Blacknight Blog - Hosting - Domains

To Be Or Not To Be - Register .be Domains In Our Super Discount Promo

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:47:13 PST

We've organised another domain name promotion in our massive end of year domain madness.

Register OR transfer a .be (Belgium) domain name for a paltry €3 (€2.99 to be precise, but we'll overlook the 1 cent!)

Belgium is famous for its beer, food, comic characters (think TinTin) and for being at the heart of the EU.

How do I get this discount?

Simply order a .be (or several) domain via our website. The discount will appear when you add the domains to your shopping cart ie. during the checkout process

Do I need a coupon code for this offer?

No. The discount will appear in the checkout

Who can register a .be domain?

Anyone.

Are there any restrictions on registering .be domains?

No

How long can I register a .be domain for?

One year

Need some inspiration? Try this site

Looking for other great offers on domain names? Check out our full list of current domain discounts

UPDATE: New version of the image courtesy of Forbairt

Internationalised Country Code Domains Spark Interest

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:10:37 PST

IDN domains (internationalised domain names) . It's a really horrible acronym, but once you get past that, the actual concept is a lot more interesting.

If you follow the technology press you'll have seen quite a lot of coverage of IDN domains in the last few weeks, as ICANN announced during the recent Seoul meeting that they'd launch them on 16th November 2009 (today).

The ICANN blog reports that they've already received 6 requests, representing 3 different languages. Reports coming in suggest that Egypt has expressed interest in launching an IDN in Arabic, Bulgaria is applying for a Cyrillic script one, Russia will have lodged an application for at least one as well (or are in the process of doing so..)

What does this mean?

For the moment it's hard to say, but the launch of IDN domain names is a step along the path towards a more multicultural and multilingual internet.

The more people who have access to the Internet then the better it will be for everyone ..

Talking Mobile

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:43:42 PST

While I was at the ICANN meeting in Seoul, South Korea, Pinkard Brand from DotMobi did a short video interview with me about .mobi and the mobile web:

You'll have to excuse the audio quality towards the end - there's a motorbike or something which is a bit distracting!

If you haven't already got your mobile web address then you should grab one now! (We're having a sale on them!)

Save Money On Domains - Current Discounts

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:03:41 PST

Over the last couple of months we've announced several special offers on domain names.

We might be able to line up a couple more in the next few months, but for the moment here are our current domain offers:

.info - €4.95 1 year registration.
.mobi - €6.75 / year (transfers too!) If you add the Wordpress Mobile pack you'll have a mobile ready website in no time!
.eu - €2.95 / year (registrations)
.im - €4.95 / year
.me - €11 / year
be - €2.99 - transfers too!

Another great option is to consider a .tel domain name.

Why?

Because it's a wonderful way to get your business info and contacts online quickly and easily. You don't need to worry about creating a "slick" website, as the Tel system allows you to set it all up quickly and easily. And if you're an iPhone user you can update your details when you're on the move ...

UPDATE: Added .me promotion

ICANN Seoul Hangover

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:55:03 PST

I'm just back from the ICANN meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

I had planned on posting with updates during the week, but, as you can see, that didn't happen.

Why?

Simply put - it was an incredibly busy meeting, both in general and for me personally.

I'm now back in Ireland struggling to get over jetlag and also trying to process all that happened over the course of the week.

If you've been following the mainstream media then you'll probably have heard about the big announcement regarding internationalised domain names ie. domains using non-Latin character sets.

But what else happened?

New TLDs, which ICANN made a big announcement about in Paris, are still delayed. Early in the week it became apparent that the delays were going to become longer and longer. ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom would not provide any concrete answers when asked about deadlines. However some light did appear at the end of the tunnel when the board met on Friday.

Other topics that were getting a lot of attention included DNSSEC and compliance.

On the DNSSEC side two things are obvious:

It's going to be introduced
Most registrars won't support it immediately or anytime soon

Compliance and more amendments to the registrar agreements with ICANN are "on the cards".

ICANN's compliance team are working hard on removing "bad actors", but there is still a lot of work to be done and there is a lot of pressure to make even more changes to the contracts. Whether all the changes people are asking for are really warranted or not is another matter entirely.

