I'm confused, how did he pay for someone else's domain? Was there no authentication?
The Passport Payment (2000)
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#12It’s always nice to hear about people doing the right thing. Thanks for sharing the story.
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#13I'm confused, how did he pay for someone else's domain? Was there no authentication?
You can renew a domain without being authenticated, but you won't be able to take ownership of it. It's useful if you can't find your login details and are in a hurry.
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#14Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#15I'm confused, how did he pay for someone else's domain? Was there no authentication?
You can renew a domain without being authenticated, but you won't be able to take ownership of it. It's useful if you can't find your login details and are in a hurry.
Oh huh, I didn't know that, thanks.
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#16perhaps the most surprising to me is the apparent willingness to enter credit card info online in 1999. I wasn't around for this period but wasn't the conventional wisdom back then that this was insecure? hence PayPal?
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#17I'm confused, how did he pay for someone else's domain? Was there no authentication?
Back then, control was authenticated as necessary for the proper functioning, but even today I see no reason why renewal should have to be gated behind login walls. Actually, I'd even prefer it not to be, because you might, in a pinch, be prevented from paying for them yourself electronically, having to call in a favor and promise to pay back as soon as you see that friend.
Or you just prefer to pay someone cash for them to top up your domain, because you don't like mixing money and the internet, but have e.g. a personal domain for email.
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#18perhaps the most surprising to me is the apparent willingness to enter credit card info online in 1999. I wasn't around for this period but wasn't the conventional wisdom back then that this was insecure? hence PayPal?
Average non-technical people used well-known companies, but that included eBay and Amazon.
Presumably Network Solutions was trusted by this customer of theirs.
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#19perhaps the most surprising to me is the apparent willingness to enter credit card info online in 1999. I wasn't around for this period but wasn't the conventional wisdom back then that this was insecure? hence PayPal?
No, not at all?
SSL had been around for 6 years already, credit card transactions were quite common, especially with known, reputable hosts (Network Solutions can be safely be assumed to have qualified at the time)
Re: The Passport Payment (2000)
#20perhaps the most surprising to me is the apparent willingness to enter credit card info online in 1999. I wasn't around for this period but wasn't the conventional wisdom back then that this was insecure? hence PayPal?
Back then, I remember Internic let you register a domain and you had 30 days to pay up, because people would commonly put a cheque in the post ("mail a check.")