Corporate Blog

Yet more problems with dot-zm (Zambian) domains

9 December 2015 14:33:02 +0000

Back on 16 September a client with a dot-zm domain hosted with us came to us with a problem that had started the day before. The majority of this post documents the details of the monumental effort we had to expend to get the domain registrar (Realtime/Hai) and registry (ZICTA, the Zambia Information & Communications Technology Authority) to do their jobs and provide a working domain.

However, the reason for the timing of this post (which we should have made two months ago) is that we are seeing these same problems again with dot-zm domains. Emails sent to existing dot-zm domains, hosted with different hosting companies, are bouncing because these dot-zm domains seem not to exist on the Internet because the dot-zm nameservers are reporting differing, incomplete or even incorrect information for them.

Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do on our servers when ZICTA’s dot-zm nameservers report — incorrectly! — that a dot-zm domain does not exist or directs traffic to the wrong servers.

Our recommendation for years now, due to the shocking unreliability of dot-zm domains, is that you simply should not register dot-zm domains. This seems awfully unpatriotic — after all, you.co.zm is supposed to be a proud acknowledgement of your association with Zambia — but the sad fact of the matter is that your dot-zm domain is actually an embarrassment and a disservice to you, your business and your country.

We have written about this over and over again over the years. Here’s a recap of some of what we’ve written on our blogs (there’s more lost in the mists of time and in emails sent before we set up our corporate and status blogs):

2010-08-16: Problems with .com.zm domains
2010-08-16: Issues with some .com.zm domains explained
2012-07-27: Dot-zm domains down again
2012-07-27: Dot-zm domains back
2013-06-11: Massive, unannounced deletion of dot-zm domains by Zamnet
2013-06-14: Deletion of domains by Zamnet continues

We also have over 50 MB of raw data (some of it compressed) dating back to 2008 documenting problems with dot-zm domains, including all dot-zm domains going down worldwide. It’s the kind of material with which we could write a thesis about TLD mismanagement, if we had the time … but we don’t.

So what happened in September?

Back on 16 September a client with a dot-zm domain hosted with us came to us with a problem that had started the day before. They were suddenly receiving very little email, and they were being told by some of their correspondents that emails sent to their domain were bouncing. Of course, this galvanised us immediately, and we checked all aspects of their domain’s configuration on our nameservers and mail servers. We could find nothing wrong. However, the problem was undeniable; some mail sent to this client’s domain was indeed bouncing.

So we started digging deeper. We found that, without being asked to do so by the domain registrant (our client), the dot-zm domain registry (ZICTA, whose website is again down as I write this) had changed the nameservers of our client’s domain to those of their domain registrar, Realtime Technologies Ltd., now doing business as Hai Alive Telecommunications — whose websites on both of their domains are also down right now. (Seeing a pattern here?) Both the registrar and the registry denied being responsible for changing the nameservers and refused to explain how it happened. The nameservers were changed back to ours, but the problem persisted.

What we found was that the problem was intermittent, hence the fact that some email was getting through and some was being bounced. An intermittent problem is the worst kind of problem because when things are working there is no problem to find, and when things aren’t working you don’t know when the problem will go away and whether or not you’ll find the problem before it disappears. On top of that mail from multiple different and unrelated sources was being bounced, so we couldn’t blame a particular sender’s improperly configured mail server for the problem.

Seeing as the registrar (Realtime/Hai) blamed NinerNet for the problem, and the registry (ZICTA) refused to deal with us, telling us we had to seek help from the registrar (Realtime/Hai) who was too busy blaming us to investigate, some more investigation by NinerNet revealed that one of the six nameservers that run the dot-zm country-code top-level domain (as of today they’re now down to four) was still broadcasting to the world that the authoritative nameservers for the domain were hosted at Realtime/Hai, which was the result of the unauthorised change to the nameservers a couple of days earlier. (One of the six was failing, and one wasn’t providing the information it was supposed to provide, meaning that three of the six nameservers for dot-zm domains were not working properly!)

There was an easy temporary solution to this problem, seeing as ZICTA was being uncooperative: A few keystrokes by someone at Realtime/Hai could have set up the client’s domain on their nameservers, so that when a mail server was incorrectly directed there it would have received the correct information that we would provide to Realtime/Hai. However, Realtime/Hai refused to help unless the client signed a hosting contract with them and paid money up front, despite the fact that the client/registrant had already paid them for a working domain that they expected to work for the entire length of the contract for that domain. This, of course, was an outrageous attempt at extortion and was rejected.

