[sf-lug] sf-lug.{org, com, info} & Registrant Email: no.valid.email at worldnic.com & Network Solutions / Web.com

[Michael Paoli]

> From: "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Subject: Re: [sf-lug] sf-lug.{org,com} & Network Solutions / Web.com
> Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2015 00:44:47 -0700

> Registrant Email: no.valid.email at worldnic.com
>
> 1.  It's risky to use non-deliverable e-mail addresses for any of the
> domain contact.  Reason:  Might not receive crucial mails.

A bit of research, and it looks like, for no.valid.email at worldnic.com
It's a bit of Network Solutions / Web.com shenanigans.

First of all ... "comments lie"* - though I've not gone quite as far  
as to send an
email to the address, all appearances are that no.valid.email at worldnic.com
accepts email.

Various research suggests that Network Solutions / Web.com changes the
Registrant Email to no.valid.email at worldnic.com and puts a lock on the
domain if most any significant changes are seen as being done on the domain.
It also appears they don't properly fix/clear this, and their documentation on
how to update/correct that email address simply does not work (no  
surprise there) -
at least that's what I seem to find poking around their documentation  
and interface.

Don't know that it's an issue for matters such as transfer, etc., as,  
as far as I'm
aware, it's mostly quite exclusively the Admin email address that gets  
used for that,
not the "Registrant Email".  Also appears lots of major domains are  
set with the
email that way - and seems on the quite long term, and it appears not to be a
significant operational issue (even though, at best, it's pretty funky and
smells suspiciously bad).

$ dig -t MX worldnic.com +short
10 mx.myregisteredsite.com.
$ dig +short mx.myregisteredsite.com A mx.myregisteredsite.com AAAA
209.17.115.10
$ telnet 209.17.115.10 25
no.valid.email at worldnic.com [198.144.194.235]
Trying 209.17.115.10...
Connected to 209.17.115.10.
Escape character is '^]'.
220 inbound.net.registeredsite.com ESMTP SMTP Service (NO SPAM/UCE)
HELO [198.144.194.235]
250 atl4mhib17.myregisteredsite.com Hello [198.144.194.235], pleased  
to meet you
MAIL FROM:<Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>
250 2.1.0 <Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu>... Sender ok
RCPT TO:<no.valid.email at worldnic.com>
250 2.1.5 <no.valid.email at worldnic.com>... Recipient ok
DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
^]
telnet> close
Connection closed.
$

*I remember hearing/reading about, once upon a time, some student did their
thesis: "comments lie" - notably that comments in code are often quite to
substantially inaccurate and may not well correlate to what the code actually
does.  So, just because it says "no.valid.email" as part of the email address,
doesn't cause it to not be an operational email address.