Corporate Blog

Impending registrar transfer of your dot-ca domain(s)

16 November 2024 10:39:38 +0000

This post confirms a mass email we have just sent to a number of registrants of dot-ca domains.

We have decided to change the registrar with which we register dot-ca domains. We are actually returning to OpenSRS; the reasons we left them in 2018 have never really been fixed, but we maintained our account with them because, despite their operational issues, they are a decent registrar that generally tries to do the right thing by dot-ca registrants. Considering the trouble we have had with our current registrar — who go by more names than you can shake a stick at, but they include “CENTRALNIC CANADA INC“, “Team Internet” and “CentralNic Reseller” — this is a significant improvement! The new (old) registrar is, as stated above, OpenSRS, but they also trade under the name of their parent company, Tucows.

We are letting you know that you (as your domain’s owner, or registrant) need to approve this transfer because you ultimately have choice in the matter and have control over your domain. As your domain advisor and host, we recommend that you accept this transfer because it means that pretty much everything will stay the same for your hosting and billing, and the domain renewal you have already paid for will take place at the same time. Additionally, approving this transfer will not interrupt your domain’s service in any way. This is how we continue to serve you and provide our services.

One of the ways in which OpenSRS has not improved — it blows my mind after six years — is that they still can’t seem to decide from which domain they send their emails! You will receive emails from addresses on the opensrs.email and opensrs.org domains. After your domain is transferred you will go back to receiving emails from the “domainsupport” address on the niner.net domain. The initial message will have the subject, “Transfer Request for DOMAIN.CA”, where DOMAIN.CA will be your dot-ca domain. Please click the approve.domainadmin.com link in the message, select the option to approve the transfer and enter your “transfer key”, which we will send to you separately immediately after this message.

After the transfer completes a few minutes later you will also receive confirmation emails from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) using the email address info_AT_cira.ca. All of these messages that you’ll receive around the time you approve the transfer(s) are legitimate, but if you have any questions please do contact NinerNet support.

Thank-you for following these instructions, and thank-you for your continued business.

Tags: cira, domain registration, domain renewals, domains, registrar transfers
Categories: Notices
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Compendium of scam emails

13 April 2021 09:26:41 +0000

Scam and “phishing” emails arrive daily by the truck load. We can’t send a warning every time we ourselves get a scam or phishing email. If we did, our own emails would become just noise in the background.

However, we present here eighteen screenshots of scam, spam and phishing emails that we have received or seen over the last four years. If you’re not sure what one of these emails look like, we encourage you to look these over. The approaches vary, but here are some common factors:

They advise you that your email account is over quota, and you must take some immediate action to prevent catastrophe — i.e., the loss of all your email.
Your email account is being closed or upgraded.
The webmail for your account is being upgraded, and you have to take action.
Your domain is being cancelled or expired within a few hours or a couple of days.
Payment for the renewal of your domain is overdue.
Wordy expiration notices that are unclear about what exactly is expiring and how it could theoretically affect you.
Domain SEO (search engine optimisation) notices made up to look like invoices for domain renewal.
Emails with links that disguise the true destination to which you are clicking. Always check the status bar in your email program or app — before you click, while hovering your mouse pointer over the link — to determine whether or not your browser will really be going to a domain you recognise — e.g., niner.net if you are a NinerNet Communications client.
Emails that try to sound like they come from your own company’s IT department, complete with copyright notices.
“Final” renewal notices that are a surprise.
Fine print at the end of the email that makes ludicrous statements that contradict the meat of the email, such as, “We do not directly register or renew domain names” or “THIS IS NOT A BILL” (in an email that looks like it’s a bill to renew your domain); “We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this email, also clearly mentioned our subject lines and they are in no way misleading” (in an email that tries to mislead you into paying what looks like an invoice).
Urgent server warnings, that aren’t urgent server warnings at all.

