Note that it is the creation and registration process, as handled by ICANN that annoys me, not the technical implementation, which is DNS.

Originally (in theory), the various top-level domain (TLD) names were used to distinguish the classes of entities that registered domains: .com for business; .org for non-profit organizations; .net for network infrastructure businesses; .edu for educational institutions; and later the addition of .biz, .pro, .info, .name, ….

With the exponential growth of the web, it became harder, and more controversial, to make these distinctions. For their own “protection”, entities began registering names under multiple TLDs. Typically, one would be chosen as the “real” name and the others would simply be aliases for or redirect to the real domain. One of the few useful distinctions I’ve seen is .com and .org being used to distinguish the commercial and FOSS parts of an entity.

The proliferation of TLDs is basically a way for registrars to mint money.

A new era in the way websites are named was ushered in yesterday [June 26] when the governing body for internet domain names announced a massive liberalisation. The body that oversees the internet’s structure yesterday approved a “land grab” for new web addresses that will allow people to apply for any top-level domain name [...] Icann is not being forced to act because of there are not enough name options, but because it wants to open up the system to increase consumer choice. –Mike Harvey and Jonathan Richards, Icann set to spark internet land grab, Times Online

“Consumer choice”? Riiiight.

I’ve already ranted about Network Solutions once today. But here’s another example of this “minting” I’m talking about. They don’t even need a new TLD. The following (with some reformatting) is taken from an email solicitation I received from them a few days ago.

Is the .com domain name you want taken? Get the domain name you’ve always wanted with .us.com — the .com alternative! With a .us.com domain name extension you can:
Protect your brand | Help prevent unauthorized use of your trademarks and licensed names.
Drive traffic to your existing site | Register the .us.com extension and forward traffic to your main Web site.
Expand your reach on the Web | Increase your brand recognition and help potential customers find you more easily.

“The .com alternative”? Riiiight.

Arrrgh.

h/t: zogger, Top Prices for Top Level Domains, Technocrat
image: LionKimbro, Domain name space.svg, Wikimedia Commons

Due to my own laziness, I had to renew my registration with Network Solutions [Wikipedia entry] instead of transferring to another registrar. Yes, I know I should have transferred it long ago.

Since that time 10 years ago, it has become possible to register domains with any of several registrars, and I’ve done so. It has also been easy to transfer domains among them. Except for NetSol. When I’ve transferred non-NetSol domains, it has only taken a few minutes or hours from initiation to completion, mostly dealing with approval emails and the time for the automation to complete.

However, when I transferred my one other NetSol domain, it took nearly a week to complete, including refused transfers, phone calls, and smarmy email trying to prevent me from transferring. Based on that experience I should have begun the transfer early, but I’d waited until too close to the expiration of lohnet.org; I didn’t want to risk the domain falling through the cracks in the middle of a transfer.

You have to initiate a transfer with your current registrar. It was almost impossible to find out how to transfer a domain away from NetSol, but of course there were plenty of informative links on their web site on how to transfer to them.

After finally discovering how, and jumping through the proper hoops to initiate the transfer, my new registrar kept getting rejection notices from NetSol whenever it tried to complete the transfer. That took actual phone calls to NetSol to resolve.

Then I started getting smarmy email messages from NetSol wanting to know why I was transferring, was I really sure, etc. The message that informed me the transfer had actually been accepted also informed me that NetSol would sit on the transfer for five days just in case I changed my mind, The only link in the email appeared to be a link to automatically cancel the transfer. It took another phone call to find out that the same link could be used to say go ahead and transfer now.

Next year I’ll pay more attention and begin the transfer early.

This turned into a brief rant about NetSol rather than history. Oh well.