iEstates.com

As of this writing, the RollingStone.com website has become a Network Solutions domain parking page.  Gawker Media first pointed out that the music industry website was no longer active.

I know what you are thinking, the domain expired and NSI took it over.  WRONGO!  The domain doesn’t expire until September 2011.

The company refers to the problem as a “glitch” .  A pretty good size glitch given that according to Compete.com the site averages over 1 million monthly unique visitors.  This seems like a pretty large mistake  for a well-known publishing company to make on their own, so we’re left wondering who dropped the ball here.

Mashable is also covering the story and a commenter pointed out that the domain may be experiencing issues with their DNS provider or Akamai.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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External Articles, Registrars, akamai, dns problems, gawker, network solutions, registrar, rollingstone.com

Three hackers — Christopher Allen Lewis, 19,  James Robert Black Jr., 20, and Michael Paul Lebel, 28 — have been hit with a federal conspiracy charge this week due to their involvement in the 2008 hijacking of Comcast.net – a prank that took down the cable company’s homepage and email service for more than five hours and supposedly cost the company over $128,000.

According to the indictment, the hackers gained control of the Comcast.net domain along with 200 other domains with two phone calls to Network Solutions, the company’s domain registrar, as well as one email sent from a hacked Comcast email account.

This gave them entry to the Network Solutions control panel for all of Comcast’s domains.

Then, after changing the contact information for Comcast.net, the hackers phoned Comcast’s original technical contact to tell him what they’d done. When the Comcast manager scoffed at their claims, the hackers decided to take it a step further and redirect the site’s traffic to servers that were under their control.

The hackers are being charged under the US. Code for fraud and related activity in connection with computers.

“I wish I was a minor right now,” said hacker James Robert Black Jr., “because this is going to be really bad.”

[via Wired]

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It seems ICANN is getting it from both sides these days – with Republican lawmakers opposing the new TLDs and trying to delay the process as well as supporters of the new system urging the Board of Directors of ICANN to “initiate the new top-level domain application period without further delay.”

Sixty-one businesses, organizations, and individuals including many notable players within the domain industry — such as Antony Van Couvering of Minds+Machines; Paul Stahura, CEO of eNom; Jonathon Nevett, Senior VP of Network Solutions; Elliot Noss of Tucows; and many more — sent a letter to ICANN detailing the reasons why new top-level domains are required without further delay.

The letter [click here to view] stated that the new TLDs will help fix a number of issues including consumer demands, safety considerations, Internet stability, innovation, and ICANN’s own credibility.

“The undersigned, many of whom helped create ICANN and over the course of years have a keen understanding of the domain name market, and many of whom have significant experience dealing with intellectual property,” the document states, “respectfully but forcefully request the Board of Directors of ICANN to fulfill ICANN’s original mandate to introduce choice and competition to the domain name market.”

Seperately, the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) sent a letter to the US government on September 22, 2009, calling for a full-scale audit of ICANN. The letter offers a ‘Top Ten List’ of things wrong with ICANN, stating the organization is a captured regulator, not independent, not transparent, fueled by profits, not accessible, ignorant of numerous Internet issues, incompetent in regards to the new gTLD process, not looking at itself critically, risking cybersecurity, and not connected to relevant agencies within the US government. [click here for letter]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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External Articles, ICANN, Minds + Machines, Up to the Minute, cadna, enom, network solutions, tucows

Front-Running has been a significant issue within the domain industry in the past - most notably with Network Solutions - however Benjamin Edelman, an Internet security expert, has exclaimed that he found “no evidence of current front running” following a ten-month study at ICANN’s request.

Edelman’s study involved testing 604 domains (304 .com, 200 .net, and 100 .info) on 200 domain registration and domain availability-checking websites to see whether front-running was taking place.

“My tests offer no evidence of front-running,” stated Edelman. “Not one of the domains I requested, in any of the three rounds of testing, was registered during the seven-day period during which availability was checked twice each day.”

Sadly, after looking through the official testing report, the study fails to deliver the evidence that most domainers would be looking for. Not only does it fail to mention any of the specific websites Edelman searched for, but it also excludes any mention of the registrars or whois services he searched at.

“My methodology cannot prove that front-running is not occuring or that front-running has not occured in the past,” concluded Edelman. “Rather, I have simply failed to find evidence of current front-running via the test scenario I used. It is possible that front-running occurs based on leads from web sites I did not test or based on data sources other than web sites (e.g. NXDOMAIN data from ISPs, navigation requests obtained from client-side software, etc). It is possible that front-running occurred at some point in the past. I cannot rule out these possibilities via the methodology used in this report.”

Yes…it is possible.

[via ICANN]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Keynote speakers: The Castello Brothers on "Branding your Domain"
Christian Heilmann, Developer Evangelist, Yahoo!

Benjamin Edelman, External Articles, ICANN, Legal Issues, front running, network solutions, nsi

Network Solutions is getting ready to launch its new website - and along with the fresh design it has also improved its services by offering additional features and content.

“We are reinventing ourselves to better meet your needs,” the Network Solutions website preview says. “Beyond the redesign of our website, we’ve made some changes to our products and services to help you be more successful in your online ventures.”

Some of the changes include:

• Redesigned website for a more customized experience.
• Improved support and educational materials.
• Communities feature tools for connecting with others and growing your business.
• More product features than ever before.
• New website design services.

Visit preview.networksolutions.com to browse through all the changes.

[via Network Solutions]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada
Keynote speakers: The Castello Brothers on "Branding your Domain"
Christian Heilmann, Developer Evangelist, Yahoo!

External Articles, Up to the Minute, network solutions