Tag Archive for: domains

Dan Benton

TLD’s affected by CentralNic Registry authCode reset

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CentralNic Registry was recently informed of a security issue with one of its third-party vendors. There’s no evidence of a compromise or any unauthorised access however there is a risk that domain authCode’s have been leaked.

A domain auth code can be used to steal a domain from you.

Any domain owners of the following TLD’s are advised to reset the authCode for their domain.

Some registrar’s are batch voiding and regenerating auth codes for affected domains but not all.

Affected TLD’s

gTLDs

  • .art
  • .bar
  • .basketball
  • .best
  • .college
  • .ceo
  • .design
  • .fans
  • .feedback
  • .frl
  • .fun
  • .gent
  • .host
  • .icu
  • .ink
  • .love
  • .observer
  • .online
  • .ooo
  • .press
  • .protection
  • .realty
  • .reit
  • .rent
  • .rest
  • .security
  • .site
  • .space
  • .storage
  • .store
  • .tech
  • .theatre
  • .tickets
  • .website
  • .wiki
  • .xyz

Official ccTLDs

  • .bh, Bahrain
  • .fm, Federated States of Micronesia
  • .fo, Faroe Islands
  • .gd, Grenada
  • .gl, Greenland
  • .la, Laos; also borrowed for Los Angeles
  • .pw, Palau
  • .sk, Slovakia
  • .vg, British Virgin Islands

Unofficial ccTLDs

  • .ae.org, for United Arab Emirates
  • .ar.com, Argentina
  • .br.com, Brazil
  • .cn.com, China
  • .com.de, Germany
  • .de.com, Germany
  • .eu.com, European Union
  • .gb.com, Great Britain
  • .gb.net, Great Britain
  • .gr.com, Greece
  • .hu.com, Hungary
  • .jpn.com, Japan
  • .jp.net, Japan
  • .kr.com, Korea
  • .no.com, Norway
  • .qc.com, Quebec
  • .ru.com, Russia
  • .sa.com, Saudi Arabia
  • .se.com, Sweden
  • .se.net, Sweden
  • .uk.com, United Kingdom
  • .uk.net, United Kingdom
  • .us.com: United States
  • .us.org: United States
  • .uy.com, Uruguay
  • .za.com, South Africa

Any domain owners of these TLD’s are advised to reset the authCode for that domain.

 

UK and EU
Dan Benton

Infographic: How to keep your .EU domain after Brexit

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Following the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union on 01 February 2020, many owners of .EU domains based in the UK will no longer be eligible to own their domains.

If you own a domain ending .eu then you have until 01 January 2021 to ensure that it is correctly registered else it will be taken away from you.

What should I do?

You must check that the domain is registered to a European Union citizen, location or legal entity.

You can check the specifics on the EURid website or we have made the following handy infographic to get you started…

Flowchart of What happens to .eu domains after the UK leaves the EU

Why is this happening?

Due to the UK leaving the EU (commonly called Brexit), many UK-based owners of .EU domains no longer meet the .EU eligibility requirements.

The following are eligible to register .EU domains:

  • a European Union citizen, independently of their place of residence;
  • a natural person who is not a Union citizen and who is a resident of a Member State;
  • an undertaking that is established in the Union; or
  • an organization that is established in the Union, without prejudice to the application of national law.

Timeline

01 February 2020, the United Kingdom left the European Union. The withdrawal agreement provides for a transition period until 31 December 2020.

01 October 2020, EURid will e-mail any UK based owners of .EU domain names that they will lose their domain on 01 January 2021 unless they demonstrate their compliance with the .eu regulatory framework by updating their registration data before 31 December 2020.

21 December 2020, EURid will email all UK based owners of .EU domains who have not demonstrated continued compliance with the eligibility criteria about the risk of forthcoming non-compliance with the .eu regulatory framework.

01 January 2021, EURid will again email all UK based owners of .EU domains that their domain names are no longer compliant with the .eu regulatory framework and are now withdrawn. Any UK registrant who did not demonstrate their eligibility will be WITHDRAWN. A withdrawn domain name no longer functions, as the domain name is removed from the zone file and can no longer support any active services (such as websites or email).

01 January 2021, EURid will NOT allow the registration of any new domain name by UK registrants. EURid will also not allow either the transfer, or the transfer through update, of any domain name to a UK registrant.

01 January 2022, all the affected domain names will be REVOKED, and will become AVAILABLE for general registration. Their release will occur in batches from the time they become available.

I own a .EU domain and meet this criteria

Great! but don’t celebrate just yet. It is vital that you go and check that your domain has the correct details against it. EURid can only see the information in your domain registration so ensure that these details match the criteria.

I own a .EU domain but don’t meet this criteria

Here’s where things start to get tricky.

Obviously, if you do have a trusted person (a co-director) or second location within the EU then the easiest thing would be to move your domain to their details.

You can go and setup an office abroad! We have heard of people becoming an e-resident of Estonia, which maybe a little overkill but does come with some other added EU advantages.

Some registrar’s are allowing you to use them as a proxy for registering a .EU domain. Their details will be the official domain details with their promise to pass correspondence onto you.

 

If any of this is too much for you then give us a shout, we are here to help.

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Feature image by Elionas2 under Pixabay Licence.

