[conspire] (forw) I might need to change registrars?

[Michael Paoli]

I STRONGLY recommend gandi.net - can't really say enough good things
about them.

Caveats/limitations/exceptions?
   I don't have experience using them for high volume registrations, API
based registration and management thereof, but as far as I'm aware they
quite well handle that too and have many such customers - I just don't
have any personal experience using them for that.
   They're not the cheapest - but they're very reasonable, and in at
least my opinion dang well worth it.  They also have volume discounts.
One can also pay lots more and get much worse with at least some other
registrars.
   Bells/whistles/extras.  Many registrars toss in as complimentary
and/or offer all kinds of additional services.  If one wants/needs all
that goop from one single provider, then maybe gandi.net isn't what one
wants.  However, for rock solid oozing competence registrar, gandi.net
has that, plus a fair spattering of more common things one might
additionally want, as complimentary or add-ons, e.g. some basic DNS
hosting, very good access delegation capabilities, so various aspects of
domain management can be separated out among various persons (e.g. DNS
vs. whois vs. billing, etc.).

In approximate chronological order, I'll lay out at least many of the
ways I've been impressed by gandi.net.  And haven't had any negative
experiences at all with them (or even heard of such!) - so that itself
probably also says something about them too.
After that I'll list some of the problems I've been familiar with
regarding other registrars - many of which I've had personal experience
with such issues.

Supports Debian - I think when I first ran across the info (and they may
even run based on Debian? - but I don't know regarding that), they
allowed all Debian developers to have domains for free!  Last I checked
they no longer do that, however they make available to all Debian
Developers their highest discount tier pricing, regardless of how few
domains any Debian Developer has with them.

Not sure if they still have offices in San Francisco, but they at least
did (and probably have at least some presence in the US?  Though they're
headquartered in Germany - I think they may be located where and such
that they're mostly not under the claws of US law (at least regarding
controlling domains), but do fall under EU and GDPR).  They hosted an
Open Source event at their offices there in San Francisco - I think it
was some *buntu install event, or some other event.

Really everything I've heard/read about gandi.net has been positive - or
at least certainly not negative.

Even before I had any domains or services on/from gandi.net, when I was
just setting up an account on there (required before, e.g. having
domains there - and can have an account there and no services/domains -
no cost to simply create account there) - I ran across a slight bug in
their interface - notably setting up account in US, and dealing with
states.  I reported the issue to them.  They fixed it lickety split and
were great on communication and follow-through to check and ensure that
all was well and I was no longer seeing the earlier issue I'd reported -
pretty impressive response for a non-paying (or at least not-yet-paying)
customer.

Their no bullsh*t slogan/motto really does very much apply.  No
gimmicks, tricks, clean interfaces, they don't shove bunches of
advertisements and stuff like that in your face - generally only the
slightest mention of some offers - when they really are special/bargains
- and generally only see that on their web site, and pretty dang
unobtrusive - generally have to click or follow a link for more details
on stuff like that - so it's generally only a small notice on screen -
and easily dismissed - and won't come back and be nagging one.  And no
promotional/sales/marketing/etc. emails - unless one opts into that
stuff.

Renewal and other official emails - you don't get other goop (unless you
explicitly opt in).  The emails have exactly what's needed and very well
laid out.  E.g. got a domain that's heading towards expiration?  Yes,
you get the email - you also get in the Subject: what domain, how long
until it expires, and body of the email tells you when it expires
including timezone, and it also spells out exactly what happens and when
if the domain isn't renewed - no guess work, and quite useful Subject -
especially among the many other emails one might typically be looking
over.  Essentially their communications, including email, also of quite
high quality.

As I'd similarly quite say of Debian, "It just works" - pretty much rock
solid clean, well thought out, and about bug free.  Generally anything
one needs to do with domains on gandi.net, it's quick, easy, efficient -
at least to the extent feasible (notwithstanding some mandatory periods
for some operations and such - but it goes as fast as feasible - unlike
some registrars that'll drag it out as long as they can get away with -
e.g. like when transferring a domain away).

