8 ms·

I am curious: does anyone here on HN have a registrar to recommend who they know (preferably from experience) would actually be more helpful in this circumstanc

by mcherm 13y ago

I am curious: does anyone here on HN have a registrar to recommend who they know (preferably from experience) would actually be more helpful in this circumstance? Because from the sound of it, the unwillingness of the registrars (both of them) to take action here without being compelled to by a lawsuit is the root of the problem. The FBI's willingness to be helpful is nice, but doesn't solve the root problem, and as a law enforcement agency they can only really help in cases where they manage to "catch the criminal". And paying off the criminal just isn't an acceptable solution (although stopping the payment immediately is cool and all). I would be willing to select a registrar on the basis of their policies, not their prices. Policies like this sort of dispute resolution and policies about how they handle DMCA notices or government subpoenas (and non-subpoenas), if only I knew which registrars had the best reputations for these things.

rajat 13y ago
I second this. I'm beginning to hear more an more of this problem, and while this is anecdotal, it does seem to be increasing.
shiftpgdn 13y ago
Look at it from the GoDaddy's point of view: This woman is claiming she has rights to a domain in one of their customer's accounts. As far as they know it was legitimately transferred in by one of their paying customers. Her real issue rests with HostMonster and the ICANN dispute resolution system.
- unreal37 13y ago
  GoDaddy could seize the domain until the dispute is settled. If everyone recognized she was the previous owner, that should be enough to cause an investigation into the transfer. Not saying a claim from anyone should cause a seizure, but the legitimate previous owner should be able to dispute it for a time period. Domains are stolen all the damn time.
  - shiftpgdn 13y ago
    I worked in webhosting for nearly a decade so I'm quite familiar with the volume of fraud and stolen domains. But to play the devils advocate how would you feel if somebody claimed a domain you own was stolen just to freeze your account and waste your time. You'd be furious at GoDaddy for freezing your account over a fictitious claim.
    - philbarr 13y ago
      They only need to freeze the account if the domain was moved very recently.
      - dsrguru 13y ago
        This. I want to upvote this comment a hundred times. If there's a dispute with probable cause, temporarily freezing the domain while launching an immediate investigation seems by far the best balance of thwarting domain theft and minimizing fraudulent claims.
        shiftpgdn 13y ago
        By ICANN policy domains can only be moved once every 60 days. Did you want the domain name taken offline?
        dsrguru 13y ago
        I'm not very familiar with their policies. Does that apply even in the case of theft? Didn't the article's author recover her domain within a few days?
        shiftpgdn 13y ago
        It's no matter what you are only allowed to move domains once every 60 days. It is to prevent somebody from stealing a domain and moving it through 10 different registrars to wash the history of ownership.
- rhizome 13y ago
  The business goals of GoDaddy preclude them from giving a shit because they can't hire enough people to support issues like this.
- Geekette 13y ago
  No, GoDaddy was never in doubt: "No one at either company questioned my statement (supported by written proof) that the website belonged to me. No one doubted that it had been transferred without my authority". So GoDaddy's refusal to help was ridiculous. At the very least, they could have frozen control of the site for a day or two while investigating.
  - shiftpgdn 13y ago
    By ICANN policy domains can only be moved once every 60 days. How did you want them to go about freezing the site? ICANN has a dispute resolution policy in place.
    - Geekette 13y ago
      They could have disabled access to it by the thief. The 60 day policy does not apply to cases where it is "being transferred back to the original Registrar in cases where both Registrars so agree ..." http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/transfers/policy http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/transfers/polic... And given that both registrars acknowledged that she was the real owner, I'd expect the transfer (to the thief) would not be counted as a legitimate one within that period.
Cenk 13y ago
Namecheap offers two-factor-authentication.
- notduncansmith 13y ago
  I've used Namecheap for years and they've been great for me (never had a situation like this happen though).
- foxylad 13y ago
  Thanks, good to know.
rafaelm 13y ago
Moniker claims that they have never lost a domain. I've got several domains (over 50) registered with them and never had a problem in almost 8 years. Many of them belonged to high traffic sites that might be desirable to thieves. I also have many with Name cheap right now and haven't had a problem them either.
- coldcode 13y ago
  I use them as well and have had no issues; however just because two of us have had no issues, it's not much of a data point.
  - phreanix 13y ago
    True, I'd be more interested in their actual resolution process and the steps they take to safeguard domain owners. It works both ways though I think, the same steps they take to secure your domain are the same ones that will make it hard for you to get it back.
    - pkfrank 13y ago
      I use Moniker as well. I pay for their "Portfolio MaxLock" (https://www.moniker.com/domainnames/domainsecurity.jsp https://www.moniker.com/domainnames/domainsecurity.jsp) service. Whenever I want to make a change (even DNS), I'm forced to answer the security questions that only I would know. In order to get around that, I'd have to contact their security team directly and provide a substantial amount of identification. Aside from the security features, Moniker's site and technology seems to be fairly unimpressive. I'd definitely be open to exploring other options if people have suggestions for truly-safer registrars.
- lingben 13y ago
  moniker is not the domain registrar you want: http://www.dnforum.com/f208/warning-privacy-whois-issues-failures-moniker-com-keydrive-again-thread-505269.html http://www.dnforum.com/f208/warning-privacy-whois-issues-fai...
Fuxy 13y ago
