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Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

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Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#251
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have 40M users I suspect the annual cost from the registrar is very small part of the budget. Get a registrar where you don't have to deal with a phone operator. I work in this industry and it's a very clear separation between bulk registrars and those that maintain fewer but high value domain names. The latter usually give you a personal contact person to call and work proactively to deal with threats to comp…

which registrars are these?

I don't like to give recommendations since it either mean promoting the company I work at which just feels like mixing professional and private, or promoting competitors which just feel worse. Instead I prefer giving general advice on what to look for when picking a registrar.

Having a personal contact at the registrar for example might sound unnecessary, but it means that a person at the registrar should know the company involved and the impact of the domain or domains before any serious action like suspension are made. In large and bulk like registrar this isn't the case and as such no one likely knew what Zoho.com was or how many users it would effect. It was likely just an other $10 annual fee among millions of other domains, and as such it is very easy to just suspend and forget and later try fix any issues if those are raised. Cheap and quick solution but very costly if the owner values the domain name above that of $10.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#252
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have 40M users I suspect the annual cost from the registrar is very small part of the budget. Get a registrar where you don't have to deal with a phone operator. I work in this industry and it's a very clear separation between bulk registrars and those that maintain fewer but high value domain names. The latter usually give you a personal contact person to call and work proactively to deal with threats to comp…

Hey mate, I've always been a bit perplexed as to how registrar's are created. How could I become a registrar? Any advise or resources to explore this very open question would be wonderful. Cheers J

The first aspect is that every* TLD has it own registry and system. For the generic ones you got ICANN accreditation process, but there is also a bunch of registrar reseller that act as a middle man between ICANN and other registrars.

Usually most processes involve some form of capital investment and/or technical capability. Country specific TLD can either be easier or much much harder depending on which country.

* Not really everyone.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#253
Reading through the thread, people have similar problems with namecheap, name.com.

So if you cant afford something enterprise like MarkMonitor, and you don't want something super cheap $9.99 per year. What sort of good quality middle ground choices do we have?

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steal GitLab's business model and let people/companies self-host their own Zoho.

Nothing about self-hosted licensed software is unique to Gitlab, it's been a standard business model since the software industry started decades ago.

I know. I used GitLab as an example because git is as ubiquitous in development as email and just as prone to centralization. Plus, the recent funding news made it the most obvious example since people are concerned.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have enough capital to become a registrar?

It's not just capital, becoming accredited is a major paperwork and logistical hassle, and you have to do it with every TLD you want to support.

Pretty sure they only need to worry about dot com.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#256
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct, MarkMonitor is a _huge_ business. Alphabet has had an account there for much longer than they have been a Registrar under Google name.

How exactly was that story of a man owning Google.com through Google domains for a few minutes possible, then?

A freak accident and lack of checks.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#257
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second that as we’ve started to see fraud related registration activity from zoho.com around the end of August.

Dear Siv, Thank you for your notification, will check on this and block those who spam using our system. However please put up an email to abuse at zoho.com so it would help us provide clue to our investigations. Reg Rajasekar Zoho Abuse Monitoring Desk.

Did you see this comment? Just passing it along in case it is helpful.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18064197

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#258

The importance of using a reliable registrar can't be overstated. tierra.net looks like a small company, without 24hr support, and with an abandoned social media presence. Why would a company with 40M users use a tiny registrar to save 2 bucks on a domain name?

You seem to imply that reliable ≠ small, and that small registrars are cheaper.

In my experience, the opposite is true in both cases. Big registrars can’t afford any support costs since they prefer to squeeze the price down as far as possible, and therefore they prefer to simply lose or outright drop any customer in case of any and all problems. Conversely, small registrars may charge more, but have better (i.e. actually existing, and sometimes even dedicated and personal) support for when things go wrong, and have a vested interest in keeping you as a customer.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#259

I believe DNS/domain name is really a problem that could be better served using a blockchain technology. The registers can't be trusted

Namecoin is a good example of this - decentralised domain registrations using the .bit TLD.

Namecoin is cool but I think there are still big issues to be fixed, like renewals/pricing to avoid one person getting all the good domain/sane names.

Re: Zoho.com CEO says domain with 40M users suspended for abuse complaint

#260
post #5

Zoho CEO here. Our domain was abruptly blocked by our registrar this morning. Our NOC team and myself tried to get in touch with them and they tell us "Contact our legal". Even I could not get in touch with anyone beyond their phone operator. The domain was restored, but as DNS takes time to restore, we are still facing issues. They later claimed there were abuse complaints about Zoho.com emails (which is our persona…

btw, I just noticed that Zoho.com domain TLS certificate expires next year. Hope you have automatic checks for the timely renewal.. I have been a fan of Zoho and hope you make a comeback.
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