NinerNet Communications is judicious about how many emails we send out, and how often we do. We’re also careful to ensure that we use proper spelling and grammar. Our emails do not contain copyright notices and pages of meaningless legal notices. (Maybe they should, but currently they don’t. We’re real people who tend to believe that our clients are also real people with brains.) With that in mind, here is a non-exhaustive list of things you should look for to determine if an email you’ve received really is from NinerNet and if it’s legitimate:

Is it from an email address on the niner.net domain? (Configure your email program or app to show you the sender’s actual email address, not just their name.) If it’s not, it’s not from us and you can probably ignore it if it claims to be about your hosting or domain.
Does it try to scare you or make you angry, such that you might take immediate action? If it does, it’s definitely not from us.
Is it in HTML or “rich text”, with different colours and types of fonts, and does it contain images or things that look like buttons (especially that say “secure online payment”)? It’s very likely not from us.
Are there copyright notices in the email? Definitely not from us.
Does it flatter you with words such as “esteemed” or “valued”? Not from us. (You are esteemed and valued, for sure; we just don’t lay it on thick with you!)
Does the email address you by the name in your email address? For example, if your email address is accounts@example.com, does it address you as “accounts” as if that was your name? Not from us.
Does it ask for personal information or ask you to update or confirm personal information? Very likely not from us unless you’re a brand new client.
Look very carefully at the sender’s address. Does the font on your email program make some letters look like others? For example, if the sender looks like bob@example.com, are you sure his domain isn’t exarnple.com? With some fonts the “r” and the “n” together look like the “m” in “example”.

Of course, the above checklist can be applied to any email you receive, including emails that purport to be from your bank.

Attachments: Don’t open attachments from unknown senders or that you are not expecting, even from known senders. Also make sure you have anti-virus software installed.

Our automated notices telling you that your mail box is full, or close to it, are extremely brief and do not try to scare you or offer you links to “free upgrades” or anything like that.

If you click on a link in an email and enter information on a form — especially a password — and then realise that it’s a scam/phishing, immediately change that password. You should also contact NinerNet, or whoever that account is with, to inform them what has happened.

Finally, when we do send you an email to advise you of something that applies to all (or most) clients — such as server moves, upgrades, etc. — we include a link to our blog (blog.niner.net) so that you can confirm that information.

Below, then, are the eighteen screenshots of scam, spam and phishing emails. The first is particularly noteworthy, as it is a sexual blackmail/extortion scam that seeks payment via Bitcoin. It and similar emails will be the subject of our next blog post.

If you have any questions, please contact NinerNet support. Thank-you.

Sexual blackmail bitcoin email scam.

: Urgent server warning email scam.

: Mailbox over storage revalidation email scam.

: Mailbox is full email scam.

: Using old version email scam.

: Important domain seo notification email scam.

: Domain service cancellation scam.

: Upgrade account email scam.

: Secure online payment email scam.

: Domain service cancellation scam.

: Domain danger suspended scam.

: Pending unread messages email scam.

: Notice of final renewal domain scam.

: Domain cancellation notice scam.

: Closing old versions email scam.

: Mailbox upgrade quota email scam.

: New version webmail email scam.

: Check pending incoming email scam.

Tags: domain renewals, scams
Categories: Warnings
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Zambian domain registrars again taking detrimental action

28 November 2020 04:23:18 +0000

In April we informed you that we had achieved ZICTA accreditation through our partner Preworx. The primary motivation for doing this was to provide reliable domain registration service to Zambians because, as is shown in this blog, the Zambian ccTLD (country code top-level domain) has been very badly managed by the accredited/registered ISPs that provide registrar service. By becoming an accredited registrar ourselves we hoped (and continue to hope) that we could bring our legendary customer service to dot-zm registrants, to give them peace of mind that their domains will operate as expected.

Since April we have taken a number of actions to provide improved service to dot-zm registrants:

We have rescued quite a number of domains that were registered through Coppernet,
We have helped the registrants of some domains that were previously hosted with or registered through Microlink,
We set up an example domain at example.com.zm,
We have updated the WHOIS information for all domains that we’ve transferred in from other registrars, so that they are using current and correct contact information and are compliant with all expected norms as far as contact information is concerned,
Many domains transferred in from other registrars had expiry dates as long as ten years ago, but all domains have been renewed up to the present, and
We have brought some domains “home” from overseas where they were managed by companies gouging Zambians for hundreds of US dollars per year for domain registrations.