They do continue to improve their interface - it was never bad in my
experience, but they do add/improve features which are actually useful
(well, at least to some/many) - e.g. pretty easily allowing one to split
up and delegate various parts of registrant/domain administration (e.g.
billing, whois, DNS, etc.).  They also typically don't instantly force
interface changes on users - can generally use both the latest and
greatest ... and also prior generation interface for quite some time
after the latest and greatest becomes available.  So, no jarring forced
fast hard changes (Atlassian, et. al., are you listening? ... no).

GDPR - I think they handled that about as best feasible.  Yes, the
default changed (and they may have had to do that for practical and/or
legal reasons), but if you want that data public - easy peasy - no
support tickets, or emails, or trying to pass clue to clueless ... the
stuff basically just works.

glue records - likewise easy peasy - copy, paste, click, done.  And yes,
IPv6 too, no problem at all (wish I could say that for all registrars).

DNSSEC - likewise easy peasy.  Again, wish I could say that for all
registrars.

Quite same applies for any data one needs to change, e.g. whois, DNS
delegation, etc.

I might be forgetting some details and further examples, but pretty much
solidly rocks, excellent service, and quite reasonable price for the
quality.

The good, the bad, and the ugly?  For the good, see above.

The bad and the ugly - no shortage of that out there.  I'll give a fair
number of examples - most or all of which I've had personal experience
with.  Not that I've got experience with all registrars - but this might
also serve as a list of some of the many things to watch out for that at
least some (/many) registrars will tend to make more painful than
necessary - through their lack of competence - or just not doing things
well/excellently, when they quite reasonably and easily could.

NetworkSolutions.com / Web.com - avoid like the plague.  They may not be
the worst out there, but they're pretty horrible.  Some of their sh*t:
   Tons of marketing/sales/spam email, difficult to opt out (have to call
a phone number and can take up to 30 days to opt out!).
   Overpriced - their default pricing is horrible.  But if you play the
song and dance with their offers (e.g. yearly at renewal), you can get a
reasonable price (just start to go through the motions like one is going
to transfer the domain away - they you get offers for a reasonable price
- about market rate and about 1/3 what they'd otherwise charge).  But
alas, to take that offer, you have to opt in to their marketing emails
... and yeah, opting out ... ugh.
   IPv6 - last I dealt with them on that they still rather sucked, if I
recall correctly - e.g. I think you had to do a support ticket to do
IPv6 glue records ... at like about a decade after IPv6 was very much a
thing on The Internet.
   Interface lacking - there's just a whole lot 'o stuff that requires a
support email or call to get done, because their interface can't - and
you tend to get fair amount of incompetence, and lots of sales/marketing
when dealing with them on phone or via email.  Oh, yeah, and their web
interfaces also pushes lots of sales/marketing goop - essentially lots
of advertising for their own stuff all the time.
   Sometimes they'll opt you in for stuff you didn't ask for and don't
want ... e.g. just gave you a crud yourbasedomainname.somecrudTLD
without your asking or wanting ... then they of course want to sell you
on renewing it.  Ugh.
   They also tend to push lots of announcing clueless offers.  Got
sf-lug.org?  How 'bout buy up all these sf-tote.someTLD domains, I mean
tote is like lug, right?  Ugh.
   So, yeah, general experience with NetworkSolutions.com / Web.com has
been quite negative, with negligible exception.

Joker.com - their interface looks like a bad late 1990s web site loaded
up with ads.  Their interface also isn't very functional.
   And sometimes they just suck.  E.g. GDPR ... yeah, can't opt out of
the privacy goop for whois.
   Need to change glue records?  They were absolutely completely utterly
incompetent at that - not only could their interface not do it, but the
information the provided was incorrect, and even with numerous support
tickets, they couldn't manage to to it.  It wasn't that hard, change
some IP address(es) on the glue record - they just couldn't manage to do
it at all.  Comparatively with gandi.net trivial to do - copy, paste,
done - and IPv4 and/or IPv6 - all easy peasy on gandi.net.

