Spiral Hosting Blog

Spiral Hosting has today warned customers of a domain registration scam.

Domain Renewal Group has been sending letters to many of our customers, and even sending letters directly to Spiral Hosting. The company is American, although have a PO Box address in the UK. The letters request payment of £18 for a domain renewal and transfer of ownership to the Domain Renewal Group. To regain ownership, there is a $200 fee. Customers are advised to disregard the letter.

Spiral Hosting has today warned customers of a domain registration scam.

Internet Register Ireland has been sending letters to many of our customers, and even sending letters directly to Spiral Hosting. The company is registered in Germany, although have PO Boxes in Ireland, the UK and France. The letters request payment of €2874 over 3 years (€958 a year) for website registration services. Customers are advised to disregard the letter.

We first reported on this in September 2007 but unfortunately ‘Internet Register Ireland’ is still operating.

IE Domain Registry (the official .ie registry) have issued this press release:

—————————————————————————————-

It has once again come to the attention of the IEDR that a company operating under the name “Internet Register Ireland” is contacting businesses with registered .ie domain names by post and by fax, soliciting domain holders to register their domain name with the “Internet Register Ireland“. The “Internet Register Ireland” will request you to fill out their form and return it to them signed. It should be noted that they charge an excessive fee of approx €958 for the registration of your domain name in their database. The “Internet Register Ireland” previously operated the same practice in Ireland in September 2007 and November 2006 and have been operating similar schemes throughout Europe and Canada throughout the past year.

We would like to reassure all of our customers that no such organisation has been authorised to act on behalf of the IEDR. If you are contacted in this manner we would recommend that you disregard this letter and advise anyone you know who owns a domain name of this activity.

If you require Internet services for your domain name we would advise you to contact an official IE Reseller.

© spacepleb

Spiral Hosting are delighted to announce we have slashed the price of all .com .net and .org domain names to €5.75

The promotion runs until 31st August 2008. Simply enter promo code “250offcomnetorg” when purchasing a .com .net or .org domain name!

To check availability or purchase today, please click here.

Small Print: Subject to T&Cs. New .com .net and .org domain registrations only. One-off price for 1st year.

Earlier today some customers may have received an email from the IEDR informing you that your .ie domain name was due to be suspended. Please note that this email was sent in error and you can disregard this email. All customers who have paid for their domain(s) will have their domain renewed as usual.

If customers are unsure about any domains, please check the expiry date in our Client Area, and contact us if you have any questions at all.

Spiral Hosting has today warned customers of a domain registration scam.

Internet Register Ireland has been sending letters to many of our customers, and even sending letters directly to Spiral Hosting. The company is registered in Germany, although also sends letters from France. The letters request payment of €958 for website registration services. Customers are advised to disregard the letter.

IE Domain Registry (the official .ie registry) have issued this press release:
—————————————————————————————-
It has once again come to the attention of the IEDR that a company operating under the name “Internet Register Ireland” is in the process of contacting businesses with registered .ie domain names by post and by fax, soliciting them to register their domain name with the “Internet Register Ireland”. The “Internet Register Ireland”, a German based company will request you to fill out their form and return it to them signed. It should be noted that they charge an excessive fee of approximately €958 for the registration of the .ie domain name in their database.

We would like to reassure all of our customers that no such organisation has been authorised to act on behalf of the IEDR. If you are contacted in this manner we would recommend that you disregard this letter and advise your customers to be aware of this activity.

The IEDR are responding to enquiries from concerned domain holders, by recommending them to contact an official IE Reseller if they require any further Internet services for their website.

IE Domain Registry Press Release
———————————

This Time Its Personal!
IE Domain Registry Introduce Dot-ie Personal Domain Names

Wednesday, 12th September: The IE Domain Registry (IEDR), the managed registry for Ireland’s dot-ie domain names, today announced the relaxation of the rules for registering personal dot-ie domain names for individuals. This policy relaxation comes into effect following full consultation with the dot-ie reseller community and industry organisations.

