100% deliberate.
There is no valid reason for your web designer or developer to put their details all over your domain. None.
If you have asked your designer / developer to register a domain for you and paid them for it then it should be registered to you (which is one of the reasons why .ie domains are attractive!).
Over the past couple of years I've seen some crazy things, including a particular "registrar" that registers ALL .co.uk domains to themselves regardless of who has requested the domain.
Another company warehoused hundreds of .eu domains "on behalf" of their clients ie. in the hope that the clients would want to register the domains at some point in the future. Of course it wasn't clear if they would be charged a premium for this "service".
If a provider won't update the DNS for a domain then there is something wrong somewhere.
(If they can't update it due to the DNS not being loaded that is the registrant or their provider's issue!)
There's no good reason to delay handing over an EPP key.
If a registrant wants their co.uk domain retagged simply do it.
Why make people suffer?
As some of you know I have been writing a column for PC Live for the last couple of years.
This month's edition just arrived, so I thought I might as well republish it here.
If you want to get your personal IE domain then remember we'll be taking pre-orders up until the "go live" date.
Unfortunately there seems to be some confusion about which domains are allowed and which ones aren't.
To start with, as is indicated on the order form, to pre-order personal IE domains you need to submit them as follows:
select the applicant class ‘Natural Person’ and the domain category ‘Personal Name’.
DO NOT try any other combinations. If you do your application will be rejected.
You cannot register your surname / family name.
You cannot register your first name.
While your friends may call you all sorts of interesting names you can only register names that you can provide documentation for.
What documentation is accepted?
If you are based in the republic:
Irish passport
Irish driver's licence
Irish revenue / social welfare document showing PPS number
Irish birth certificate
Irish marriage certificate
Irish utility bill (e.g.: NTL, Chorus, SKY / ESB, Airtricity / Bord Gais / Eircom / Vodafone, O2, Meteor, Three - bill pay phones only).
If you are based in Northern Ireland:
UK driver's licence with Northern Ireland address.
HM Revenue & Customs / Northern Ireland Social Security Agency document showing National Insurance number
Northern Ireland birth certificate
Northern Ireland marriage certificate
Northern Ireland utility bill (e.g.: NTL, Chorus, SKY, UTV Internet / NIE, Airtricity / British Gas / BT / Vodafone, O2, 3, T-Mobile, Orange, BT - bill pay phones only).
Where should I send the documentation?
All documentation should be sent to us either via fax or email.
Our fax numbers are:
+353 (0) 1 4811 763
UK Fax: 0845 280 088
US Fax: 213 232 3366
Please ensure that any documentation is clearly marked with the domain name in question.
DO NOT send us original documents via mail.
What format name(s) can I register?
Johnsmith.ie [first name / surname]
Johnpaulsmith.ie [first name / middlename / surname]
John-smith.ie [first name / hyphen / surname]
John-paul-smith.ie [first name / hyphen / middlename / hyphen / surname]
Johnpsmith.ie [first name / middle initial / surname]
John-p-smith.ie [first name / hyphen / middle initial / hyphen / surname]
Jsmith.ie [first initial / surname]
Jpsmith.ie [first initial / middle initial / surname]
Jp-smith.ie [first initial / middle initial / hyphen / surname]
J-smith.ie [first initial / hyphen / surname]
J-p-smith.ie [first initial / hyphen / middle initial / hyphen / surname]
Paulsmith.ie [middlename / surname]
Paul-smith.ie [middlename / hyphen / surname]
Psmith.ie [middle initial / surname]
P-smith.ie [middle initial / hyphen / surname]
NB: You will need to be able to provide documentation of the name chosen with the spelling chosen, so if you want to register johnnysmith.ie you will need a document in that name
Personal IE domains will be available from October 31st 2007.
Basically if you want to register yourname.ie you will be able to do so after October 31st.
Since we expect that there will be a high demand for these domains we have put in place a queuing mechanism.
How will this work?
Our development team have put together a queuing system to hold the orders until October 31st.
Any orders for personal IE domains placed between now and October 31st at 8am will be submitted to the registry on the "go live" day.
What happens if two people want the same domain?
Domain registrations are on a first come first served basis. We will be submitting the requests to the IEDR in the order in which they were received. We cannot offer ANY guarantees (neither can anyone else)
What if someone else orders the domain from another company?
As already mentioned it's "first come, first served".
What if my chosen name is taken on the "go live" day?
We will offer people the opportunity of registering an alternative personal domain
Is Blacknight's system better than other?
Other companies have also setup queues, but only one or two of them have their servers physically in the same data centre as the IEDR.
Some of the other companies don't even have servers in Ireland, so their connections to the IEDR's API servers will be significantly slower.
There's been quite a bit of media coverage in the last few days about the upcoming relaxation of IEDR rules to allow people to register yourname.ie.
While some of the reporting hasn't been particularly inspired some of it has been quite misleading.
As of October 31st any Irish citizen or resident in Ireland will be able to register their name.
You will NOT be able to register ANY name you want post October 31st. You will only be able to register your given name or a variation thereof that you can prove (I'll post about that in more detail later).
However, if you are a published writer, artist (in the broadest sense of the word), politician or business person who actively trades using your own name at present you can register your name NOW. You do not have to wait until the end of October.
One of the examples that people have mentioned is politicians' names, such as bertieahern.ie - he's already got his domain name, so there's no point trying to get it. Even if he hadn't got it already he could get it before the end of October.
