[sf-lug] (forw) [conspire] New registrar, my third, after a mere 15 years at one

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Sun, 28 Feb 2016 22:54:26 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: conspire at linuxmafia.com
Subject: [conspire] New registrar, my third, after a mere 15 years at one
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

According to WHOIS, I've had linuxmafia.com registered since July 18,
1998, when Sam Ockman, then-president of Penguin Computing, registered
it for me with Network Solutions.  Once I got control of the domain
(which Sam's way of registering it with NetSol didn't make easy), I
transferred it to one of the many new competing registrars, Tierra.net
d/b/a Domain Discover, Inc. of San Diego, around mid-2000.

There was nothing wrong with Domain Discover, they were miles better
than Network Solutions, and they had a _stellar_ reputation for fair
customer policies and practices (unlike many registrars), but they
charged $25/year for a .com domain, which is (and remains) about
$10/year above commodity pricing, which is $15/year for .com domains.
(I notice they are now fully competitive, and I should stress that they
are a worthy option that y'all should consider.)

So, in 2001, mostly to save $10/year, I moved a second time, to
OpenSRS.net (Tucows) reseller Iain Brown of Texas.  I've been a happy
customer of Iain's for fifteen years.  

A word about Tucows OpenSRS:  In 1998, Network Solutions was forced to
open up the old InterNIC's retail side for competitors.  Specifically, 
it was split into two intercommunicating parts:  The registRY (the
back-end) was the part that administered the root DNS zone, coordinated
top-level domains, and maintained the central database of assigned names
called WHOIS.  (VeriSign still operates this critical resource.)  The
registRAR, the part of the operation that dealt with customers (domain
owners) is what is now called Network Solutions, Inc.  

Newly formed ICANN with U.S. Department of Commerce backing required
this split, _and_ required that the registry (back-end) accept
transactions not just from the Network Solutions (retail) registrar but
also from competitors -- many hundreds of which soon emerged.  The
communication protocols registrars use to talk to the registry are
called the Shared Registry System (SRS).

Small Midwest Internet firm Tucows noticed this, and decided to not only 
qualify as a registrar, but then set up its registrar as a middleman to
anyone wishing to become a 'Tucows reseller' -- thereby handling all
customer-facing problems and letting Tucows automate its role.  This
arrangement Tucows dubbed OpenSRS.

Iain Brown is one of thousands of people who signed up as OpenSRS
resellers.  Typically, people filled this role as an adjunct to a
related business, not as a business in itself -- because it tends to be
too much customer handholding for too little money.

Iain has shown signs of heading towards shutting down his reseller
business for some years, but I took no action other than not hassling
him and keeping my domain always multiple years away from expiration.
(This is not only a good idea for one's own objectives, but also signals
that you're not going to be a pain-in-the-ass customer.)  This morning, 
Iain finally sent me mail advising that he's shutting down within a
couple of months.

So, I did move on this immediately.  My new registrar (one of many good
ones) will be iwantmyname (https://iwantmyname.com/), d/b/a/ of New
Zealand company Ideegeo Group, Ltd. -- which comes highly recommended by
friends, and which has (again) an excellent reputation for fair customer
policies and practices.  All other things being equal, I favour keeping
key parts of one's operation as much as feasible out of the direct reach
of US Federal and US corporate thuggery.  (Gandi.net of Paris and
Joker.com of Duesseldorf attract for this same reason.)


Steps:


1.  Login to your old registrar.  Unlock domain.  (Turn off private 
registration if you use it.  I don't.)  Note down the 'EPP Code'
(Extensible Provisioning Protocol) -- a security measure among
registrars to deter domain hijacking.


2.  Login to your new registrar, and pick initiate of transfer to that
registrar.  Provide the domain name as prompted, and the EPP.  Submit
request.  Your (aspiring) new registrar tells you you'll need to wait for
more directions.


3.  (This part's just a little odd:)  You get 'Form of Authorization'
(FOA) mail that _ought_ to be from your new registrar.  In this case, it
came not from https://iwantmyname.com/ but rather from large Homburg,
Germany domain registrar 1API GmbH (1api.net), which turns out to be
iwantmyname's partner for some business services.  Basically,
iwantmyname is _their_ reseller.
(https://twitter.com/aral/status/380269396851453952)  

The mail says 'Dude, there's a pending domain transfer request
purporting to be from you.  To OK it, you'll need to visit [a provided]
custom URL, 
http://icann-transfers.info/?domain=linuxmafia.com&action=REQUEST&trigger=NNNNNNN&form_language=en_US
(substituting 'NNNNNNN' for some digits).  Mail advises that if you do
so, transfer will proceed within five days.  If you don't want the
transfer, just disregard request.

Basically, looks like ICANN has inserted itself into the transfer
process as referee.


4.  You click that icann-transfers.info link and accept 'CONFIRM' to 
say yeah, do that.  You see a 'Initiation is completed' notice, adding 

  linuxmafia.com

  A transfer for the domain above has been initiated.

  Soon, your current registrar may contact you about further steps
  required to release your domain.

  Please comply with any requirements that your current registrar might
  have to allow for the smooth transfer of your domain.


5.  You get mail from your old registrar saying 

  Tucows received notification on Sun Feb 28 22:44:36 2016 that you have
  requested a transfer to another domain name registrar.