We have also been able to use our status as a registrar with direct and established contact with ZICTA to address a number of situations where dot-zm domains were unduly taken offline due to actions taken by their previous registrars. Most recently this took place yesterday (27 November) when domains that are with the registrar AfriConnect (officially, but also known as iConnect and now “inq.”) were taken offline because their nameservers were changed by iConnect/inq without request or authorisation from the registrants. This took these domains offline all day yesterday until finally, at the end of the day, they were restored to working condition again.

Similar issues have taken place with Zamnet and Coppernet in the past, although the latter is no longer in business and the issues with the former took place before our accreditation, so we were not able to do anything except sit on the sidelines and shout! In one recent case a client’s dot-co.zm domain, registered with Zamnet, was down for over a month before it was sorted out by Zamnet! The expiry date on that domain still shows as 2015 in the WHOIS!

These situations are all examples of the fact that dot-zm domains registered with anyone other than NinerNet are in jeopardy of going offline at any time with no notice to the registrants or NinerNet. This is intolerable. Although it is not a technical requirement, ever since April we have insisted that new clients transferring in existing dot-zm domains to our hosting service also transfer their domain registration for management by NinerNet/Preworx. Any existing clients who choose not to transfer their domain registrations to NinerNet will be pointed to this blog post to ensure that they are aware of the risk they are taking if they leave their dot-zm domain registered with another registrar.

Finally, we are continuing to sell dot-zm domain registrations, renewals and transfers for K175.00 per year (50% off!) until 31 December 2020. Contact NinerNet today to arrange for the registration, renewal or transfer of your dot-zm domain!

Tags: africonnect, coppernet, domain registration, domain renewals, domains, dot-zm domains, iconnect, inq, microlink, registrar transfers, zamnet
Categories: Notices
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Microlink has apparently shut down

14 September 2020 03:24:27 +0000

Microlink last week apparently sent an email to their customers stating that they were suddenly “shutting down their hosting services”. According to some reports, there weren’t many customers left to send the emails to. However, one of them contacted us and with cooperation from ZICTA we were able to transfer their dot-zm domain under our management, and we got them back online the same day.

However, another former Microlink customer who contacted us wanted to get their @microlink.zm email address working again. We had to inform them that we are unable to do that, because we don’t manage the microlink.zm domain and its DNS and email accounts. It remains under the management of Microlink, or whatever is left of it.

We did contact the (apparently) former IT manager at Microlink (Sanjeev) to offer assistance with moving clients to new hosting and to host email on microlink.zm, but we have not had a response … and quite frankly don’t expect one.

If you are a former hosting customer of Microlink — i.e., you have your own domain, dot-zm or otherwise — that was hosted with them, please contact us and we will assist you in getting your domain back online as quickly as possible. We have the expertise and experience.

Update, 2020-09-18: Although we can’t replace what you lost when Microlink shut down unexpectedly, we can try and ease your pain. If you contact us and sign up before the end of September 2020, we will host you for no charge for ONE YEAR (for a maximum of 25 email addresses), including bringing your dot-zm domain registration up to date. Click here to contact us by email now.

Tags: abandoned domain customers, abandoned hosting customers, domain registration, domain renewals, domains, dot-zm domains, hosting transfer, icann, microlink, registrar transfers
Categories: Notices, Updated posts
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We now offer dot-zm domain registrations

25 April 2020 01:56:29 +0000

As some of you are aware, we have been pursuing accreditation with ZICTA so that we can register and manage dot-zm domains. In order to accomplish this we partnered with registered ISP Preworx, and our application was recently approved.

This will be particularly good news for those of you who have dot-zm domains registered with a certain registrar who suspends and deletes domains without notice and without billing registrants, as happened most recently in February and will undoubtedly happen again in the future.

We have already transferred those domain registrations for which we are responsible. At the same time we have corrected the registration information for these domains to ensure they are registered by the correct organisations, and are using current contact information.

