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Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

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Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#71

Post by train_robber »

jervisfm wrote: post #61
nbpoole wrote: post #13

Some previous discussion on this issue (almost 2 years ago): http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2443710 I'll say the same thing I said then: As an anecdotal counterpoint, I'm an extremely happy Name.com customer. I transfered several domains to them a year or so ago from GoDaddy. They support two-factor authentication, their interface is uncluttered, I pay them less money than I paid GoDaddy, and I haven't had a sin…

May I ask where do you do your DNS hosting ? Do you host it yourself ? Or do you use a third party ?

In my case all of my domains are on name.com (and I haven't had a problem with them so far either); for my smaller personal sites the DNS is managed by my shared hosting provider and for others Route 53.

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#72

Post by drmonocle »

soult wrote: post #28
machrider wrote: post #16

My workaround for this was to add a TXT record for *.mydomain.com that just returns a string like "Unused". This seems to stop them from hijacking any subdomains, and it's not an A record so undefined subdomain names do not resolve, just like if you had not defined them in the first place. (Workaround shouldn't be necessary of course, but this kind of bullshit is par for the course with cheap hosting companies.)

While it is probably not relevant for must users, there is a subtle difference between "There exists no A record for x.example.com" and "There is no x.example.com".

A workaround for this is to make *.example.com a CNAME for something.invalid. ".invalid" is a reserved TLD guaranteed not to exist so this should force all queries for non-existent domains to come back with NXDOMAIN.

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#73

Post by drmonocle »

chewxy wrote: post #67
jervisfm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask where do you do your DNS hosting ? Do you host it yourself ? Or do you use a third party ?

for domains I'm actively using, I use Route53. For domains I'm not actively using, I don't mind name.com is parking.

For anyone who doesn't want to park inactive domains, you can just remove a domain's nameservers, and users will just get a DNS error. (NXDOMAIN)

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#74

Post by drmonocle »

unreal37 wrote: post #65

A bit off topic, but I used to work for a company called NAME that had the name.com domain. They went out of business in the dot com bust of 2001, and I guess the domain got sold. I can't see name.com without thinking of that.

That domain must have been pricy, even during the dot-com bust.

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#75

Post by aMoniker »

zx2c4 wrote: post #50

I'm in the process of switching to gandi.net. It's not as cheap as name.com (3 dollars difference...), but their DNS service seems really topnotch. Also, they're open to acting as a secondary DNS server and mirroring my own NS via AXFR, which is pretty nice.

I've been using them for a year or so. They're much better than any other registrar I've used before, and so far have stayed true to their slogan - "no bullshit".

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#76

Post by nathanhammond »

I posted about this almost two years ago (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2443710) ... I am eagerly looking forward to DNSimple (http://dnsimple.com) entering the market as their own registrar (instead of reselling enom). Their founder has said that is a high priority goal for them this year which will immediately make them the registrar and DNS provider for all of my domains.

Oh, and don't use name.com, they hijack DNS. :)

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#77

Post by 1337p337 »

ams6110 wrote: post #19
machrider wrote: post #16

My workaround for this was to add a TXT record for *.mydomain.com that just returns a string like "Unused". This seems to stop them from hijacking any subdomains, and it's not an A record so undefined subdomain names do not resolve, just like if you had not defined them in the first place. (Workaround shouldn't be necessary of course, but this kind of bullshit is par for the course with cheap hosting companies.)

Just fyi, mydomain.com is a real domain, example.com is better to use for illustrative purposes.

example.com isn't just better: it's actually specified in RFC 2606 as one of the domains "reserved for use in private testing, as examples in documentation, and the like."

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#78

Post by 1337p337 »

nbpoole wrote: post #68
jervisfm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask where do you do your DNS hosting ? Do you host it yourself ? Or do you use a third party ?

The hosting companies I've used (eg: Linode, Dreamhost for smaller projects) all provide DNS services. I trust them to manage a DNS infrastructure more than I trust myself.

I don't quite understand why people have this allergy to running their own DNS. If you just want a single text file and don't need anything major, dnsmasq will serve records out of /etc/hosts. Slightly up the chain in terms of power, MaraDNS lets you use a text file, and finally there's PowerDNS (which I use) lets you use SQL databases, embed Lua, or read from a pipe. (Being able to use a regular RDBMS is nice for things like writing a little cron job to do your own dynamic DNS, or doing self-service hosting for people.)

If you've never done it, it is a couple of hours of reading and fiddling, but very quick if you have set up DNS before. I'm actually a bit curious about why people (even some sysadmins!) tend to spend time clicking on some clunky web interface to update records manually when it's actually easier to do it yourself. (Mail servers, on the other hand...)

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#79

Post by moepstar »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #38
ScottBurson wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why bother? ZoneEdit works great. I've been using them for, geez, over 15 years I think.

ZoneEdit now charge. They grandfathered old users in at a free tier (first 5?) but now all new users have to pay either $1/month/domain or less if you buy a lot of "credits."

As i haven't seen them mentioned before in this thread i'll mention http://freedns.afraid.org/ - While i don't have any current experience, i've used them a few years back and they've also been top notch... Only downside is their interface which is showing its age...

Re: Name.com hijacks non-existent subdomains and redirects to their servers

#80

Post by EduardoBautista »

javajosh wrote: post #55
JohnsonB wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A workaround? As opposed to simply switching registrars with something decent?

yeah, the best workaround is namecheap.com

I don't like being with resellers.
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