I'll cover the various topics separately in the coming days ....

ICANN Has Seoul

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:17:59 PDT

I'm currently in Seoul, South Korea, for the ICANN meeting. Officially the meeting doesn't start until tomorrow morning, however the venue hotel has been buzzing for the last two days.

If you're not familiar with how ICANN works then a lot of the meetings may seem terribly confusing, as the ICANN community loves its acronyms!

Over the weekend there have been quite a few meetings involving the GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organisation).

Topics being discussed include new gTLDs (ie. new domain extensions such as .gay, .sport,.nyc etc.,), IDN ccTLDs (see some of my previous posts) and the usual mishmash of updates on existing policies.

However, like so many conferences that I attend, the real work takes place outside the formal conference setting. It's a wonderful opportunity to meetup with people from a wide range of different backgrounds and interests and people who are "at each other's throats" in sessions usually head off to the bar afterwards to have a few drinks and work out their differences.

I'll be posting a few more updates from Seoul over the course of the week and hopefully I'll have some nice photos to go with them!

Check Your DNS Easily

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 09:01:11 PDT

People get confused by DNS and apart from email related issues it probably accounts for more technical support issues than anything else.

The problems and the issues may not go away anytime soon, but we thought we could help people resolve them quickly with a simple online tool

Enter "My DNS Check"..

Based on the DNS Doctor provided by Centralnic, My DNS Check lets you check your domain name's DNS configuration quickly and easily.

We'll be adding more features to the tool based on YOUR feedback, so let us know what you'd like to see and we'll try to add it.

ICANN Seoul - Less Than A Week Away

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 14:52:05 PDT

The ICANN meeting in Seoul will be starting next weekend and we will be attending.

The agenda will, as usual, be varied with topics covering the many different areas of internet policy, current topics and the future.

One of the hottest topics (again!) will be the introduction of new TLDs (domain extensions).

Other topics such as IDNs, security and ongoing policy development should make for some interesting and lively sessions.

I'll be involved in a session on abuse:
The Role of Contracts and Compliance in Protecting Consumers from Abuse of the DNS

The other panelists include:
David Giza (ICANN); Hong Xue (AtLarge@china and Chinese Domain Name Alliance); Cliona Curely (Serious Organized Crime Agency); Rosemary Sinclair (Member, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network)

The topic under discussion should be pretty interesting:

The panel will discuss challenges faced in protecting consumers and how enhanced compliance efforts can enable interveners and law enforcement personnel in responding to malicious conduct involving the DNS. The panelists will identify the key abuse of the DNS challenges faced by consumers, and will suggest possible solutions, including additional tools or contractual provisions, such as the RAA, Acceptable Use Policies, Expedited Registry Request Process, or other resources that could be beneficial in enhancing the Community's response to protect consumers.

That may sound quite dry, but the topic of "DNS Abuse" is something that affects everyone. If you've had a phishing email then you've been affected. If you've received a spam email, then you've been affected.
Will a meeting like this during ICANN have any real and tangible impact? In the short term, no. In the longer term, I would hope so.

Which leads to a question that some people ask.

Why do we go to ICANN meetings?

The answer is very simple - they're incredibly useful.

On average about 1000 people attend each ICANN public meeting (more than 900 people are registered for Seoul) and they come from very diverse areas.

You'll find registry operators, registrars, lawyers, law enforcement, government officials, consumer groups and many many more. They'll range from hardcore geeks through to slick salespeople, but most of them are fun people to hangout with!
They all share a common interest (the internet) , though their own motives and interests may be very diverse. At an ICANN meeting you can get to swap ideas with people from all over the globe which makes it all worthwhile.

Even if you can't make it to Seoul in person quite a few of the sessions will be streaming live - some with audio and video, others with audio only. (Full details are on the meeting site)

If anyone is planning on heading to Seoul for the meeting be sure to "ping me"

Free Email Marketing Credits

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:18:15 PDT

I love being able to organise discounts and deals for our clients. It's fun.

So this latest offer is really exciting.

It's not a mere discount - it's actually 100% free!

Spinnaker Pro, who offer a range of email marketing services, have teamed up with us to give our clients 1000 free email credits.