While we have not recommended dot-zm domains in the past for both technical and administrative reasons, the technical reasons were addressed by ZICTA within the last few years. The administrative reasons are primarily related to poor management by registrars, such as the aforementioned registrar that suspends domains without notice and without issuing invoices. This, as all NinerNet clients know, is not how we conduct business.

Also in the past we have not been able to offer any assistance — only advice — when clients had issues with their dot-zm registrations and registrars. Now, for those clients who have dot-zm domains, if you transfer your dot-zm registration to NinerNet/Preworx, you will be assured of the same service and attention to detail that you are used to with your hosting and other domain registrations. In fact, while it is ultimately your choice whether or not you transfer your dot-zm domain under the management of NinerNet/Preworx, we do strongly recommend that you do.

If you have an existing non-dot-zm domain that includes the word “Zambia” or “Africa” — e.g., company-zambia.com or company.africa — and would like to consider registering a dot-zm instead or as well, please contact us to advise us and we’ll respond with options for you. Your options include:

.ac.zm: Academic institutions
.biz.zm: Businesses
.co.zm: Commercial entities
.com.zm: Commercial entities
.edu.zm: Academic institutions
.gov.zm: Government
.info.zm: Information
.mil.zm: Military
.net.zm: Networks
.org.zm: Non-commercial organizations
.sch.zm: Schools

Of course, some of the above are restricted.

Pricing has been another reason that dot-zm domains have not been popular. To be frank, we don’t have any firm commitment from ZICTA on our pricing yet. We’d love to be able to say that we know what price we will be charging for domains next year and five years from now, but we can’t. However, as part of our application we did commit to pricing “in line with industry standards for most TLDs.” What this means for now is that we intend to charge the same price for a dot-zm domain that we currently charge for a dot-com, which is K351.50. Actually, considering we’re not paying for dot-zm domain registrations in forex, we’ll peg that at K350 per year unless and until ZICTA makes any significant change to their pricing model.

Even better is that — subject to ZICTA’s pricing — we will charge only half that, K175 for a year, for all transferred and new domains for the rest of 2020. This applies to all existing clients, and any new clients. And remember, we pay a 10% bounty for new clients — to both the referring client and the new client — based on the new client’s spending with us for their first six months.

Please contact us to transfer your existing dot-zm domain (if you have one), or register a new one. Thank-you.

Tags: domain registration, domain renewals, domains, dot-zm domains, registrar transfers
Categories: Announcements
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Zamnet deleting dot-zm domains … again!

13 February 2020 05:34:35 +0000

Zamnet’s sleepy accounts receivable department has again risen from its seldom-interrupted slumber to suspend random dot-zm domains. This time they have suspended about 25 per cent of the dot-zm domains that NinerNet hosts — all without a shred of notice to any of their registrants (our hosting clients).

This results in days of downtime while these businesses — some with hundreds of employees and many hundreds of customers across southern Africa — scramble to get a few kwachas to Zamnet’s offices, and then Zamnet takes their time processing the payments. If Zamnet had bothered invoicing for the renewal of these domains in the first place this would likely have never happened. This is not the first time this has occurred; in June 2013 another significant tranche of dot-zm domains were taken offline by Zamnet until registrants coughed up extortionate sums of money (sometimes thirteen years’ worth!) to pay for all the years in which Zamnet didn’t bother to invoice for the renewal of the domains. While that’s the only example we have documented on this blog, it’s not the only example of Zamnet causing dot-zm domains to fail.

NinerNet, in partnership with registered ISP Preworx, are trying to become accredited with ZICTA to register and manage dot-zm domain registrations so that this kind of uncertainty and lack of reliability with dot-zm domain registrations and renewals can be stopped, at least for our clients and those who choose to register their dot-zm domains with us. We made the application in June 2019, but progress on the application has been held up by additional, undocumented steps we have had to take. Only yesterday we happened to submit additional paperwork in support of our application, and this morning we followed up with a complaint about this action by Zamnet and made clear that such an action would never happen under our watch. It is unclear to us what obstacles will be placed in our path now, but it is the incompetence demonstrated by incumbent registrars like Zamnet that drives us forward to our goal.