After hammering away at ZICTA for over a week by email (while trying to get Realtime/Hai to take responsibility for addressing the problem, as the domain registrar is supposed to do) and being ignored (including receiving notifications that emails to them had been deleted unread) — except by one person, the head of “Consumer Protection”, who said that he would help me but then also continued to ignore me, never sending me another email again — I finally picked up the phone and eventually (after six tries and being disconnected twice; this is the “Communications Technology Authority”?!) reached a receptionist. (A month earlier when trying unsuccessfully to deal with ZICTA over another issue, the receptionist couldn’t put me through to the person who could help me with my issue because the whole organisation, except apparently the receptionist, was at a staff meeting!) After explaining the situation to the receptionist she stated that I had to deal with Realtime/Hai. After explaining that Realtime/Hai refused to help, she said that she would only continue to talk to me if I would lodge a complaint against Realtime/Hai, so I reluctantly agreed. After being on hold for over ten minutes while she did who knows what, she came back on the line. This time I literally pleaded with her to give me one minute to fully explain the problem and why the problem was caused by ZICTA and how it was within the power of only ZICTA to fix in less than two minutes.

My pleading must have had an effect, as she agreed to put me through to someone else. That person was apparently a “Cyber Security Analyst” with Zambia CIRT (Computer Incident Response Team, whose website is actually up!). I had to actually give him the computer commands to demonstrate the cause and location of the problem. Miraculously he agreed with my assessment — after eight days of banging my head against brick walls, someone finally understood and agreed! — but could do nothing to fix it right away because (although it was nine o’ clock in the morning) the person who was in charge of running the registry back end was not in yet. However, he did assure me that it would be dealt with that day, although it wasn’t until the next day that I finally received written acknowledgement from ZICTA of the problem they had caused, and it was another two days before they fixed it, twelve days after the problem was created!

So, let’s review …

… how a problem with a dot-zm domain is handled by the registry and its registrar, and how long it takes:

Day one: Client’s dot-zm domain stops working.
It is found that the nameservers for the domain have been changed to use the registrar’s (Realtime/Hai) nameservers instead of NinerNet’s, without the authority of the domain registrant.
Nameservers are changed back; registrar (Realtime/Hai) and registry (ZICTA) deny responsibility and refuse to explain.
Problem persists.
Registrar (Realtime/Hai) refuses to help, attempts to extort money from registrant for services (domain registration) already paid for.
Registry (ZICTA) finally responds, refers problem to registrar (Realtime/Hai). Will only address problem with a formal complaint about registrar (Realtime/Hai).
After pleading with registry (ZICTA) they relent and refer the matter to a staff member who can help.
We have to hold the hand of the person at the registry (ZICTA) to show him how to confirm the nature and location of the problem.
Day thirteen: Problem at ZICTA is finally fixed by ZICTA 3 days later, 12 days after they created the problem in the first place.

It is interesting to note that there is almost no information on the ZICTA website about the management of the dot-zm ccTLD (country-code top-level domain; compare that to, for example, the website of Nominet, the organisation that runs the dot-uk ccTLD), and their Facebook page contains nothing but pages and pages of repetitive so-called FAQs about mobile service, and not a single mention (going back to at least the end of 2014) of dot-zm domains and domain registration. Underneath almost all of the posts by ZICTA with FAQs are reams and reams of complaints about how useless ZICTA is and how they do nothing about consumer complaints. See for yourself.

Is there a solution?

Yes, there is. If someone in Zambia cannot be found to provide competent management and direction to ZICTA — and the wherewithal to whip registrars into shape and to educate them on the need to provide customer service without resorting to blaming hosting providers for issues that are demonstrably not theirs — then the job can and should be outsourced to a foreign company with a good track record.

Just on the other side of the boerewors curtain is ZADNA, the domain authority of South Africa. I don’t know if they offer their services to other national domain authorities to run their ccTLDs, but they’re doing a decent job of running their own (dot-za), have recently (in the last few years) launched a new competitive domain registration system, and launched the new TLDs dot-capetown, dot-durban and dot-joburg. They’re also the leading contender to run dot-africa, if ICANN ever fixes that mess and launches it.
In New Zealand is CoCCA Registry Services (NZ) Limited, with whom ZICTA already has a relationship as they’re using CoCCA’s registry software and have apparently provided some financial consideration for same. As you can see, CoCCA is already running the registries of at least ten TLDs, most of which are those of other small and developing countries.
In Canada there is OpenSRS who offer their services to registrars, but who may also be interested in providing service to a ccTLD registry.