Registration of personal domains will be available to individuals from Wednesday, 31st October, 2007. This follows a seven week notice period, to allow time for sole traders, professionals, politicians, trademark holders who have not already registered their .ie Internet address, to do so under existing non-personal domain categories.

The introduction of personal dot-ie domain names is a result of the increased popularity of social networking and blogging sites and the increasing number of individuals who are coming online.

The registration of personal domain names will be open to all individuals who can authenticate a claim to the domain name and who have a real and substantive connection to the island of Ireland. To authenticate a claim, a copy of an identification document is required, for example an Irish utility bill or driving licence. The name on the document supplied must match exactly the domain name applied for. This requirement ensures that the status of Ireland’s dot-ie namespace, as the world’s second safest country code top level domain, is maintained and protected in the future. Applications will be time-stamped to ensure fairness and transparency of the process.

Commenting on the introduction of dot-ie personal domain names, Mr. David Curtin, Chief Executive of the IE Domain Registry said, “The IEDR is pleased to announce the relaxation of rules for personal dot-ie domain names. To maintain the integrity of the dot-ie domain namespace, which has negligible levels of cyber squatting and cyber crime, applicants will need to authenticate their claim by providing matching supporting documentation such as an Irish passport or utility bill.

This limited registration policy relaxation comes into effect following consultation with dot-ie resellers. The introduction of personal domain names was first proposed to internet service providers three years ago, but there was little interest due to expected low levels of demand. Since then the broadband take-up and popularity of social networking has created a desire for a personal presence on the Internet, which in turn will have a positive effect on the level of demand for personal dot-ie domain names. The IEDR has also significantly reduced its prices, which have fallen by 50% since 2003 and introduced key system changes that facilitate fast, automated and real time registration, which has reduced resellers’ process costs.”

Ends

Spiral Hosting have created a new guide to domain name extensions. The guide on Spiral Hosting’s website contains background information to popular generic and country-code domain names.

The guide is aimed at people who cannot decide which top level domain names to buy. It provides basic advice on what domain extensions are available to them and if there are any registration requirements.

Peter Armstrong, director of the Irish HSP commented:
“Domain registers aren’t providing enough information to their customers on what extensions are actually available. There are a wide range of top level domains open to both commercial customers and individuals, and this guide aims to help them decide what to buy.”

“It also aims to prove that if your .com domain is not available, it isn’t the be-all and end-all. There are plenty of other domain extensions available and you don’t need to search too far to find an excellent name.”

Spiral Hosting plans to update the guide with the latest news and developments on different domain name extensions. Spiral Hosting recently slashed their domain pricing to the lowest .mobi price in Ireland.

Spiral Hosting has today introduced .IN domain registration to its long list of domain services.

Dot-IN is the domain extension for India and can be registered for only €14.95 yearly through our website.

International brand protection for businesses is more important than ever, and India represents the second largest nation on Earth. Protect your brand and open your business to a market of 1.2 billion people by registering a dot-IN domain. Don’t forget, there are more English-speaking people in India than the USA!

Spiral Hosting have today slashed the price of .mobi domain names by 25%.

The new price is only €14.95 (down from €19.95).

This represents part of our commitment to high quality products at incredible prices.

Does this make Spiral Hosting the cheapest .mobi register in Ireland? Let us know if you find .mobi domains cheaper from any Irish company!

There has been a lot of talk about the IEDR changing their policy on personal domain registrations by lifting the restrictions currently in place. The IEDR have now consulted resellers (the vast majority in favour), and the IEDR board are to make a final decision next month.

.ie registrations broke the 80,000 barrier earlier this month. If this policy change goes ahead, the new registrations would open up a new stream of revenue for the IEDR and we could see Irish domains breaking the 100,000 barrier within months.

Via ENN.ie:

“Private individuals may soon be able to apply for their own dot-ie (.ie) domain name. The IEDR has announced that it has consulted with dot-ie resellers, who have said they are supportive of the introduction of dot-ie personal domains. This policy relaxation is scheduled to be ratified by the IEDR board in July.”