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October 3,2001
.INFO is now live?
The world's 4th General Use TLD just
came online. The .INFO Registration selections were released on September
30,2001; a few days behind schedule. On October 1,2001; the registry came
online for real time registrations. The registry started up with a total
of 350,000 domains registered. Less than 24 hours after the new .info TLD
came online, problems began to occur.
On October 2,2001; less than 24 hours after the registry came
online after its scheduled shut down, it hit a bump in the road. On
October 2nd, the registry went down at about 1 PM EDT for maintenance and was
scheduled to come back up by 9:00PM EDT. The 9:00PM deadline past, and a
message was posted to the NIC.INFO website,
stating that the registry would be back up by October 3rd. As of October
3, 2001 at 7:15 PM EDT, the registry is still down for the count.
The registry's DNS systems are scheduled to be reloaded about
once per every 5 minute period. On October 1,2001 when the registry
opened, the ZONE serial number was registering as 10000006. At the end of
day the DNS ZONE registered the serial number as 10000016, a change of only 10
ZONE refreshes in about 24 hours. For reloading once per every five
minutes, the ZONE should have increased by 288 ( [24 hours * 60 minutes] \ [5
minutes] ). Being that it was just the registry's first day of operation,
the lack of reloads can be excused.
If ICANN would have
demanded more testing of the new TLD before it was allowed to go live would have
helped eliminate whatever the issue is that is hindering the registry useless.
It is surprising that the DNS for .INFO is even operating at
all, the entire .INFO TLD only has 2 DNS servers serving ZONE for it. The
two servers are tld1.nominum.com, and tld2.nominum.com. The DNS specifications
will allow up to 13 name-servers to be used. Currently, the .BIZ TLD has 4
servers listed for it; a-d.gtlds.biz. The .BIZ TLD is being operated in
more of a professional manner. As a general rule of networking, it is always a
good idea to have as many redundancies (backups) as is possible.
Considering that Afilias is comprised of the most powerful registrars in the
world, it is possible for them to have all 13 ZONE server slots filled up, and
not be at an economic loss.
Because this matter affects me so directly (I am still
waiting for my .INFO domain), I have tried to avoid putting my personal opinion
in this article, but I can only stay quiet for so long :-). In my opinion,
the board that allowed Afilias to operate the .INFO TLD should be replaced at
once, and a more competent board instituted to select TLD operators in the
future. .INFO has gotten off to a very rocky start, and has given me the
perception that they are unreliable. All of the problems are not all
related to the registry, they are trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Most registrants have been left in the dark about what is happening, and others
(like me), have been lied to. My "registrar of choice" is
ENOM, but after all of this is over with,
that may change. ENOM's VP, Matt Stearn told me that my domain would
appear in my account for management by the end of the day on October 1,2001; it
is now October 3rd, and it is not yet there. I sent an e-mail to ENOM's
general purpose e-mail box (I didn't wish to disturb Mr. Stearn), but have not
yet received a response, it has been nearly 48 hours. I was hoping to have
Curtis-M-Kularski.info up and running by the time that I had this article
written, but because of a problem somewhere between Registry and Registrar, that
just isn't possible at the moment. My domain is currently in the .INFO
WHOIS, that means that it is at least protected from being taken by someone
else. I think what the registry, registrars, and support staffs need right
now is a bunch of support and encouragement. This is the first time that a
new gTLD has been introduced since 1985, when the Global DNS System first came
online. I was only planning to write 2 articles about .INFO, but it looks
like I will end up writing 3 or more.
I encourage all interested parties to register a .INFO domain
name, because sooner or later, they will get it right. :-)
Related Links
ICANN - http://www.ICANN.org
Afilias - http://www.NIC.info
Enom - http://www.enom.com
Go Daddy - http://www.godaddy.com