In the more immediate term NinerNet has provided, since 2010, the option of registering a dot-zam.co domain — e.g., ninernet.zam.co. We provide it expressly because of the ongoing, years old problems with the management and administration of the dot-zm ccTLD, not to mention the exorbitant cost of dot-zm domains. Instead of registering companyzambia.com (which is probably available, I should point out) you can instead register company.zam.co. It’s the same number of characters as company.com.zm, and only one more than company.co.zm. But more importantly, it’s reliable!

I should point out that we don’t expose the flaws in the dot-zm ccTLD in order to sell dot-zam.co domains; our setting up dot-zam.co is the result of these flaws. If the dot-zm domain system worked properly, we would never have thought to create the dot-zam.co alternative ccTLD, and we’d certainly have no reason to complain. Besides, having been created in 1994, dot-zm had a sixteen-year head start on dot-zam.co! Dot-zam.co is a long way from being a threat to ZICTA and dot-zm.

Finally, you can switch to a new, non-dot-zm domain. Ideally you would never have registered that dot-zm domain in the first place, but it’s an understandable and forgivable mistake. It’s not ideal to switch to a new domain, but where would you be if your domain went down for two weeks and nobody wanted to help you? Here’s how you do it:

Register your new non-dot-zm domain.
Have your hosting provider set up the hosting for it, and create all of the existing email address on your old domain (e.g., phiri@example.co.zm) on the new domain (e.g., phiri@example.zam.co).
Similarly you would upload your existing website to your new domain, reconfigured to use your new domain instead of your old dot-zm domain. (Doing this properly is a little more involved than what I have laid out here and there are options, but it’s very doable and quite straightforward from a technical point of view for a good host that knows what they’re doing.)
Disable your old dot-zm domain and “alias” it to your new domain. This means that all email to your old dot-zm domain is automatically redirected to your new domain, and all traffic to your old dot-zm website is redirected to your website on your new domain, preserving your ranking in the search engines and all existing links to your old dot-zm domain.
Start using your new domain for email by reconfiguring your email program to use the new domain. While your customers and other contacts may still email you at the old dot-zm domain, your replies will come from your new domain and so their future replies will go straight to your new domain. Of course, you would also advise your customers and contacts of your new domain by email and on your website, and in any other ways that you advertise your business.
Keep your old dot-zm domain for at least a year or two, aliased to your new domain. How long you keep your old dot-zm domain is up to you and would depend on a number of factors (we can advise on that), but the good thing is that when (not if) it goes down again, you will use that opportunity to reinforce with your customers and other contacts the importance of using your new domain.

While some less sympathetic hosting companies may charge you for the time involved in making this change (which is actually quite understandable), we will not charge you even one extra ngwee to make this change away from your old dot-zm domain. We also do not charge any extra hosting fees to alias your old dot-zm domain to your new domain. In other words, changing to a new domain will only cost you the price of the new domain.

Appendix

The email below, sent to the person we spoke to at ZICTA (who also seems to be associated with Zambia CIRT) after we finally managed to talk to him, documents the problem experienced by our client with their dot-zm domain. The client’s domain has been redacted for privacy reasons (changed to example.co.zm), as have the names and email addresses of individuals.

From: Craig Hartnett <hxxxxxxx _AT_ niner.net>
To: cxxxxx _AT_ cirt.zm
CC: exxxx.cxxxxxx _AT_ hai-alive.co.zm, exxxx.mxxxx _AT_ hai-alive.co.zm,
     exxxxxx _AT_ rtaa.com.zm, mxxxxxx _AT_ rtaa.com.zm,
     rxxxxx.zxxxx _AT_ hai-alive.co.zm, servicedesk _AT_ hai-alive.co.zm,
     servicedesk _AT_ rtaa.com.zm, cxxxx _AT_ zicta.zm, info _AT_ zicta.zm,
     kxxxxxx _AT_ zicta.zm, nxxxxx _AT_ example.co.zm, ixxxxxx _AT_ jxxxxxxxxx.com
Subject: Problem with example.co.zm domain
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2015 09:21:22 +0200
Mailer:	Evolution 3.10.4-0ubuntu2
Organization: NinerNet Communications, www.niner.net

Dear Cxxxxx,

Thank-you for taking my call this morning.

As I explained, the nameservers for the dot-zm TLD are not properly
synchronised, and are therefore reporting different nameservers for the
example.co.zm domain. In particular, pch.nic.zm is reporting incorrect
nameservers.