Godaddy.com ... uhm, probably just don't.  How 'bout start with their
sexist sleazy advertising ... maybe they're better now on that?  I
haven't particularly tracked.  They're also based in Canada, so if you
have some serious issue/dispute with them, and want to take legal action
... good luck with that.  Been a while, but last I dealt with them their
interfaces were rather lacking.  Some of their behavior may be or have
been shady - at least I've heard such - but didn't run into that
personally.

Namecheap.com - sucky interface, and not so competent staff.  Ugh, 2022
and they still can't do IPv6 for glue records on their interface ...
even though they have support tickets open to do that for more than a
decade!  So, have to do support request for that ... ugh, really, in
2022 ... and they're not very competent about handing it at that - much
of the information their support staff provides is incorrect ... ugh.

Amazon.com / Google.com - yes, they're also registrars (AWS at least
earlier very quietly resold through gandi.net - don't think they still
do that).  And they seem to be (quite) competent, etc.  But unless one
needs tight integration with aws.amazon.com or cloud.google.com ... why?
And how many eggs would you like to put in one basket?
Besides, many other registrars do also provide quite solid APIs if
one needs/wants to automate or do such at scale for domains and
dealing with registrar(s).

And, if one hunts/searches around, one can find issues, complaints, and
horror stories regarding various registrars, e.g. registrars falling to
gross incompetence levels where they could barely, or not even barely,
manage to do the absolute minimum required registrar duties ... yeah,
you don't want to be stuck in that situation - as it can be difficult to
get unstuck from such.  So at bare minimum, if one cares about the
domains, use registrar of at least reasonable quality.

There may well be some other good/excellent registrars out there ... but
at least in my personal experience I've yet to encounter one that is of
higher quality than gandi.net - at least for registrar services.  If one
needs/wants additional services from same provider, or has some other
particular criteria, one might come up with a different "best" choice
for one's circumstances/criteria.

And, if one isn't sure about gandi.net I'd suggest bit 'o research - not
only reviews and reputation and the like, but also create an account
there, look over the menus, controls, support documentation, etc.  I
think one will find everything there to be of quite high quality.