Claire Christmas

Infographic: Losing the automatic right to .uk

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If you own any third-level domains ending .uk then the matching second-level .uk domain may have been reserved for you until 25 June 2019.  For example, if you own example.co.uk your ability to register the shorter example.uk may have been reserved.

After 1 July 2019 any reserved .uk domains that have not been registered will be released into the public domain meaning they can be registered by anyone.

What should I do?

Assuming you want the shorter .uk version of a domain then there are a number of checks to go through.  You can check the rights to a domain on the Nominet website or we have made the following handy infographic to get you started…

Rights to a .uk domain

Why is this happening?

In June 2014 (5 years ago) Nominet, the controllers of the .uk Top Level Domain (TLD) decided to allow people to register second level domains.  That is, to allow people to register example.uk (second level domain names) instead of being forced to register example.co.uk, example.org.uk, example.ltd.uk etc. (third level domain names).

They wanted to make it fair for existing rights holders and domain owners to obtain one of the shorter .uk domains and so locked access to stop anyone registering any domains that already existed as third level domains for 5 years.

Five years later and that time is now up.  In July 2019 anyone will be able to register any second level .uk domain no matter whether the equivalent third level domain is registered or not.

I’m eligible – How do I register the .uk version of my domain?

Contact your current registrar who will be able to help you with this. Remember you need to register the .uk domain name yourself before 6am BST (UTC+1) on the 25th of June 2019.

There is a .uk domain I want but am not eligible  – what can I do?

Wait…. If the eligible party don’t purchase it then it becomes publicly available to be purchased by anyone from the 1st July 2019.
We plan on doing a follow up blog post nearer the time on “name dropping” services that can be used to grab the domains you want when they become available.

If any of this is too much for you then give us a shout, we are here to help.  Do remember though… a domain name is for life, not just for Christmas 😉

More detailed information on this subject can be found on nominet.uk.

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Dan Benton

It doesn’t always have to be .com

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In some ways the internet is very crowded (100 million active websites) and in other ways very quiet (most web traffic is caused by few sites) but it’s important to remember that the internet is pretty much limitless and there is more than one way to claim your acre of land online.

When first creating a website it’s easy to instantly think that you need a .com web address or that you are just in the UK so can go with a cheaper .uk address.  There is nothing wrong with that but with .com being the busiest of all the top level domains (TLDs) and .uk now being the 2nd largest country code top-level domain (ccTLD) it’s quite hard to get the name you want.

Two is better than one

It’s always a good idea to own more than one domain.  You may only need one domain to run your site but you have to ask yourself how you or your company would feel if you owned the .com address and then someone else went and bought the .co.uk?  Remember that they can use the domain for whatever they like which may be something you don’t want associated with your name and brand.

Having multiple domains can act as a backup too, if you can receive email on more than one address then should something happen it can allow you to carry on running, at least while things are sorted out.  And before you ask what can happen to domain names that you own… they can be stolen/hijacked, taken offline by authorities or even forget to be renewed… although we would never do that!

Another advantage to owning several domains, they can be utilised for different areas of your business.  .tv domains are a great example of this allowing it to point to video content.  Instead of hiding tutorials or a video blog deep on your website or on YouTube why not point your customers straight there.

Speciality domains

Speciality domains are domain extensions with a specific meaning that is well known to Internet users.  These domain extensions provide a clue to visitors that tells them the type of content to expect or what form that content will take.

.me – Not many think about Montenegro when they see a .me domain.  The use is obvious, .me means it’s about me.  Visitors to the site will expect content about the person who owns the domain.  Recommended for blogs, a CV or resume, photo sharing, anything personal.

.tv – “If you have a play button on your website you should have a .tv”.  Visitors to a .tv site know what to expect, video content.  Recommended for tutorials, family video sharing, screencasts, live streams & YouTube channels.

.mobi – Specifically designed to host mobile content.  Most CMS driven sites such as WordPress and Joomla can seamlessly offer a mobile formatted page and it’s a good way to advertise this to mobile visitors.

.co – A great alternative to the .com TLD.  Also has additional meanings such as co-op.

Other domains

You don’t always need a speciality domain, there are the standard ones too.

.com – The original and still has its place.  Recognized globally as the biggest.

.net – You can’t get more tech than a .net domain. Perfect for Internet companies or groups that work in the online world.  Many companies also have a .net version of their domain which is used by the IT group to name and manage machines used by the company, this separates the IT “tinkering” from the marketing “sales”.

.org – Always intended to be used for personal sites .org has now lost that moniker and is deemed by some as just for non-profits.  Some companies like to have a commercial presence on .com and their organisational details on .org.

.info – Of the seven new TLDs introduced in 2000 .info has become the most successful.  “Info” is a recognized term in over 30 languages which makes this TLD a truly global domain.

.biz – A popular alternative for companies whose business name is already taken as a .com.

.eu – For a UK company branching out from our small island it can get expensive to start registering and promoting domains in every country.  The .eu allows for a pan European look.

.uk – Not to be belittled.  You may be a sports club or local group, even if you do leave the UK you still want to promote yourself as a UK team or company.  What could be better than having it in your name.

Whatever you choose you can see that there are plenty of options.  Perhaps Dogsbody Technology or Dogsbody Hosting can help you with your decision.

Let us know what you think too.  There are many many more TLD and ccTLDs, which ones do you like?