Of course, this results in disruption of the example.co.zm domain, and
this has been the case since at least Tuesday 15 September. At one point
last week the WHOIS showed only Realtime nameservers for the
example.co.zm domain. Realtime claims that this was the result of some
sort of registry activity -- a reset of some sort if I remember
correctly. These were changed back to NinerNet's nameservers but, as I
explained on the phone, one of the dot-zm nameservers is still responding
with Realtime's nameserver instead of NinerNet's.

Realtime have refused to assist thus far -- even though they are the
registrar of this domain -- instead blaming us (NinerNet Communications,
the company hosting the domain) for the problems. However, this is
clearly refuted by the evidence below, which are fresh queries from a
few minutes ago (with date and time stamps) on all of the dot-zm TLD
nameservers.

I have copied this email to all of the people at Realtime who have been
involved thus far, as well as representatives of the registrant of the
domain.

This should take two minutes for someone with access to the pch.nic.zm
nameserver to fix. Please ensure that this is fixed today so that the
registrant of example.co.zm can get back to running their business.

Thank-you.

Craig Hartnett

[00:13:14 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ date -u
Fri Sep 25 07:13:19 UTC 2015
[00:13:19 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @hippo.ru.ac.za

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @hippo.ru.ac.za
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 63660
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 3, ADDITIONAL: 2
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
co.zm.                  86400   IN      NS      pch.nic.zm.
co.zm.                  86400   IN      NS      ns-zm.afrinic.net.
co.zm.                  86400   IN      NS      ns1.zamnet.zm.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.zamnet.zm.          86400   IN      A       196.46.192.26

;; Query time: 348 msec
;; SERVER: 146.231.128.1#53(146.231.128.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:28 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 137

[00:13:28 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @ns1.coppernet.zm

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @ns1.coppernet.zm
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 17502
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; Query time: 586 msec
;; SERVER: 41.222.240.15#53(41.222.240.15)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:32 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 43

[00:13:32 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @ns1.zamnet.zm

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @ns1.zamnet.zm
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 52796
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns2.niner.net.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns1.niner.net.

;; Query time: 320 msec
;; SERVER: 196.46.192.26#53(196.46.192.26)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:38 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 88

[00:13:38 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @ns2.zamnet.zm

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @ns2.zamnet.zm
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 16638
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns1.niner.net.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns2.niner.net.

;; Query time: 338 msec
;; SERVER: 196.46.192.21#53(196.46.192.21)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:42 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 88

[00:13:42 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @ns-zm.afrinic.net

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @ns-zm.afrinic.net
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 36928
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 2, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns1.niner.net.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      ns2.niner.net.

;; Query time: 310 msec
;; SERVER: 196.216.168.44#53(196.216.168.44)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:45 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 88

[00:13:45 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ dig example.co.zm ns @pch.nic.zm

; <<>> DiG 9.9.5-3ubuntu0.5-Ubuntu <<>> example.co.zm ns @pch.nic.zm
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 37546
;; flags: qr rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 8, ADDITIONAL: 1
;; WARNING: recursion requested but not available

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;example.co.zm.                        IN      NS

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns2.hai-alive.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns2.realtime.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns1.hai-alive.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns3.realtime.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns4.realtime.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns1.realtime.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns4.hai-alive.zm.
example.co.zm.         86400   IN      NS      dns3.hai-alive.zm.

;; Query time: 17 msec
;; SERVER: 204.61.216.73#53(204.61.216.73)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep 25 00:13:49 PDT 2015
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 214

[00:13:49 leftseat@wrathall ~]$ date -u
Fri Sep 25 07:13:56 UTC 2015
[00:13:56 leftseat@wrathall ~]$

--
NinerNet Communications | Craig Hartnett
* http://www.niner.net | info _AT_ niner.net
Phone: +1 604 630 1772 | +260 21 1 255568 | 1 855 NINERNET

Update, 2016-12-12: Updated link to CoCCA “patrons” page.

Tags: domain registration, domains, dot-zm domains
Categories: Updated posts, Warnings
Comments Off

Yet another domain registration scam

8 December 2015 21:57:54 +0000

We bring your attention to yet another scam aimed at domain registrants. Of course, there are disclaimers in the faded fine print telling you that this is not an invoice, only a solicitation or proposal, but the email is clearly designed to look like an invoice for the renewal of a supposedly expiring domain registration.

As always, please ignore emails sent to the email address that you use in your domain registration(s) that are not from your domain registrar or registry. (If you’re not clear on the difference between a registrar and a registry — and who yours are for your domain[s] — please ask us.) In fact, we suggest using an email address for your domain registration(s) that you do not use for anything else, so that you can identify emails that are sent as a result of “scraping” your email address from the public WHOIS.