If you’d like to voice support for the application by Preworx to become a dot-zm domain registrar, we encourage you to voice this support through the ZICTA website. Thank-you.

Tags: domain registration, domain renewals, domains, dot-zm domains, zamnet
Categories: Notices
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Change of domain registrar

28 June 2018 06:39:22 +0000

Over the next year, starting today, we will be migrating all domain registrations under our management to a different domain registrar. For the most part these migrations will take place as the domains are renewed.

To be clear about NinerNet‘s position in the domain ecosystem, we are a reseller of domain registrations, reselling domains registered with domain name registrars, who in turn register domains from domain name registries. For the last seventeen years we have been a reseller for OpenSRS, a subsidiary of Tucows; going forward we will be a reseller for RRPproxy, a subsidiary of Key-Systems, a member of the KeyDrive Group.

Automated emails about your domains will continue to be sent from the same email address we’ve been using for years: domainsupport on the niner.net domain. You will notice a change in the format and language used in these emails. At least initially, links in those emails — such as those requesting you to validate your email address — will be on domains controlled by RRPproxy; however, we will work on using the niner.net domain at some point in the future, but we don’t have a timetable for that yet. The domain used in links in the email address validation emails that you may receive after your domain is transferred is currently ~~emailverification.info~~. (See update below.)

Unless otherwise notified, you will continue to manage your domain registration through the interface at manage.niner.net. Within the next six months the interface at that address will change.

We are looking forward to an improved experience for all clients (except those using dot-zm domains, of course) as a result of this move. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. As always, if you are concerned about the legitimacy of an email you’ve received that pertains to your domain or hosting account with us, please forward it to us and we will advise you accordingly.

Thank-you for your business.

Update, 2018-06-29: Please note that, despite our best efforts, the transfer confirmation emails you will receive from our current registrar are sent from two different email addresses not on the niner.net domain: noreply@opensrs.email and transfers@opensrs.org. The inability of OpenSRS to consistently use our domain in messaging over the years (or even just one of their own domains) is a significant symptom of the problems that have led us to make this decision to move. Our apologies for the confusion.

Update, 2018-09-25: Links in the “Request for email address validation” emails are now on the niner.net domain.

Tags: domain registration, domain renewals, domains, registrar transfers
Categories: Notices, Updated posts
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Data privacy developments

22 May 2018 22:44:39 +0000

The purpose of this long blog post is to keep you informed of a significant development in the domain registration business, how it will affect you, what action you need to take and how to protect yourself from the criminals who will take advantage of the confusion that will no doubt be generated. We have also sent this via email to our clients.

The GDPR

In the last few months you may have heard rumblings about a new European law called the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation. This is a sweeping new law that will affect people in every corner of the globe, not just in the European Union (EU). It places a premium on the value of individual privacy, and restricts how the personal data provided by an individual may be used by companies and organisations. Fines for breach of the law can reach tens of millions of euros.

The GDPR is a good thing, and will address some glaring problems in our industry that we have referred to on a number of occasions, particularly the public WHOIS system where a domain registrant’s information is available for all the world to see, and is therefore used by scammers worldwide. However, even a good law is still a law and comes with an administrative burden for all parties.

On the hosting side of our business, not much (if anything) will change. We have always closely guarded the personal information of our clients — and that won’t change — and only collected what is technically and legally necessary to provide the services you contract from us.

Domain registrations

On the domain registration side of things, because of the fact that the domain registration system requires a number of entities to co-operate — registrant (you), registrar (currently OpenSRS/Tucows), reseller (NinerNet), registry (various, including Verisign, CIRA, ZICTA, etc.) and ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) — you will start to see various transactional emails from us refer to the GDPR (which comes into force on 25 May 2018) and mechanisms for you to provide and, if necessary and possible, withdraw consent for use of your personal data. The need for you to fulfil your obligations as a domain registrant and respond to calls to action in emails will be in addition to actions you have needed to take until now. In short, it should mean a couple more emails per domain per year that you will need to pay attention to, but exactly how this manifests itself will develop over time, especially in the first year after this Regulation comes into force.

