2014 new ICANN regulation can nuke a site

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

And it appears that NeoWin ( also an IPB user ) was the first victim.

( Snapshot of Facebook )

From their Facebook page ...

Quick update. ICANN revoked neowin.net because one of the email addresses attached to our domain registrar didn't work/no longer exists. I've appealed the decision which normally takes 24-48 hours and also have been in contact with our domain registrar to update the incorrect email address. Once ICANN has responded I'll know more. The WHOIS for Neowin was for the most part up to date except for that one email address.

This is a new ICANN regulation, folks. Effective since January 2014. ICANN are requiring domain owners to confirm their WHOIS email address periodically starting this year. After multiple failed verification attempts, ICANN revokes the domain.

Correct, we fudged up there. The email linked with our account no longer works..

Just a heads up for Xper and other site owners to be aware of this. ( At this writing NeoWin has an offsite mirror at http://neow.in. )

[buyerninety]

Also ongoing here;

http://neow.in/forum/topic/1198943-site-outages/

There is quoted Steven P. (presumably a Neowin Admin?);

" It was due to one of the many email addresses that are tied to our

account/domains not working. Although the email addresses on the

public WHOIS do work and are valid. "

As at this posts' date, a whois for www.neowin.net displays, within the

three relevant email address fields (Registrant, Admin, Tech), two unique

email addresses.

I'm not on Neowin, (pity) - the question I'd be interested in - did ICANN

neowin's Registrar, 'Domain.com, LLC',

send their queries to every listed email address in Neowin's recorded Whois

details, or only to the email address listed for the 'Registrant'?

More interestingly, did neowin's Registrar send an informing email to

their other WHOIS listed email address(es), informing that one of their

WHOIS email addresses had failed to validate?

@CharlotteTheHarlot , what do you suggest Xper should be aware (beware)

of (for MSFN) - not having the same email address for all three fields or

deficiencies in the Postal Address?

Edited February 2, 2014 by buyerninety

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

Just suggesting that he and all other site owners verify that all their contact information with their registrar are for currently active email addresses and to eyeball them for this "periodic" spot check that they are apparently sending out.

P.S. yes, you are correct that Steven aka NeoBond is their Admin, ( owner actually ).

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

There is a post at NeoWin by owner Steven Parker, aka NeoBond ...

How ICANN said ICANT ( NeoWin 2014-02-04 )

I was going to write a whole piece regarding this ordeal and how it could have been handled better, but I'm not going to. Fact is: we were in the wrong, not our registrar or ICANN, although I feel our registrar could have handled the whole situation better.

Basically what happened is that our domain was reported to ICANN for inaccuracy of the WHOIS, specifically this part which was protected by "Domain Privacy" so instead of showing a "real" email address, it shows one that is handled by a company that handles privacy.

[...]

ICANN is apparently requiring from 1 Jan 2014 that WHOIS information is accurate and up to date, if it isn't and they send a complaint to your registrar, one of the stipulations is that your domain can be suspended within a timeframe of their choosing, but within 14 days. We hold 17 domains at our registrar who gave us 72 hours to respond, at another registrar we hold an additional three domain names and they give five days notice to respond.

Read his story for lots more details about his non-working contact information and why it occurred, at least partially due to bureaucratic burden. I'm not sure why, but Steven is certainly being so charitable about something this serious. Registrars have but one mission in life and if they fail that you have to ask just WTF good they are. If Steven had any sense he would seek out some others that have had this happen and unite to press a suit for easily provable damages. If he accepts it, there will be no pain for the registrars and incidents will continue to occur.

UPDATE-1: just before posting this comment NeoWin.net was back down again after being up for at last several hours. The browser status showed it hanging at Looking up hostname www.neowin.net ... and then the generic 'address not found' ( as seen in Opera ).

UPDATE-2: now a few minutes later it is working okay. Something is still screwy at the DNS level, perhaps some name servers changed the URL and are now changing it back. It shows there are far reaching consequences for an issue like this.

[buyerninety]

Both their Admin and their Tech (identical) email addresses @stardock.com

(as shown on neowin.net WHOIS prior to its revocation) failed the check

because their email server replied to the check with "Quota exceeded

(mailbox for user is full)"

Entirely possible - that particular email address belongs to a busy guy

(who continues to use that particular email address for the WHOIS details

on a number of other Domains).

For the rest of us, (and especially anyone whose email address is listed

on a WHOIS), its worth mentioning that a 'full mailbox' reply may be caused

by failing to empty the Trash and/or Spam folders (email account plan may

include these when calculating the account 'email quota').

Also, if you have an email account plan that bundles 'other services', those

other services may count towards and/or affect your 'email quota'. Here's an

example;

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6558

[xper]

Thanks for the info. No problem here :-)

http://who.is/whois/msfn.org

[koganstyle]

Why do icann care about this ?

[bphlpt]

I would assume that as the number of websites have exploded, they figure that any website that is no longer valid, (in their eyes that apparently means one whose contact info is no longer valid), is eligible to be reused and resold to someone else. But that is just my interpretation.

Cheers and Regards

Edited February 28, 2014 by bphlpt

[Tripredacus]

To be honest, website admins have had to validate all registration information with ICANN for many years now.