I recently decided to change registrars for my other domain, 27.org. It's handled by NetworkSolutions right now, because when I registered the name (in 1997) the only group who did registration was InterNIC, which was a joint venture between the US government and NetSol set up to handle domain registration. NetSol isn't well loved (more on that later), and any budding monopoly needs to get some competition.

My "service" with NetSol hasn't been bad or anything, it's just that their "services" leave something to be desired. For example, if you want to do anything with DNS within your domain (other than switch name servers around), you need to pay them an additional $25 per domain per year. Other registrars, such as register.com and GoDaddy will also host DNS for any domain they register free of charge. Since I need to monkey with DNS on 27.org, I decided to switch registrars and see what the marketplace had to offer.

I have two other domains at register.com, and they were the natural choice. The trouble is that they apparently don't handle .org domains. Why? No clue. I expect it might have something to do with Public Interest Registry taking over the .org registry earlier this year.

In any case, register.com's web site is misleading. Before starting the tranfser, I read through all their documention about how transfers work. Nothing in there mentioned them not handling .org domains. It was only when I went to initiate the transfer using their web app that I was told I couldn't transfer .org domains to them. So I wrote the customer service department a letter last night, and I got a reply this morning:

> I'm wondering if I can tranfser my .org
> domain name to register.com. Your page at
>
> http://www.register.
> com//faq/transfer-register-q3.cgi?> 1|3753131928|
>
> Says this:
>
> "At this time, only .com, .net and .org
> domain name registrations can be transferred
> to Register.com."
>
> But when I use the transfer tool on your
> site, I get this error:
>
> "Note: Only .com and .net domain names are
> eligible to be transferred to register.com.
> Therefore, the following domain name(s) will
> not be included in this transaction."
>
> So which is it? Why can't I transfer my domain
> to you?


Dear William,

Thank you for contacting Register.com regarding the domain name "27.org".

Currently Register.com is not accepting transfer of .org extension domain names to Register.com. Only .com and .net domain names are eligible to be transferred to register.com.

We would like to inform you that whenever we accept transefer of .org extension domain names to us, the information would be updated on our web site.

Moreover, Register.com does not accept registration/transfer of two character domain names.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.

Well ain't that a slap on the ass. I can dig the part about them not wanting (or not being able to) to touch .org because PIR is handling it now, but what's the deal with that "two character domain" thing? What's the stigma attached to two character domains? I was hoping to have all my eggs in one basket, but I guess I can't.

The funny thing is that when I first went to register my domain in '97, I wanted to register 27.com, not .org. InterNIC wouldn't let me. They said it was "reserved". It must have become unreserved at some point, because it was registered in 1998 by a domain squatter. I actually like .org better anyway.

Here's a registrar changing tip: if you are transferring a domain away from NetSol, you might need a thing called an "authorization code" from them. You will definitely need one if you are moving a .biz or .us domain. I discovered that I needed it when I went to confirm the registrar change on GoDaddy's web site. There was the two buttons asking me to accept or decline the transfer, and this little text box asking me for an auth code. I had to call GoDaddy's tech support line to find out where to get that code since Google wasn't very helpful. I was only on hold for about 10 minutes, but they had Squirrel Nut Zippers playing as their hold music, which made it fine (I wound up turning up the volumen on my phone even). They said NetSol has to give it to me, and NetSol (predictably) has no real search feature on their site. I wound up having to call their support line to get it. Imagine my surprise to find a phone menu option for moving domains away from NetSol buried deep in their system. 10 minutes later, I had the code.

Verisign now owns NetSol, and they certainly aren't well-loved given things like their extremely presumptuous and Net-breaking SiteFinder "service" (in addition to other questionable practices). Honestly, that's not why I switched -- although the SiteFinder thing got me thinking about switching when it debuted a few months ago. But now that I think about it, Verisign is just sorta slimy and I'm glad I'm moving away from them. There's tiny evidence of this sliminess everywhere, like in charging for basic DNS sevices (and scamming people into paying to do so, according to some people). Verisign is just vaguely icky. When I called late last night to get that auth code, their 888 number starts off with a message saying "Our standard business hours are so and so. Please call back then". If you wait about 5 seconds, you get that same voice coming back with a menu of options. No doubt they figure people will hang up right away and call back during daytime hours when the cheap phone center help is working. And there's nothing wrong with this, by any means. It's just sorta creepy and calculating and deceptive. It makes you wonder what else they're up to.

Aside from the dumb name, I think I'll be happy with GoDaddy. They have a really nice website that lets you do all sorts of stuff with your domain. They're cheap too: it's only going to cost $8.95 a year to keep up my .org domain, vs. $35 a year for NetSol/Verisign. (The transfer fee was only $6.95, and they added a one year extension as well. Register.com wanted $35 to transfer with no extension.) We'll see how they do. At very least they aren't any worse, feature-wise, than NetSol and are a lot cheaper. I basically just need them to host DNS as well as act as my registrar, so I don't think I'll run into any problems.