I use gandi.net never had any serious issues with them and since their located in France (yes i intentionally avoided American companies) all this suing problem may not apply to them or at least it would be a lot more difficult. One thing is certain though most people i know have had issues with GoDaddy and avoid it like the plague.
- WildUtah 13y ago
  Gandi now has offices in the USA, so they are effectively an American company as far as being subject to the US legal system and extraconstitutional orders from agencies and such. You won't get any privacy protection or immunity from illegal orders from Gandi.
  - Fuxy 13y ago
    Oh well off to find another good company for may gray area domains then. Too bad I liked them why are all of them going to America. I don't want my stuff subject to American laws.
  - chris_wot 13y ago
    I think you mean extraterritorial jurisdiction. Extraconsitutional orders would be... against the U.S. Consitution and illegal :-)
  - soulshake 13y ago
    Gandi does have an office in San Francisco, but our registrar service is accredited and located in France. It is under EU law. Those who have been following the industry's responses to the massively reprehensible, illegal dragnet surveillance will know better than to take any company at their word as they swear up and down that they care about their users' right to privacy. So I know this will be taken with a grain of salt (hell, I take it with a grain of salt and I work here)... But as far as I know, and I've asked around, we _actually_ do protect our customers' privacy to the maximum possible legal extent. The day I find out otherwise is the day I no longer work here.
zimbatm 13y ago
http://gandi.net http://gandi.net - I have never had my domain stolen but in general Gandi.net are good people and they care about their customers.
- jellicle 13y ago
  I lost a domain because Gandi refused to do anything about it; although I was well within the renewal period and tried to contact them many times Gandi refused to process any sort of renewal until it expired and was deleted by their system. Gandi ONLY accepts support requests through their web form (no email, no phone), and generally ignores those or provides nonsense answers several days later. As long as you never ever need any sort of support, Gandi is fine.
  - soulshake 13y ago
    @jellicle, that doesn't sound like us. Can I look into your case further? If we messed up, we'll make it right.
    - jellicle 13y ago
      This was several years ago; what's done is done. I moved all my domains to another provider shortly afterwards. I'm not giving you another chance to screw me.
      - Shinkei 13y ago
        You publicly complained about their customer service. They have offered to right the wrong. You have a poor sense of fairness if you are willing to make a public claim and then aren't willing to address the issue when the company calls you out on it.
        jellicle 13y ago
        Oh, the stupidity, it burns. What sort of righting do you think they could do, several years past the fact? Gandi refused to respond to their web form for a period of about four weeks or more; they let my domain expire and be deleted (if I recall, the only problem was that my credit card expiration date needed to be updated in their system and the charge processed). Besides the immediate hassle and serious annoyance of having an uncontactable company ignore their support form, it ended up costing me a few hundred dollars to buy the domain back from a domain speculator who snatched it up. What price should I put on that? What price is it worth to Gandi? Are they going to offer me a year's free domain registration with them? That offer has negative value to me; I wouldn't take it unless paid a lot of money to do so. Are they going to offer me a pile of money (no they aren't, it's not worth it to them). So what exactly are they going to offer here to right the wrong? The point here - which the top of this thread made, but maybe it wasn't explicit enough for you - is that services such as domain registration can easily have effects disproportionate to the cost of providing them. If all of Google's domains were deleted tomorrow, the cost to Google would easily exceed ($10 x number_of_domains). So a poor service experience can easily do more damage than the sum total of all revenue ever received from a particular customer. Thus the commenter looking for companies which try hard to provide good service. Gandi.net is not such a company, in my experience. (Hint: companies which provide good service have email addresses and phone numbers to contact them.) That's my only comment.
mwww 13y ago
Domeny.tv (http://www.domeny.tv/en http://www.domeny.tv/en) protects its login via 2FA: http://www.domeny.tv/en/two-factor-authentication http://www.domeny.tv/en/two-factor-authentication
the_ancient 13y ago
I use NameSilo 2 Factor Authentication and other security policies
jypepin 13y ago
I use iwantmyname.com and their service is amazingly good and fast. I never got my domain name stolen, but I'm confident they would do anything they could for me to recover it!
frigg 13y ago
>I would be willing to select a registrar on the basis of their policies, not their prices. Yes, absolutely this. I've searched through forums and read various reviews of various registrars and some say gandi is good, some name.com, some others, but at the end of the day nobody said "I've had this problem where my domain was stolen and this company was willing to help". I'm also willing to pay more for good support when serious problems arise.
zaph0d 13y ago
namecheap.com is definitely one of the best per my experience and what I have heard.
zaph0d 13y ago
namecheap.com is definitely one of the best per my experience and what I have heard.
joshmlewis 13y ago
I use DNSimple.com. They've been great and are quick at support.
biot 13y ago
I use EasyDNS. Here's why: http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-1-for-support-press-2-to-get-the-last-4-digits-of-your-credit-card-number-on-file-here/ http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-...
caleb23 13y ago
I would recommend Melbourne IT or Namecheap for what you are looking for. I would recommend you take advantage of WHOIS protection, two factor authentication, locking your domain at the registrar level (not just with Namecheap for example, but with the actual registrar), using strong passwords, etc. The company can only do so much, so make sure you do everything you can do as well to make your domains as secure as possible.