Below is one of the examples of the latest scam that we are seeing. Please note, however, that the apparent sending email (in the “from” field) can and does vary.

From: Domain Service <info@better-fit.com>
To: domains@ninernet.com
Subject: spam-slip.com expiration
Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2015 15:53:16 +0800

ATTENTION: IMPORTANT NOTICE

SEO Domain Registration Company
Notice#: 949540
Date: 11/29/2015

EXPIRATION NOTICE

DOMAIN: spam-slip.com
Notification Purchase Proposal

EXPIRATION PROPOSAL DATE: 12/07/2015

To: Domain Administrator, NinerNet
499-1685 H Street
Blaine
WA, 98230, UNITED STATES

Domain Name:	Registration SEO Period:	Price:	Term:
spam-slip.com	12/21/2015 to 12/20/2016	$64.00	1 Year

SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT

Domain Name: spam-slip.com
Attn: Domain Administrator

This important expiration notification proposal notifies you about the expiration notice of your domain registration for spam-slip.com search engine optimization submission. The information in this expiration notification proposal may contain confidential and/or legally privileged information from the notification processing department to purchase our search engine traffic generator. We do not register or renew domain names. We are selling traffic generator software tools. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) named above.
If you fail to complete your domain name registration spam-slip.com search engine optimization service by the expiration date, may result in the cancellation of this search engine optimization domain name notification proposal notice.

PLEASE CLICK ON

SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT

TO COMPLETE YOUR PAYMENT.

Failure to complete your seo domain name registration spam-slip.com search engine optimization service process may make it difficult for customers to find you on the web.

CLICK UNDERNEATH FOR IMMEDIATE PAYMENT

PROCESS PAYMENT FOR
spam-slip.com
SECURE ONLINE PAYMENT

ACT IMMEDIATELY

This domain seo registration for spam-slip.com search engine service optimization notification proposal will expire 12/07/2015.

Instructions and Unsubscribe Instructions:
You have received this message because you elected to receive special notification proposal. If you no longer wish to receive our notifications, pleaseunsubscribe here or mail us a written request to US Main Office: SEO Domain Registration Company, Los Angeles, CA 90036, Email: seodomainregservice@mail.com or Asia Main Office: SEO Domain Registration Company, Shenzhen Futian, Email: seodomainregservice@mail.com. If you have multiple accounts with us, you must opt out for each one individually in order to stop receiving notifications notices. We are a search engine optimization company. We do not directly register or renew domain names. We are selling traffic generator software tools. This message is CAN-SPAM compliant. THIS IS NOT A BILL. THIS IS A NOTIFICATION PROPOSAL. YOU ARE UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO PAY THE AMOUNT STATED UNLESS YOU ACCEPT THIS NOTIFICATION PROPOSAL. This message, which contains promotional material strictly along the guidelines of the CAN-SPAM act of 2003. We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this email, also clearly mentioned our subject lines and they are in no way misleading. Please do not reply to this email, as we are not able to respond to messages sent to this address.

If you have any questions about this or any other suspicious email you have received, please let us know.

Tags: domains, scams, search engine optimisation, search engine optimization, seo
Categories: Warnings
Comments Off

Phishing warning for domain registrants

31 October 2015 12:38:00 +0000

We’re seeing what appears to be a concerted “phishing” effort aimed at the registrants of domains. To be honest, the first time we saw one of these emails, the allegations it contained made us angry, and we almost fell for it. This is the classic reaction that “phishers” are looking for — anger, or fear — because those emotions will cause the smartest among us to lose control, perhaps for just long enough to do something stupid.

As always, our best advice is to take a moment to calm yourself down and take a critical look at the email that you have received. It is almost certainly fake.

We have received two different versions of these emails for several domains registered to us, and the emails are likely tailored to the registrar with which you have your domain registered. Below are the emails we’ve received, with legitimate email addresses altered to prevent their being automatically harvested by yet more spammers.

Example 1

From: domainabuse _AT_ tucows.com
To: NinerNet Communications
Subject: Domain ADDRESSGAURD.COM Suspension Notice
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2015 18:46:54 -0700

Dear Sir/Madam,

The following domain names have been suspended for violation of the TUCOWS, INC. Abuse Policy:

Domain Name: ADDRESSGAURD.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator

Multiple warnings were sent by TUCOWS, INC. Spam and Abuse Department to give you an opportunity to address the complaints we have received.

We did not receive a reply from you to these email warnings so we then attempted to contact you via telephone.

