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

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Michael Paoli (Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu):

> >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.

At this point, I shouldn't be surprised to hear that NetSol is doing 
_another_ somewhat wrongful thing.

Here's a case where NetSol made such a change to one of the four domain
contacts (Registrant, Admin, Tech, Billing*) entirely on its own.
(Querent wasn't specific about which one.)  Commenters weren't able to
make sense of _why_ NetSol did that:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/just-changed-networksolutions-whois-info-did-i-mess-up.841827/

To clarify for readers:  Of the four contacts associated with a domain,
Registrant is the most powerful and most important, as it is regarded as
the domain's _owner_, i.e., entitled to overrule any action assented to
by any of the others.

It hadn't occurred to me that Jim's domains might display a Registrant 
e-mail address Jim hadn't specified, because registrars screwing around
with that data (in particular) is Just Not Done.  

Here's a case where NetSol set Admin Contact to that address on
someone's account.  Customer complained to NetSol, got on the telephone,
complained, customer service rep. had to do an 'internal transfer'
(moving the domain to a new NetSol customer account) and charged
customer $3 to do this fix.

http://www.domainstate.com/industry-news-6/evil-network-solutions-5059.html

Third case, unspecified domain contact or contacts got set to the
non-deliverable worldnic.net address by NetSol, _not_ by the customer.
Customer urged by online commenters to get on the telephone and demand 
they fix this:

http://www.futurequest.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10141

Fourth case, one-star reviewer of NetSol comments:

   I am a customer for over 1O years. NetSol exchange the email Registrant
   Email Address to no.valid.email at worldnic.com. I don't know why. I like
   to Change but I recive always standard answers that are already on the
   website. With this support I will leave NetSol.

http://www.whoishostingthis.com/hosting-reviews/network-solutions/

Here's a letter from ICANN in 2002 to NetSol, complaining that they had
numerous domains' contacts set to the non-deliverable worldnic.net address
over a year after ICANN specifically threatened to terminate their
ability to be a registrar over the practice.

https://www.icann.org/resources/unthemed-pages/touton-letter-to-beckwith-2002-09-03-en

Which reminds me of a subsidiary point:  ICANN sends mail to domain
owners and other domain contacts periodically to test whether the mail
is deliverable, and reminding domain administrators of the requirement
that contacts have valid e-mail addresses.  They occasionally threaten
to unilaterally ordered cancelled domain registrations whose contacts
cannot be reached.


Anyway, if I were domain owner and the registrar were fooling with 
my Registrant data, for various reasons including the Registrant fields
being mine alone and not theirs at all, I would be demanding that they
fix that instantly and never touch it again unless I sell the domain 
or let it expire.

That having been said, it's unlikely that this particular oddity will
prevent transfer away from NetSol.  I haven't been a NetSol customer in
18 years, so cannot say for certain how they do things now, but, 
in my experience, most registrars let anyone with WebUI access to 
the domain account initiate a transfer.  Typically, if you've gone
through all the required hoops -- turning off private registration,
turning off transfer lock, getting an Authorization Code, providing the
Authorization Code to the new registrar -- then NetSol sends
instructions to Admin Contact on how to complete the transfer.

They arrogantly, on their own authority, set a 30-day transfer lock if
you have just made any of these changes:

Primary Contact [sic] e-mail change
Primary Contact [sic] name is changed
WHOIS Administrative Contact e-mail is changed
WHOIS Administrative Contact is changed
User IDs are merged
Primary Contact is replaced

I don't know what they mean by 'Primary Contact' in this context.
Could mean Registrant.

They say that _if_ they've put a 30-day transfer lock on the domain 'to
help prevent fraudulent transfer', or if they've whimsically done so for
other reasons, you should call 'a transfer specialist at 1-877-307-1435
for more information'.

http://www.networksolutions.com/support/preparing-a-domain-name-for-a-transfer-out-of-network-solutions/



> 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).

What you said.

> $ 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.
> $

Well, it might be deliverable, but _to whom_?


* Billing Contact is no longer reported in public WHOIS queries, but 
is still one of the four.