by mcherm 13y ago

rajat 13y ago

I second this. I'm beginning to hear more an more of this problem, and while this is anecdotal, it does seem to be increasing.

shiftpgdn 13y ago

Look at it from the GoDaddy's point of view: This woman is claiming she has rights to a domain in one of their customer's accounts. As far as they know it was legitimately transferred in by one of their paying customers. Her real issue rests with HostMonster and the ICANN dispute resolution system.

unreal37 13y ago
GoDaddy could seize the domain until the dispute is settled. If everyone recognized she was the previous owner, that should be enough to cause an investigation into the transfer. Not saying a claim from anyone should cause a seizure, but the legitimate previous owner should be able to dispute it for a time period. Domains are stolen all the damn time.
- shiftpgdn 13y ago
  I worked in webhosting for nearly a decade so I'm quite familiar with the volume of fraud and stolen domains. But to play the devils advocate how would you feel if somebody claimed a domain you own was stolen just to freeze your account and waste your time. You'd be furious at GoDaddy for freezing your account over a fictitious claim.
  - philbarr 13y ago
    They only need to freeze the account if the domain was moved very recently.
    - dsrguru 13y ago
      This. I want to upvote this comment a hundred times. If there's a dispute with probable cause, temporarily freezing the domain while launching an immediate investigation seems by far the best balance of thwarting domain theft and minimizing fraudulent claims.
      - shiftpgdn 13y ago
        By ICANN policy domains can only be moved once every 60 days. Did you want the domain name taken offline?
        dsrguru 13y ago
        I'm not very familiar with their policies. Does that apply even in the case of theft? Didn't the article's author recover her domain within a few days?
        shiftpgdn 13y ago
        It's no matter what you are only allowed to move domains once every 60 days. It is to prevent somebody from stealing a domain and moving it through 10 different registrars to wash the history of ownership.
rhizome 13y ago
The business goals of GoDaddy preclude them from giving a shit because they can't hire enough people to support issues like this.
Geekette 13y ago
No, GoDaddy was never in doubt: "No one at either company questioned my statement (supported by written proof) that the website belonged to me. No one doubted that it had been transferred without my authority". So GoDaddy's refusal to help was ridiculous. At the very least, they could have frozen control of the site for a day or two while investigating.
- shiftpgdn 13y ago
  By ICANN policy domains can only be moved once every 60 days. How did you want them to go about freezing the site? ICANN has a dispute resolution policy in place.
  - Geekette 13y ago
    They could have disabled access to it by the thief. The 60 day policy does not apply to cases where it is "being transferred back to the original Registrar in cases where both Registrars so agree ..." http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/transfers/policy http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/transfers/polic... And given that both registrars acknowledged that she was the real owner, I'd expect the transfer (to the thief) would not be counted as a legitimate one within that period.