We had no choice but to suspend your domain name when you did not respond to our attempts to contact you.

Click here and download a copy of complaints we have received.

Please contact us by email at mailto:domainabuse _AT_ tucows.com for additional information regarding this notification.

Sincerely,
TUCOWS, INC.
Spam and Abuse Department
Abuse Department Hotline: 480-124-0101

Example 2

From: “TUCOWS, INC.” <domainabuse@tucows.com.org>
To: NinerNet Communications
Subject: Domain GIVE-SPAM-THE-SLIP.COM Suspension Notice
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 21:59:41 -0700

Dear Sir/Madam,

The following domain names have been suspended for violation of the TUCOWS, INC. Abuse Policy:

Domain Name: GIVE-SPAM-THE-SLIP.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Registrant Name: Domain Administrator

Multiple warnings were sent by TUCOWS, INC. Spam and Abuse Department to give you an opportunity to address the complaints we have received.

We did not receive a reply from you to these email warnings so we then attempted to contact you via telephone.

We had no choice but to suspend your domain name when you did not respond to our attempts to contact you.

Click here and download a copy of complaints we have received.

Please contact us for additional information regarding this notification.

Sincerely,
TUCOWS, INC.
Spam and Abuse Department
Abuse Department Hotline: 480-570-6902

The text “Click here and download” was, in all cases, hyperlinked to websites NOT on domains associated with NinerNet or Tucows, the registrar with whom our clients’ domains are registered. You must always take a moment to view (in the status bar of your email program) the URL (address) of the website to which a link will take you, before you click the link.

While the first email was crafted so that it appeared to be sent from domainabuse _AT_ tucows.com — which is a real email address — subsequent messages have arrived from domainabuse@tucows.com.org. Tucows.com.org is not a real domain; however, it does exist as a sub-domain of the com.org domain which, despite how odd it looks, is an actual domain. (It is being “monetised” by its owners, who probably have nothing to do with the spammers/phishers but who have unfortunately set it up in such a way that “tucows.com.org” appears [to both humans and automated anti-spam systems] to be a working domain.) We have configured our mail servers to block messages from the tucows.com.org sub-domain, but if the contact email address for your domain is on a domain we don’t host (e.g., gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) then you may still receive these messages. Since tucows.com is a legitimate domain, we cannot block email from it.

As always, if you have any questions about a questionable email that you have received — or one that has made you afraid or angry — please forward it to us and we’ll take a look at it to determine whether or not it is legitimate.

Update, 2015-11-01: Minor corrections, add missing sender email address, add actual domains and remove protection for bogus email address.

Update, 2015-11-03: We’re now seeing these scam emails coming from domainabuse@tucows.com.info, and in this case the “com.info” domain (and any sub-domains) is completely bogus and should be blocked by default to most of our email clients. We checked out what happens when you click the link (don’t try this at home!) and our browser was directed to download a file named “GIVESPAMTHESLIP.COM_copy_of_complaints.pdf.scr”. This is an old trick, naming a file with a “double extension” to try to trick people into opening what they think (in this case) is a PDF file, but which (in this case) is actually (on Windows machines) an executable screensaver file (“.scr”) that can carry a malicious payload. Remember, think before you click!

Tags: domains, scams
Categories: Updated posts, Warnings
Comments Off

Rate pages updated

9 October 2015 09:29:08 +0000

In addition to posting the new kwacha rates we mentioned here last week, we have updated all of our rate pages to lower our managed VPS rates in all currencies, and provide a complete list of the huge number of top-level domains (TLDs) that we now offer. In addition to a comprehensive array of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), we now offer 364 new TLDs, such as (for example) the following:

.amsterdam
.club
.design
.golf
.irish
.london
.news
.ngo/.ong
.ninja
.online
.rocks
.site
.space
.taxi
.tech
.website
.work
.xyz

Please check out the new rates pages:

If you have any feedback, please let us know!

Tags: accounts receivable, billing, rates
Categories: Announcements
Comments Off

Warning about ongoing domain registration scam

9 October 2015 09:12:28 +0000

Hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear from a client with questions about a spam email that they have received regarding their domain registration(s). We appreciate hearing about these as it gives us the chance to reiterate with individual clients what to look out for in these emails, and to learn about new scams as they arise or determine that the old ones are still running.