While it’s a reasonable question to ask why an EU law will apply to people and companies outside of the EU, the fact is that, worldwide, domain registries and registrars intend to comply with this Regulation and adopt a uniform system for managing it. Many jurisdictions have privacy laws, but the GDPR looks like it will be the most robust affecting the greatest number of people and the general feeling among proponents is two-fold: 1) Privacy is a good thing and we should follow the most stringent standards in favour of it, and 2) If we have to adjust policies and practices, then it makes no sense to have one set of policies and practices for some people and another for everyone else.

While this law affects all industries (and governmental organisations) in the EU and those (within and without the EU) that deal with European residents, the most visible effect in our industry will be on the public WHOIS (“who is”) system, where your personal information — name, address, phone number, email address, etc. — is currently published in public databases of domain registrants for everyone to see. These databases will continue to exist, of course, but access to them will be restricted, through layered access to a new “gated” WHOIS system, to legitimate accredited users that will include law enforcement organisations and intellectual property lawyers, as well as the registries, registrars and resellers directly involved in a particular domain registration.

Spammers, scammers and fraud artists

The one class of people that we certainly hope will no longer have access to this information is the fraud artists that fill your email every day — despite our best efforts — with offers to enlarge body parts, sell you web design and “search engine optimisation” services, scam you into sending them money for services they’ll never provide, and trick you into providing information to them that will lead to identity theft (phishing). With any luck, this new law will finally almost wipe out the spammers who harvest your email address from the WHOIS. It won’t stop those who get your unprotected email address off your website, or already have it or buy it from these unscrupulous individuals, but it should stop anyone else getting your email address if you change it in your existing domain registration.

But speaking of scams, as sure as night follows day (we’ve seen it before) these changes will no doubt lead to many scammers sending out emails urgently requiring you to take some action or another after clicking a link in their email. The text of the emails will use urgent language designed to scare you, but that they assume you will have heard in the news. They will refer to the GDPR and tell you that if you don’t go to a website and fill in a user name and password for your domain — and perhaps send them money too — your domain will be suspended and deleted.

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS! IT IS NOT TRUE!

As we have said over and over again for more than twenty years, if you receive an email about your domain or hosting from an email address that is not on the niner.net domain, then it is almost certainly a scam. If the email attempts to scare you into taking action immediately, then that only adds to the weight of evidence pointing to it being a scam. If you are concerned and not sure, we’re happy to advise you if you forward the email in question to us before taking any action.

Our new privacy policy

As with many Internet companies, the new GDPR has prompted us to revise our privacy policy. Our privacy policy — part editorial, part serious statement — is unlike any you have ever read. It provides some truth about the real problem with what the true purpose is of many (mostly larger) companies these days, and how we’re very different.

No action required at this time

Finally, no action is needed from you at this time. However, after 25 May you will start to receive email notices directing you to take GDPR-related actions, especially if you change anything to do with your domain, and possibly when you renew it.

If you have any questions, please let us know. Thank-you for your time.

Tags: domain registration, domain renewals, domains, gdpr, privacy, scams
Categories: Notices
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Reminder of domain renewal scams

12 February 2017 02:22:14 +0000

The scammers trying to separate you from your money never sleep and we’ve been meaning to send a reminder about that for a while now. Were prompted today by a couple of things: the first being a client who recently mistook one of these scams for a legitimate notice from NinerNet, and the second the receipt of four emails to us that arrived in quick succession in the span of 22 minutes this morning from the same scammers.

What these scams have in common is that they’re sent to the email address you use in your domain registration, and masquerade as domain renewal notices. The management of the WHOIS system — the database of domains and their owners — is a bone of contention among many, and after more than three decades ICANN has still not figured out how to make the WHOIS system useful for legitimate purposes while protecting domain owners from scams like these. We make five suggestions in the “Lessons to be learned” section of a rather long and detailed post from last year if you’re annoyed at the amount of spam you receive. One of those suggestions is not private domain registration, despite the fact that we can make money on that service.