Simply signup here and use the coupon code: blacknight

Irish Web Awards Followup

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:13:04 PDT

A couple of us were at The Irish Web Awards last Saturday night in Dublin.

The event, which was organised by Mulley Communications and sponsored by Realex Payments, was very enjoyable and hopefully we'll be able to go again next year.

Unlike a lot of other award events which are highly commercial in nature, the Irish Web Awards are very much "community" run. With some awards you get the feeling that only "big" agencies get to enter their "pet projects" and unless you "conform" you don't stand much chance of winning.

The Irish Web Awards are quite the opposite and it shows in the list of winners.

You'll find a very wide range of sites on the list of winners. While they may not appear to have anything in common they do - they're all run by people who are passionate about what they do.

The event itself was very informal compared to the "traditional" awards ceremonies that I've been to. And just because it was informal does not mean that it was not as professional - in many respects the awards were better organised than a lot of the other ones I've been to over the years.

A large number of our clients were shortlisted for various awards and I was delighted to see that so many of them won. And even those who didn't win had already received recognition by making it as far as the shortlist.

Thanks to the organisers and sponsors for organising it all and hopefully we'll see you at it next year!

Info Website Owners Can Win Big

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 03:30:03 PDT

If your site is using .info as its main domain then you could win up to $7500.

Afilias, the company that runs .info, is running a competition for .info website owners to celebrate excellence.

Further information and entry form is available on the awards site.

Here's the official press release:

DUBLIN, IRELAND - October 7, 2009 - Today, Afilias announced the opening
of the 2009 .INFO Awards. The awards, first created in 2006, rewards the
best professionally created .INFO Web sites from around the world. .INFO
Site owners are able to submit their .INFO site for consideration until
11:59 p.m. on October 23, 2009.

Sites will be judged in two parts. First a panel of judges, to be
announced in mid-October, will create a shortlist of final contenders
based on select criteria. These criteria include: presentation of
content, functionality of the website, design, usability, and
originality. The shortlist of the top ten best sites will then be
published at www.info-award.info on November 2, 2009, at which point
members of the public will be allowed to cast their vote for their
favorite site. Public votes will be combined with judges scores to
determine the final top three winners.

Prizes for the awards include: US$7,500 for the first place winner,
US$5,000 for second place, and US$3,000 for third place. All winners
will be announced in November and will be notified directly via e-mail.

For more details or to submit your .INFO site for the 2009 .INFO Awards,
please see www.info-award.info.

About .INFO
.INFO was the first generic, unrestricted TLD to be launched since .com
and is the largest new TLD launched in over 25 years. Registrations in
.INFO first became available in 2001. Since then, .INFO has grown to
become the fourth largest gTLD in the world with over 5 million domain
names registered. Domains are currently available in ten
Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) scripts. A directory of great .INFO
sites is available at http://www.info.info/directory. For more
information on .INFO please visit www.info.info

About Afilias
Afilias is a global provider of Internet infrastructure services that
connect people to their data. Afilias' reliable, secure, scalable, and
globally available technology supports a wide range of applications
including Internet domain registry services, Managed DNS, and services
in the RFID and supply chain market with its Afilias Discovery Services.
For more information on Afilias please visit www.afilias.info.

Info Price Shocker

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:20:40 PDT

We've been running so many "silly" domain deals in the last few weeks that I almost overlooked one - our price slash on .info domains!

What you get?

.info registration for €4.95

Which registration periods are covered?

One year registration only.

How long is the offer available?

Until December 31st 2009

Is it applicable to ... ?

No. It's only applicable to one year .info registrations.

How much will renewal be?

Renewal prices will be based on our prices at the time of renewal

What is .info?

Info is a generic top level domain extension - currently the 4th largest in terms of volume after .com

Which sites use .info to promote themselves?

There's a directory of .info sites here which is a good starting point

How are you able to do this?

Blacknight is an ICANN accredited registrar and so we're able to negotiate pricing directly with the registry operators

Don't forget - we're also running specials on .eu, .mobi and a few other domain extensions at the moment, so if you want to "dabble" a bit online then why not do it without spending too much money?