One old one looks like the following:

From: Charles Zhang [mailto:charles@yiguandns.com]
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2015 6:01 AM
To:
Subject: yourdomain CN domain and keyword

(Please forward this to your CEO, because this is urgent. Thanks)

We are a Network Service Company which is the domain name registration center in Shanghai, China. On Oct 8, 2015, we received an application from Huamei Holdings Ltd requested “yourdomain” as their internet keyword and China (CN) domain names. But after checking it, we find this name conflict with your company name or trademark. In order to deal with this matter better, it’s necessary to send email to you and confirm whether this company is your distributor or business partner in China?

Kind regards

Charles Zhang
General Manager
Shanghai Office (Head Office)
B06, Yujing Building, No.1 Jihe Road,
Shanghai 201107, China
Tel: +86 21 6191 8696
Mobile: +86 138 1642 8671
Fax: +86 21 6191 8697
Web: www.yiguandns.com

Note that “yourdomain” in the email above is the client’s actual domain, without the TLD — top-level domain, the part to the right of the dot. For example, if your domain is example.com, the subject of this email would be “example CN domain and keyword”. Of course, the actual wording of the subjects and bodies of these scam emails can and do vary, as well as the senders.

These emails are nothing but unsolicited solicitations to register (in this case) the same domain as your existing domain in the dot-cn (China) ccTLD (country code top-level domain) — e.g., example.cn if you already own example.com. There are other variations on these attempts to scare you into registering domains you almost certainly don’t need, usually, we have noticed, in TLDs in East Asia. However, scams like this can and do originate from all over the world. Also, remember that there is no such thing as an “internet keyword”; you cannot buy such a thing, it’s just a general description of a concept.

As always, if an unsolicited email (or, for that matter, phone call, postal letter, fax, smoke signal, etc.) tries to scare you into taking some sort of action — especially if it involves getting you to spend money — it is certainly a scam. Whether it involves domains or anything else, check with a trusted and knowledgeable advisor in whatever industry is involved before you take any action. Don’t even reply to these people, and certainly don’t send them any money.

As always, if you have any questions about emails you have received regarding your domains or hosting, we’ll be happy to address them.

Tags: domains, scams
Categories: Warnings
Comments Off

A note to our Zambian clients on the value of the kwacha

3 October 2015 08:13:59 +0000

As you have no doubt noticed too, the recent slide in the value of the kwacha has not escaped our notice.

Although we bill and accept payment locally in kwachas, most of NinerNet’s expenses are paid in foreign currency to offshore suppliers where our servers are located. The reliability of these offshore systems is one of the reasons we’ve heard from our clients for choosing NinerNet over other local companies with data centres in Zambia. Before the current situation, our kwacha pricing had already fallen behind the kwacha’s trajectory against the US dollar, and we were considering options to address this that did not involve a pricing shock to you, our client, and simultaneously laid out plans for future price changes (even decreases) in a predictable manner.

When we first started operating in Zambia we, like many companies, invoiced in US dollars while accepting payment in kwachas. In 2012 the Government issued The Bank of Zambia (Currency) Regulations, 2012, outlawing the use of foreign currencies for domestic transactions. As NinerNet Communications is a Zambian-registered turnover tax company, we complied. For philosophical reasons (not the least of which was to keep our pricing predictable) we did not return to invoicing in US dollars when this law was later rescinded, and the kwacha rates we set in 2012 have not changed in the three years since.

Unless the kwacha loses further value in a short period of time, this is an issue that we will deal with gradually over the next few months by bringing our kwacha rates back into line with the kwacha’s value against the US dollar.

Effective with our October 2015 invoicing at the middle of the month, our rates will increase by K3.00 per US dollar — i.e., from the K5.50 per US dollar we set in 2012 to K8.50 per US dollar. In other words — to use our most popular hosting plan (webONE) as an example — if the monthly rate was K82.50, the rate effective with this month’s billing will be K127.50. Similarly, our price for generic top-level domains (e.g., dot-com) will increase from K104.50 per year to K161.50 per year. (We will leave the price of our alternative top-level domain for Zambia [dot-zam.co] at K66.00 per year.) You can use our US dollar rates page to see where things are going; our kwacha rates page will be updated in the next few days to reflect rates at the current exchange rate that will be charged for all NEW business.

Something important to note is that accounts that are already paid up to a certain expiry date will NOT be affected. In other words, if your expiry date is set at 1 June 2016 (for example), your hosting will still expire on that date and you will not be billed anything extra. This will also continue to apply into the future; your expiry date will remain your expiry date no matter what happens to the exchange rate in the meantime. Refunds for cancelled hosting will be refunded at the rate that was paid at the time the service was invoiced.