The two particularly active scams that you should be aware of are these two:

You’ll note that the latter dates back to at least 2015. If the scam wasn’t working, they’d stop. Don’t be scammed!

If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know. Thanks.

Tags: domain renewals, scams
Categories: Warnings
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Digital Matrixx customer notice

7 July 2016 00:46:15 +0000

It has come to our attention that customers of Digital Matrixx, formerly of Abbotsford, BC, appear to have been abandoned. If this describes your situation, NinerNet Communications may in some cases be able to help you.

Unfortunately it appears that the domains of many of Digital Matrixx’s customers were actually registered in the name of Digital Matrixx, rather than the names of their rightful owners. This was not necessarily the result of malice, but probably expediency and a lack of foresight or knowledge on the part of Digital Matrixx. (To compare, that would be like your real estate agent registering your new house in his or her name “because it’s easier.”) However, the result is that now the rightful owners of those domains have no control over them and cannot take the necessary action to get their domains back online again, or even renew them.

We do not have a list of customers or contact information for any of them, so if you are a former Digital Matrixx customer you need to take the initiative to contact us to see if we are in a position to be able to help you. (We do have a list of 179 domains that we may be able to assist with.) You can contact us at the same email address that Digital Matrixx used to use — info@thepostaloffice.com — or via one of the methods listed on our contact page. While we have not bought or acquired Digital Matrixx, we have acquired their former domain — thepostaloffice.com — through the normal domain expiry process. (The same applies to the domain they used to use for nameservers, securelinksserver.com.) Because many of the domains registered by Digital Matrixx use the info@thepostaloffice.com email address as an email contact, we can now in some cases help some rightful domain owners.

Please read the following information carefully.

What we can do for some former customers:

We can help some people regain control of their domain registrations.

What we cannot do for you:

We do not have any access to websites or email on any domains. In some cases we may be able to retrieve copies of websites from public caches, but this takes time and effort. We can determine the probability of success and give you a quote to make a copy based on our hourly rate. We can also refer you to web designers or make recommendations for economical options.

What we require:

To assist anyone to regain control of their domain we require scanned or high-resolution photographed copies of documentation to connect you to the domain. This could include at least two items from the following non-exhaustive list:
- business licence (municipal),
- business registration (federal or provincial),
- an invoice from Digital Matrixx or the owner of the company, or
- a cancelled cheque or some form of proof of payment to Digital Matrixx or the owner of the company.
If we are able to assist you to regain control of your domain, we will require you to transfer the registration to a new NinerNet domain registration account. (We have no way to give you access to the account where it is currently located.) This will require you to agree to a standard registration agreement, which you will be presented during the process to effect a registrar transfer of your domain. Following this transfer your domain registration period will be extended one further year (or more as described below) beyond its current expiry date, and the contact information will be changed from that of Digital Matrixx to the contact information of your choice.
In order to enter the contact information of your choice, you’ll need to send it to us: registrant company, registrant contact name, registrant mailing address, registrant email address, and registrant phone number. Per the registration agreement, this information all needs to be valid. Once we have that information from you we will send you an invoice based on our current domain renewal rates for the renewal period of your choice (up to ten years). On payment of the invoice we will initiate the registrar transfer, which will usually complete within a week of all of the steps being completed by you. Once that completes we will send you the log-in information for your domain registration account. Also per the registration agreement and as dictated by ICANN, you will not be able to transfer your domain registration to another registrar for 60 days; however, after that 60 days you are free to manage your domain as you see fit.
You can, however, set new nameservers immediately so that you can set up new hosting for your domain or redirect it to another domain. You are not obligated to host your website and/or email with NinerNet, but we’ve been in the hosting business for twenty years and seen companies like Digital Matrixx come and go. Our hosting rates are available on our website and we are very willing and able to answer your questions and give you advice on how to proceed.

We look forward to being able to assist you, as we have done already for some former Digital Matrixx customers.

Tags: abandoned domain customers, abandoned hosting customers, digital matrixx, domain registration, domain renewals, domains, hosting transfer, icann, registrar transfers
Categories: Notices
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