Cenk 13y ago

Namecheap offers two-factor-authentication.

notduncansmith 13y ago
I've used Namecheap for years and they've been great for me (never had a situation like this happen though).
foxylad 13y ago
Thanks, good to know.

rafaelm 13y ago

Moniker claims that they have never lost a domain. I've got several domains (over 50) registered with them and never had a problem in almost 8 years. Many of them belonged to high traffic sites that might be desirable to thieves. I also have many with Name cheap right now and haven't had a problem them either.

coldcode 13y ago
I use them as well and have had no issues; however just because two of us have had no issues, it's not much of a data point.
- phreanix 13y ago
  True, I'd be more interested in their actual resolution process and the steps they take to safeguard domain owners. It works both ways though I think, the same steps they take to secure your domain are the same ones that will make it hard for you to get it back.
  - pkfrank 13y ago
    I use Moniker as well. I pay for their "Portfolio MaxLock" (https://www.moniker.com/domainnames/domainsecurity.jsp https://www.moniker.com/domainnames/domainsecurity.jsp) service. Whenever I want to make a change (even DNS), I'm forced to answer the security questions that only I would know. In order to get around that, I'd have to contact their security team directly and provide a substantial amount of identification. Aside from the security features, Moniker's site and technology seems to be fairly unimpressive. I'd definitely be open to exploring other options if people have suggestions for truly-safer registrars.
lingben 13y ago
moniker is not the domain registrar you want: http://www.dnforum.com/f208/warning-privacy-whois-issues-failures-moniker-com-keydrive-again-thread-505269.html http://www.dnforum.com/f208/warning-privacy-whois-issues-fai...

Fuxy 13y ago

I use gandi.net never had any serious issues with them and since their located in France (yes i intentionally avoided American companies) all this suing problem may not apply to them or at least it would be a lot more difficult. One thing is certain though most people i know have had issues with GoDaddy and avoid it like the plague.

WildUtah 13y ago
Gandi now has offices in the USA, so they are effectively an American company as far as being subject to the US legal system and extraconstitutional orders from agencies and such. You won't get any privacy protection or immunity from illegal orders from Gandi.
- Fuxy 13y ago
  Oh well off to find another good company for may gray area domains then. Too bad I liked them why are all of them going to America. I don't want my stuff subject to American laws.
- chris_wot 13y ago
  I think you mean extraterritorial jurisdiction. Extraconsitutional orders would be... against the U.S. Consitution and illegal :-)
- soulshake 13y ago
  Gandi does have an office in San Francisco, but our registrar service is accredited and located in France. It is under EU law. Those who have been following the industry's responses to the massively reprehensible, illegal dragnet surveillance will know better than to take any company at their word as they swear up and down that they care about their users' right to privacy. So I know this will be taken with a grain of salt (hell, I take it with a grain of salt and I work here)... But as far as I know, and I've asked around, we _actually_ do protect our customers' privacy to the maximum possible legal extent. The day I find out otherwise is the day I no longer work here.