Want To Win A Tshirt?

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:41:27 PDT

We like giving away cool stuff to people. It's fun!

So we're going to be giving away a few tshirts via Twitter and Facebook.

Simply follow our Twitter account or become a "fan" on Facebook and keep an eye out for competitions over the next few days. They'll happen at random times throughout the day (and possibly the night)

You could win one of these:

Of course if you don't have the patience to compete just click on the tshirt image and you can order one online ..

Another Coffee Related Post

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 06:43:45 PDT

We've talked about our fixation with coffee in the past.

We've since discovered, to my horror, that not all of our staff actually drink coffee, but prefer tea.

Needless to say both the coffee and the tea drinkers need mugs to drink out of.

So today we took delivery of some new mugs.

These aren't your "common" or "garden" variety mugs. No. These are serious mugs.

See photos below:

The photo shows a couple of the mugs before they left Owen "mugmaker" Dearing's workshop in Oregon.

So how did we end up with these custom mugs?

How come we got handmade mugs all the way from Oregon?

I was looking for something "original" and "cool" to put our branding on. I was hoping to find something that would combine originality with affordability, though I wasn't overly disappointed when I failed to find a solution. During the process I came across Owen's site and I really liked what I saw. I bookmarked it and continued on my way.

As I continued my research I kept finding myself coming back to Owen's site, because there was something truly special about what he was doing.

Owen's business isn't massive and it most definitely isn't "faceless".

When I sent him an email asking about shipping details to Ireland and a few other things I got back a very helpful and friendly reply from him.

So I decided that it would be a nice idea to get a few of the mugs for the Blacknight staff. They're attractive and functional and it's a nice way to say "thanks" to them all for their hard work (it will also make it easier to track down people who don't clean up after themselves!)

Owen, who strikes me as a very cool guy, kept me updated on the progress of the mugmaking via email and Twitter.

Here are shots of the mugs before they were glazed and fired (a process that took more than 24 hours!):

And another one:

Owen also does Twitter mugs, so I simply had to get one of those as well!

The only problem now is that the mugs are so big that you end up making a double coffee to fill them!

Congratulations ICANN

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:33:42 PDT

As an internet business it is only natural that we would be concerned with the development of policies that affect our sector.

Earlier today ICANN's agreement with the US government came to an end. It has been replaced with a new document which paves the way for the future - a bright future which is truly global in nature.

As founder and Managing Director of Blacknight, which is also an ICANN accredited registrar, I welcome the signing of the new document - the Affirmation of Commitments. I welcome ICANN and the US Department of Commerce's commitment to a "multi-stakeholder, private sector led, bottom-up policy development model for DNS technical coordination that acts for the benefit of global Internet users".

This new document severes the close link between ICANN and the US government, while reinforcing and affirming the organisation's role in the development of a truly global organisation that will work in the public interest.

What many people may not realise is that the US government held, until earlier today, an overly important role in the governance and control of the internet.

The JPA (Joint Project Agreement) did provide for government oversight of ICANN, however it was oversight by one government only - the US government.

While it is only natural that the US government would wish to have a degree of oversight of such an important resource, it is also fundamentally important that such oversight reflect the global nature of the internet.

The new document also strengthen the global and multi-cultural and multi-lingual facet of the internet.

The internet is far too important a resource to have been left in the hands of a single government or cultural ideology.

The recognition of the importance of IDNs underlines this very clearly.

With the wider introduction of non-Latin (ASCII) character sets into the DNS system people of all races, cultures and creeds will be in a much better position to truly participate in what has to be a global community.

We in Ireland are on the outer edges of Europe, but the Internet has allowed businesses, such as ours, to actively compete in global markets.

With the signing of this new agreement we look forward to policy development that reflects the diverse legal and cultural frameworks that need to interact and be respected within ICANN and internet policies.

We look forward to working with a stronger and more transparently accountable ICANN.

This step furthers the innovation and growth of a global internet.

We hope that with the post-JPA agreement in place ICANN, its staff and members of the ICANN community will now be able to focus their energies and resources on the introduction of new TLDs.
It is time for ICANN to "take the bull by the horns" and provide a concrete timeline for their introduction without further delay.