Anthony from DNSimple here. We've definitely seen a lot more of these messages since the SOPA announcement just before Christmas. Prior to that I almost never saw domains stalled because of problems getting at whois data. Whether GoDaddy is doing it on purpose or if they are just overwhelmed with the number of domains that are being transferred out is pure speculation at this point.
In the case of DNSimple, if you get a message like that we are currently recommending that you email us ([email protected]) and let us know which domains are currently responding with that message and we'll cancel them so you can try them again. It's a brute force way of dealing with it, it's inelegant and may end up causing even more problems for GoDaddy, but we have found that has helped a bit.
To be certain, this is different than the 5 day waiting period that ICANN allows. That only comes into effect after you've submitted the transfer request to the registry, and if you haven't received an email to authorize the transfer request then you aren't at that point yet.
Can you say a little about what it would mean for Whois to be "overwhelmed"? We're used to hearing about sites going down dealing with hundreds or thousands of requests per second, and as much as we'd all like to see GoDaddy collapse into rubble their transfers are probably more on the order of thousands a day.
How plausible is it that they could actually be seeing technical difficulties?
3 days ago I transferred ~15 domains. The first half arrived just fine, but the last half is stuck. Those transfers have not shown in GoDaddy's pending transfer page, even after accepting Namecheap's verification emails.
I just got this from a namecheap customer service chat:
"Please let me explain the transfer mechanism in order to make it more clear. On the first stages of the transfer process our system needs to obtain the full domain contact information from the old registrar. Their system should provide us with the full Whois data on the domain automatically in order for us to start the Verification process and be able to proceed with the transfer initiation. Currently Godaddy blocks our IP addresses and does not provide our system with the full contact information (they are not disclosing the email addresses listed with domains), thus we need to gather this data manually"
I do a whois and get all the information, apparently they don't.
This seems like a good use-case for a distributed whois proxy... I wouldn't mind running a node for a few weeks to help NameCheap get through the backlog, especially if it helps liberates my couple of domains that are currently held hostage...
This sounds like a good idea, although the registrars would need to know that there are additional whois mirrors available and start using them, however there are other issues to consider:
* Registrars would have to trust that the data in the mirror has not been tampered with. I think there is an assumption that a whois server name that is provided through the registry whois server is going to be correct.
* Mirrors would still need to rate limit to cause problems for spammers who are harvesting email addresses, or they'd have to whitelist registrars.
The Whois protocol was a decent idea...15 years ago. What we need now is a better way of verifying domain ownership.
Transfers take forever, it's not a problem with godaddy. I transferred a domain into godaddy before all this SOPA drama and it finally "arrived" yesterday, 7 days later.
edit: seems this is an unrelated issue and before it gets to the transfer stage, my mistake.
There is no reason it should take longer. Some of the delay is in the email cross checks with the domain owner. It does not takes a day, let alone days, to move a domain, even when retaining DNS info. Above 4 hours need an explanation.
Can anyone who's successfully transferred a .COM domain to Namecheap verify which registrar appears on the new WHOIS, Namecheap or eNom? I'm still planning my own move and where to go is a tough move -- I think it's between namecheap and name.com now, and I don't want to move if namecheap is still reselling .COM through eNom.
Interestingly, I looked up all the recent YC-funded companies I could think of and 99% were still at GoDaddy. I was hoping to see some pattern in who they chose to move to, but they haven't moved (yet).
I believe Namecheap still resells some TLDs from Enom. What has probably happened is that the name has been released at the registrar, Enom has received the transfer acknowledgement but NameCheap probably has not picked up the completed transfer (there is no notification mechanism so transfer orders have to be polled).
Is this a Namecheap specific issue or more general to eNom who they are a reseller for. Nothing on the enom system status page... http://www.enom.com/registrynews.asp
Enom is definitely having issues getting whois data, although I was under the impression that Namecheap was now accredited and as such would have started communicating directly with the registry for .com and .net at least. Maybe not though.
[+] [-] aeden|14 years ago|reply
In the case of DNSimple, if you get a message like that we are currently recommending that you email us ([email protected]) and let us know which domains are currently responding with that message and we'll cancel them so you can try them again. It's a brute force way of dealing with it, it's inelegant and may end up causing even more problems for GoDaddy, but we have found that has helped a bit.
To be certain, this is different than the 5 day waiting period that ICANN allows. That only comes into effect after you've submitted the transfer request to the registry, and if you haven't received an email to authorize the transfer request then you aren't at that point yet.
[+] [-] Cushman|14 years ago|reply
How plausible is it that they could actually be seeing technical difficulties?
[+] [-] PStamatiou|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] huhtenberg|14 years ago|reply
Anyone care to share their transfer numbers and "stuck" experiences?
[+] [-] PStamatiou|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] untog|14 years ago|reply
Don't get me wrong, I dislike GoDaddy. But let's not jump the gun on these things.
[+] [-] diego|14 years ago|reply
"Please let me explain the transfer mechanism in order to make it more clear. On the first stages of the transfer process our system needs to obtain the full domain contact information from the old registrar. Their system should provide us with the full Whois data on the domain automatically in order for us to start the Verification process and be able to proceed with the transfer initiation. Currently Godaddy blocks our IP addresses and does not provide our system with the full contact information (they are not disclosing the email addresses listed with domains), thus we need to gather this data manually"
I do a whois and get all the information, apparently they don't.
[+] [-] maxklein|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gkoberger|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] wnight|14 years ago|reply
Especially on the heels of supporting SOPA, a pretty malicious thing to do.
[+] [-] thotpoizn|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aeden|14 years ago|reply
* Registrars would have to trust that the data in the mirror has not been tampered with. I think there is an assumption that a whois server name that is provided through the registry whois server is going to be correct.
* Mirrors would still need to rate limit to cause problems for spammers who are harvesting email addresses, or they'd have to whitelist registrars.
The Whois protocol was a decent idea...15 years ago. What we need now is a better way of verifying domain ownership.
[+] [-] citricsquid|14 years ago|reply
edit: seems this is an unrelated issue and before it gets to the transfer stage, my mistake.
[+] [-] auxbuss|14 years ago|reply
There is no reason it should take longer. Some of the delay is in the email cross checks with the domain owner. It does not takes a day, let alone days, to move a domain, even when retaining DNS info. Above 4 hours need an explanation.
[+] [-] freejack|14 years ago|reply
oBDisclaimer - I work for a huge registrar.
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] aaronpk|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aaronpk|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrossman|14 years ago|reply
Interestingly, I looked up all the recent YC-funded companies I could think of and 99% were still at GoDaddy. I was hoping to see some pattern in who they chose to move to, but they haven't moved (yet).
[+] [-] randlet|14 years ago|reply
Registration Service Provided By: Namecheap.com Contact: [email protected] Visit: http://namecheap.com
Domain name: simplehuckel.com
Registrant Contact: WhoisGuard WhoisGuard Protected ()
Administrative Contact: WhoisGuard WhoisGuard Protected +1.6613102107 Fax: +1.6613102107 11400 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90064 USTechnical Contact: WhoisGuard WhoisGuard Protected +1.6613102107 Fax: +1.6613102107 11400 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 200 Los Angeles, CA 90064 US
[+] [-] RobSpectre|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jscore|14 years ago|reply
Now, when I do a whois it's showing as registered to eNom (I was xferring to namecheap) and then showing domain not found.
On namecheap's side it's showing as pending - not action required from me.
Anyone seen similar behavior?
[+] [-] aeden|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freejack|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aeden|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Jayasimhan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] shiftpgdn|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prateekdayal|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|14 years ago|reply
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