zimbatm 13y ago

http://gandi.net http://gandi.net - I have never had my domain stolen but in general Gandi.net are good people and they care about their customers.

jellicle 13y ago
I lost a domain because Gandi refused to do anything about it; although I was well within the renewal period and tried to contact them many times Gandi refused to process any sort of renewal until it expired and was deleted by their system. Gandi ONLY accepts support requests through their web form (no email, no phone), and generally ignores those or provides nonsense answers several days later. As long as you never ever need any sort of support, Gandi is fine.
- soulshake 13y ago
  @jellicle, that doesn't sound like us. Can I look into your case further? If we messed up, we'll make it right.
  - jellicle 13y ago
    This was several years ago; what's done is done. I moved all my domains to another provider shortly afterwards. I'm not giving you another chance to screw me.
    - Shinkei 13y ago
      You publicly complained about their customer service. They have offered to right the wrong. You have a poor sense of fairness if you are willing to make a public claim and then aren't willing to address the issue when the company calls you out on it.
      - jellicle 13y ago
        Oh, the stupidity, it burns. What sort of righting do you think they could do, several years past the fact? Gandi refused to respond to their web form for a period of about four weeks or more; they let my domain expire and be deleted (if I recall, the only problem was that my credit card expiration date needed to be updated in their system and the charge processed). Besides the immediate hassle and serious annoyance of having an uncontactable company ignore their support form, it ended up costing me a few hundred dollars to buy the domain back from a domain speculator who snatched it up. What price should I put on that? What price is it worth to Gandi? Are they going to offer me a year's free domain registration with them? That offer has negative value to me; I wouldn't take it unless paid a lot of money to do so. Are they going to offer me a pile of money (no they aren't, it's not worth it to them). So what exactly are they going to offer here to right the wrong? The point here - which the top of this thread made, but maybe it wasn't explicit enough for you - is that services such as domain registration can easily have effects disproportionate to the cost of providing them. If all of Google's domains were deleted tomorrow, the cost to Google would easily exceed ($10 x number_of_domains). So a poor service experience can easily do more damage than the sum total of all revenue ever received from a particular customer. Thus the commenter looking for companies which try hard to provide good service. Gandi.net is not such a company, in my experience. (Hint: companies which provide good service have email addresses and phone numbers to contact them.) That's my only comment.

mwww 13y ago

Domeny.tv (http://www.domeny.tv/en http://www.domeny.tv/en) protects its login via 2FA: http://www.domeny.tv/en/two-factor-authentication http://www.domeny.tv/en/two-factor-authentication

the_ancient 13y ago

I use NameSilo 2 Factor Authentication and other security policies

jypepin 13y ago

I use iwantmyname.com and their service is amazingly good and fast. I never got my domain name stolen, but I'm confident they would do anything they could for me to recover it!

frigg 13y ago

>I would be willing to select a registrar on the basis of their policies, not their prices. Yes, absolutely this. I've searched through forums and read various reviews of various registrars and some say gandi is good, some name.com, some others, but at the end of the day nobody said "I've had this problem where my domain was stolen and this company was willing to help". I'm also willing to pay more for good support when serious problems arise.

zaph0d 13y ago

namecheap.com is definitely one of the best per my experience and what I have heard.

zaph0d 13y ago

namecheap.com is definitely one of the best per my experience and what I have heard.

joshmlewis 13y ago

I use DNSimple.com. They've been great and are quick at support.

biot 13y ago

I use EasyDNS. Here's why: http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-1-for-support-press-2-to-get-the-last-4-digits-of-your-credit-card-number-on-file-here/ http://blog.easydns.org/2014/01/29/welcome-to-easydns-press-...

caleb23 13y ago

I would recommend Melbourne IT or Namecheap for what you are looking for. I would recommend you take advantage of WHOIS protection, two factor authentication, locking your domain at the registrar level (not just with Namecheap for example, but with the actual registrar), using strong passwords, etc. The company can only do so much, so make sure you do everything you can do as well to make your domains as secure as possible.