  If you want to proceed with this transfer, you do not need to respond to
  this message.

  If you wish to cancel the transfer, please contact us before Fri Mar  4
  22:44:36 2016 by going to our website, 
  [...]


The cool part is that iwantmyname's control panel for your account has
live status of the pending transfer helping you keep track of what's
going on, a godsend if you weren't paying total attention to the needed
detail.

I was _going_ to copy and paste that very informative description, but 
now that I've completed step #5, that's gone away because transfer is
complete -- and instead I see my domain details.  

So, all done -- all in a couple of hours, even with some fumbling on my
part.  High marks to iwantmydomain on everything except failing to tell
me that the transfer authorisation mail would be coming from 1API GmbH
and why.



Enfin:

$ whois linuxmafia.com
[...]

   Domain Name: LINUXMAFIA.COM
   Registrar: 1 API GMBH
   Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 1387
   Whois Server: whois.1api.net
   Referral URL: http://www.1api.net
   Name Server: NS.PRIMATE.NET
   Name Server: NS.TX.PRIMATE.NET
   Name Server: NS1.LINUXMAFIA.COM
   Name Server: NS1.THECOOP.NET
   Name Server: NS3.LINUXMAFIA.COM
   Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhbited
   Updated Date: 29-feb-2016
   Creation Date: 18-jul-1998
   Expiration Date: 17-jul-2019

>>> Last update of whois database: Mon, 29 Feb 2016 06:20:55 GMT <<<
[...]
Domain Name: LINUXMAFIA.COM
Registry Domain ID: 5397999_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.1api.net
Registrar URL: http://www.1api.net
Updated Date: 2016-02-29T06:19:46Z
Creation Date: 1998-07-18T04:00:00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2019-07-17T04:00:00Z
Registrar: 1API GmbH
Registrar IANA ID: 1387
Registrar Abuse Contact Email: abuse at 1api.net
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +49.68416984x200
Reseller: iwantmyname http://iwantmyname.com
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited - http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransfe
rProhibited
Registry Registrant ID: 
Registrant Name: Rick Moen
Registrant Organization: Linux Mafia
Registrant Street: 1105 Altschul Ave
Registrant City: Menlo Park
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Postal Code: 94025-6601
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.6502837902
Registrant Phone Ext: 
Registrant Fax: 
Registrant Fax Ext: 
Registrant Email: rick at deirdre.net
Registry Admin ID: 
Admin Name: Rick Moen
Admin Organization: 
Admin Street: 1105 Altschul Ave
Admin City: Menlo Park
Admin State/Province: CA
Admin Postal Code: 94025-6601
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.6502837902
Admin Phone Ext: 
Admin Fax: 
Admin Fax Ext: 
Admin Email: rick at deirdre.net
Registry Tech ID: 
Tech Name: Deirdre Saoirse Moen
Tech Organization: 
Tech Street: 1105 Altschul Ave
Tech City: Menlo Park
Tech State/Province: CA
Tech Postal Code: 94025-6601
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.6503877830
Tech Phone Ext: 
Tech Fax: 
Tech Fax Ext: 
Tech Email: deirdre at me.com
Name Server: ns1.linuxmafia.com 198.144.195.186
Name Server: ns.primate.net
Name Server: ns1.thecoop.net
Name Server: ns.tx.primate.net
Name Server: ns3.linuxmafia.com 198.144.209.73
DNSSEC: unsigned
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2016-02-29T06:20:59Z <<<


A few comments about the public WHOIS[1] data:

1.  I'm careful to elminiate single points of failure (SPoFs) and ensure
that I'm reachable out-of-band -- key concepts from systems engineering
(and thus system administration).

(a) out-of-band means communicated via an outside conduit.  It would be
lame to be unable to receive 'Dude, your domain is offline' mails
because your domain is offline.  So, all three of the public contents
(Registrant = owner), Technical, and Administrative) are designed to be
reachable irrepective of any or all services running linuxmafia.com
going down.

(b) SPoF means a failure in one place (avoidably) being able to take
everything down at once.  So, normally Deirdre's e-mail address in the
Technical Contact would be 'deirdre at deirdre.net', but I already had
Registrant and Administrative Contacts going to 'rick at deirdre.net', so
we picked a mailbox run totally independent of Deirdre's domain and mail
hosting (but nonetheless one she monitors).

2.  It is vital to use e-mail addresses and telephone numbers that
actually reach people.  E.g., if I'd missed Iain's 'Shutting down
registrar' mail for a few months, I'd have been in trouble.  

3.  Notice that expiration is extended out to July 2019.  Three years
strikes me as about the right amount of comfort.  iwantmyname's offers a
$5 discount on initial registration or transfer of .com domains, so I
paid them $10 for the extension from 2018 to 2019, when arranging the
transfer.  (I wish registrars wouldn't play the discount game, as it
means loyal customers subsidise fickle ones, but it's widely done.)



[1] If you're a Windows or MacOS user, you might have no idea what WHOIS 
refers to, or be familiar only with Web-based WHOIS information.  This
is particularly tragic for MacOS users, who _have_ a real Unix whois
command accessible at the terminal.  Windows users can download a
Zip archive containing open-source versions of whois.exe, host.exe, and
dig.exe, none of which come with MS-Windows, last I heard.



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