On 2023-02-02 14:22, Rick Moen wrote:
> ----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----
> 
> Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2023 14:20:19 -0800
> From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> To: balug-admin at lists.balug.org
> Subject: I might need to change registrars?
> Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.
> 
> I used to have my two domains, linuxmafia.com and unixmercenary.net,
> registered through an individual in Texas, found via my wife Deirdre,
> who was a Tucows OpenSRS reseller.  Years down the line, he wound down
> that operation:  I think I was among the final customers, probably kept
> because I wasn't "high maintenance" unlike many domain owners.
> 
> Where I moved was to small, clueful registrar IWantMyName.com of
> Wellington, NZ.  And all was good for a long time.  There was one brief
> bobble when GDPR kicked in:  Suddenly and without explanation, let 
> alone
> my request, all my domain contacts toggled to "private registration".  
> I
> opened a IWantMyName.com support ticket, like "not what I want, please
> revert."
> 
> Their clued and cheerful tech quickly figured out what happened:
> IWantMyName.com is a reseller of domain services provided by very 
> large,
> German registrar 1API Gmbh (with presumably IWantMyName.com doing its
> work via 1API's, er, API.  And, like many large registrars, 1API Gmbh
> had reacted to the rollout of GDPR by doing a "Fine, we'll just set
> everyone for maximum privacy as a new default, so we cannot be sued for
> privacy violation."
> 
> IWantMyName.com staff intervened with the larger company, and it got
> fixed.  More years passed.  In August 2019, the unwelcome news arrived
> that the Wellington, NZ shop was now a wholly owned subsidiary of
> CentralNic Group PLC of London.[1]  Drat.  You go to the effort of
> researching a small clueful business, run by people you have confidence
> in, and they get bought out by some distant idiots.  More years pass.
> 
> A few days ago, I check, and linuxmafia.com and unixmercenary.net are
> _again_ set to "private registration".  Grr.  I do due-diligence by
> visiting the IWantMyName.com customer WebUI:  For each domain, there is
> a toggle to _enable_ (but not one to disable) "private registration".
> Fine, I've tried to fix it myself, and no.  Will require registrar
> action.
> 
> New support ticket.  I thank them for prior help, detail 1API Gmbh
> having pushed out this unrequested change once _before_, suggest this
> might have been a similar corporate spasm, give the context that I'm
> one of those rare people who insist on _public_ WHOIS, and that I've
> had these domains for decades.
> 
> Support guy sends back a one-liner saying:
> 
> 
> <---begin--->
> 
> Shaswat, 2 Feb 2023, 00:23 UTC
> 
> Hello there,
> 
> Verisign domains do not show registrant details, regardless of privacy 
> setting.
> 
> This is registry policy over which we do not have any influence so
> there isn't much we can do from our end.
> 
> 
> Shaswat
> 
> <---end--->
> 
> 
> 
> I draft a response, saying "That's odd, I find nobody online discussing
> Verisign ever adopting such a policy, which is suspicious.  Nor can I
> find any declaration of such a policy.  Can you please point me to one?
> Also, when did this occur?  Please give me details so I know how to
> escalate my complaint at Verisign."  (Verisign is indeed the operator 
> of
> the .com and .net TLDs, since its acquisition of NSI.)
> 
> But, before sending, I smell a rat.  Wait, does Shaswat's statement
> actually check out?  If it's true, then _no_ .com or .net domains have
> public WHOIS, any more.  Logic!
> 
> I check:
> 
> o  apple.com
> o  verisign.net
> 
> Both have public WHOIS.  I discard my pending draft response to 
> Shaswat,
> and politely point out that his assertion is erroneous, citing the 
> above
> two domains as counter-examples.  I reiterate my request, say that his
> first response is in no way acceptable, and advise checking with his
> team if he doesn't know how to proceed.  I also say he should use
> standard WHOIS client queried to verify what I said about apple.com and
> verisign.net -- and paste the contact results for his convenience.
> 
> A few minutes later, Shaswat responds:
> 
> <---begin--->
> 
> Shaswat, 2 Feb 2023, 04:11 UTC
> 
> I passed your email to our developers and I am getting the same 
> response.
> 
> Here is a third party source that displays registrant info :-
> +https://www.whois.com/
> 
> Despite the privacy being turned off for the domains: linuxmafia.com
> and +unixmercenary.net, it says redacted.
> 
> That's because whois pulls data from the registry database and verisign 
> keeps it
> private.
> 
> 
> 
> Shaswat
> 
> <---end--->
> 
> 
> 
> Notice the implication that his _entire_ notion of how to view WHOIS
> is to use an outsourced third-party _Web_ front-end to WHOIS.  I.e., I
> suspect he is completely unaware of /usr/bin/whois and /usr/bin/jwhois 
> .
> One gets the picture of some underpaid technophone, who knows nothing
> about the registrar business and uses only a Web browser, never command
> lines.
> 
> I reply back, reiterating that irrespective of what "our developers"
> say, that is obviously incorrect, and that he can see that for himself
> using any WHOIS tool including the third-party https://www.whois.com/
> CGI.  I also add that I'd advise him becoming fluent with 
> /usr/bin/whois
> and /usr/bin/jwhois, as that is a necessary skill for his present job.
> 
> That was about 14 hours ago.  I'm still waiting to hear... something.
> 
> 
> So, I get the picture that CentralNic Group PLC probably laid off
> all the competent support staff and moved IWantMyName.com support
> into its existing ultra-low-paid helpdesk staff operation who only
> copy-paste stock answers and are incompetent to do technical work.
> 
> I'm going to give it a day, and maybe try to escalate to the CentralNic
> Group PLC / IWantMyName.com _sales_ staff, pointing out that they're
> about to lose a customer.
> 
> My expection is:  They're going to lose a customer.  I suspect they've
> been Computer Associated.
> ( http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#computer-associates )
> 
> 
> (1) Michael, I notice you have berleleylug.com (with public WHOIS) at
> registrar gandi.net .  Still happy with them?
> 
> (2) Anyone here have a .net domain (with public WHOIS) at gandi.net
> or any other reputable registrar?
> 
> 
> 
> [1] https://iwantmyname.com/about
> https://iwantmyname.com/blog/iwantmyname-becomes-part-of-centralnic-group-plc
> 
> ----- End forwarded message -----
> 
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