We would like to return to stable and predictable kwacha rates as soon as possible. Assuming that the exchange rate does indeed stabilise in the near term, we will look at revising our kwacha rates — up or down, as the case may be — every three months going forward to avoid sudden changes like the one we are being forced to implement today. Of course, if there are any wild swings like there have been since the beginning of September we will have no choice but to react more quickly.

We welcome any feedback you may have on our plans. Thank-you for your understanding, and thank-you for your business.

Tags: accounts receivable, billing, exchange rate, foreign exchange, forex, kwacha, quarterly kwacha rate review, rates
Categories: Announcements
1 Comment »

Office hours

4 July 2015 08:59:55 +0000

NinerNet‘s offices will be closed from Friday, 3 July and will re-open on Friday, 10 July. Emergency support will continue to be available 24/7, but routine emails and enquiries will be dealt with on Friday, 10 July. Thank-you.

Tags: service hours, support
Categories: Notices
Comments Off

Office hours

23 April 2015 20:24:50 +0000

NinerNet‘s offices will be closed from Friday, 24 April and will re-open on Monday, 4 May. Emergency support will continue to be available 24/7, but routine emails and enquiries will be dealt with on Monday, 4 May. Thank-you.

Tags: service hours, support
Categories: Notices
Comments Off

Office hours

20 March 2015 04:54:14 +0000

NinerNet‘s offices will be closed for the week of 23-27 March. Emergency support will continue to be available 24/7, but routine emails and enquiries will be dealt with on Monday 30 March. Thank-you.

Tags: service hours, support
Categories: Notices
Comments Off

Delaying tactics by Network Solutions

21 January 2015 23:55:41 +0000

Businesses hate to lose customers, there’s no question of that. We hate to lose customers, there’s also no question of that. When a client tells us that they will be closing their account with us for one reason or another — it happens! — we’ll ask if there is anything we can do to keep their business. More often than not we’ll learn (often to our surprise) that the client is actually closing shop, and they’re not moving to another hosting provider — which is a bit of a relief (to us) in that we know they’re not leaving because of something we did, or something we didn’t do.

Sometimes, of course, the client is actually moving to a new hosting provider. As we’ve stated before, we do say that we’re sorry to see them go — and we mean it — and we ask if there’s anything we can do to keep their business, but if they’re committed then we back off. Importantly, we also don’t do anything to impede their progress into the sunset. In our opinion, that would be unprofessional, and we’d then deserve to lose that business. And given the number of clients that end up returning to us months or a year or two later, we’d be idiots to burn that bridge.

So it was interesting to learn today that Network Solutions (owned by Web.com) has apparently (at some point) implemented a three day waiting period if you ask for the “auth code” for a domain registered through them. (The authorisation code is required to effect a domain transfer from one registrar to another.) Now, it is our assertion that every domain name owner should ask for and make a note of the auth code for their domain as soon as it’s registered, and should also change it (if permitted by the registry) after a registrar transfer. (There is a long history of domain owners being caught flat-footed in times of crisis without this information.) But most of our incoming clients have not done that, and so now this client is being held hostage by Network Solutions for three days, waiting for the information — information they already own — that they need to effect the transfer they want to make. Network Solutions give the following reason, after a couple of screens of FUD-generating warnings of imminent Armageddon that are clearly designed to scare the domain owner into not obtaining the information to which they are entitled:

Your request for an Auth Code has been received and your information will be validated to ensure the security of your account. If your request is approved, you will receive your Auth Code by email in 3 days.

To cancel this request, please call one of our Customer Service Representatives at 1-800-779-4903.

Thank you.

Now, it’s all well and good that Network Solutions claims (or hides behind) the excuse of “[ensuring] the security of your account” (which is not surprising, considering they were responsible for one of the biggest screw ups in domain history when they allowed the fraudulent registrant transfer of a domain registered with them back when they held the monopoly on gTLD registrations), but this is clearly a delaying tactic to give the customer time to lose the will to transfer because now it’s just too much of a problem, too much effort, too complicated, too time-consuming … or whatever negative feeling develops in the mind of the domain owner as he or she spends three days mulling over (and perhaps having nightmares about) the things they read in the two screens of dire warnings before finally screwing up the courage to click the “yes, I really do want my auth code” button.

Shame on you, Network Solutions, for impeding the progress of this customer who has decided — as they’re free to do — to move their business to a competitor. But this is not surprising of a company that has a longer list of “controversies” listed in their Wikipedia article than most companies, along with those of their former parent company Verisign. They both also appear prominently in the “Domain name scams” article, as well as here on our own blog.

Tags: domain registration, domains, netsol, network solutions, registrar transfers, scams, verisign
Categories: Warnings
Comments Off