If you are a doctor, solicitor or other tradesman that trades using your name you can register your domain name today. You do not need to wait!
Just got this email from the IEDR:
It has once again come to the attention of the IEDR that a company operating under the name “Internet Register Ireland” is in the process of contacting businesses with registered .ie domain names by post and by fax, soliciting them to register their domain name with the “Internet Register Ireland”. The “Internet Register Ireland”, a German based company will request you to fill out their form and return it to them signed. It should be noted that they charge an excessive fee of approximately €958 for the registration of the .ie domain name in their database.
We would like to reassure all of our customers that no such organisation has been authorised to act on behalf of the IEDR. If you are contacted in this manner we would recommend that you disregard this letter and advise your customers to be aware of this activity.
The IEDR are responding to enquiries from concerned domain holders, by recommending them to contact an official IE Reseller if they require any further Internet services for their website.
The IE Domain Registry have finally released details of the policy change on personal domains which I've mentioned in the past. (For a long rant please see my personal blog)
We will be offering personal IE domains from October 31st 2007 onwards.
For clarity I am republishing the full text of the IEDR's press release:
The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s dot-ie domain names, today announced the relaxation of the rules for registering personal dot-ie domain names for individuals. This policy relaxation comes into effect following full consultation with the dot-ie reseller community and industry organisations.
Registration of personal domains will be available to individuals from Wednesday, 31st October, 2007. This follows a seven week notice period, to allow time for sole traders, professionals, politicians, trademark holders who have not already registered their .ie Internet address, to do so under existing non-personal domain categories.
The introduction of personal dot-ie domain names is a result of the increased popularity of social networking and blogging sites and the increasing number of individuals who are coming online.
The registration of personal domain names will be open to all individuals who can authenticate a claim to the domain name and who have a real and substantive connection to the island of Ireland. To authenticate a claim, a copy of an identification document is required, for example an Irish utility bill or driving licence. The name on the document supplied must match exactly the domain name applied for. This requirement ensures that the status of Ireland’s dot-ie namespace, as the world’s second safest country code top level domain, is maintained and protected in the future. Applications will be time-stamped to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.
Commenting on the introduction of dot-ie personal domain names, Mr. David Curtin, Chief Executive of the IE Domain Registry said, “The IEDR is pleased to announce the relaxation of rules for personal dot-ie domain names. To maintain the integrity of the dot-ie domain namespace, which has negligible levels of cyber squatting and cyber crime, applicants will need to authenticate their claim by providing matching supporting documentation such as an Irish passport or utility bill.
This limited registration policy relaxation comes into effect following consultation with dot-ie resellers. The introduction of personal domain names was first proposed to internet service providers three years ago, but there was little interest due to expected low levels of demand. Since then the broadband take-up and popularity of social networking has created a desire for a personal presence on the Internet, which in turn will have a positive effect on the level of demand for personal dot-ie domain names. The IEDR has also significantly reduced its prices, which have fallen by 50% since 2003 and introduced key system changes that facilitate fast, automated and real time registration, which has reduced resellers’ process costs.”
The IE Domain Registry will be conducting maintenance on their systems on the mornings of Tuesday September 4th and Wednesday September 5th 2007.
From 6 am to 9 am no orders for new IE domains will be processed.
A lot of people signup for hosting using free email accounts or maybe their "current" work email address.
Unfortunately nobody on our end can possibly know if those email addresses are valid weeks, months or years later.
If you change your email address or telephone number you can easily update it via the control panel, or contact our accounts team and get them to do it for you.
If you don't keep the details up to date you may miss important emails from us about your hosting account, your domain renewal or even the chance to get something for nothing :)
Seriously, though, it is important that people keep their contact details up to date.
If you change jobs or stop using your free email account you do run a very serious risk of missing an important email from your hosting provider, registrar or ISP.
Take the time to check that the details on your .com domains are correct, especially if you have transferred them from another provider.
Under ICANN rules the WHOIS data has to be accurate at all times.
With other registries, such as Eurid, only a very small amount of personal data is viewable to the public via standard whois. It is very hard to spam the contacts on a .eu domain, for example, so please do not let a fear of spam lead to you losing out on a domain's renewal.
Since we've had several queries about registering "personal" IE domains I felt it might be prudent to clarify matters.
First off - you currently CANNOT register a personal IE domain such as johndoe.ie
There has been a lot of discussion in the media surrounding personal IE domains (I may have contributed in no little part to this ...), but the important point keeps being missed.
Until the IEDR board makes its decision on the change it will not happen.
We are hoping that it will happen and happen soon, but the change has not been implemented yet.
With regards to what will be allowed:
You will be able to register your full name OR an accepted version of it.
So if your name was Michele Neylon (might as well use myself!) I could register micheleneylon.ie or michelejneylon.ie, as both forms of my name are documented.
I wouldn't be able to register:
micheneylon.ie or neylon.ie or any other derivatives, as none of them are valid and documented ie. I can't prove that they exist officially.
NB:It maybe possible to register all of the above names using other criteria, but I am addressing the specific personal name category.
If you are trading under your own name now is the time to register your IE domain.
Why?
It is highly likely that the IE Domain Registry will be amending the rules governing "personal" IE domains.
What does this mean?
Soon any Irish resident will be able to register theirname.ie ie. if your name is Pat Murphy, you will be able to register patmurphy.ie, as long as your official documents list your name as "Pat" and not "Patrick".
We'll make more announcements on the subject as the official changes are announced, but we would expect to see an IEDR policy change in the next 2 months.