We’ve mentioned IDNs in the past. Basically an IDN domain name allows you to register using non-ASCII characters. At the simplest level that might be the addition of an accent to a vowel, but if your native language is Arabic, Greek, Chinese, Korean etc., then it’s an entirely different character set.

Of course IDN domain names are not without their own set of issues. Not all software fully supports them, so in some browsers the punycode (the xn-- bit) will get displayed instead of the actual domain name and email support is iffy at best .. but things are improving and a more internationalised internet is growing.

Here’s our release about the launch of Asian IDNs in .co:

Blacknight Announce Release of .CO Asian IDNs
Blacknight is one of an exclusive group of Registrars to carry these Internationalised Domain names.

May 10, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Leading Irish domain registrar and hosting company Blacknight announce that they are one of a small group of registrars to carry .CO’s new Asian Internationalised domains.

On April 15, 2013, the .CO Registry announced the global launch of Asian internationalized domain names (IDNs) for the .CO domain name. Internationalised domain names use native characters such as kanji instead of the more limited Latin character set.  The availability of additional global languages in the .CO namespace is intended to increase local interest and use.  Languages now available through .CO are Chinese, Korean and Japanese.

Only a select number of domain registrars are chosen by .CO Registry to carry the popular domain. Blacknight, which has been accredited to sell .CO domains since last year, supports the decision to add Asian IDNs.

Blacknight CEO, Michele Neylon explains: “As one of the few companies accredited directly with .CO, we are delighted to support new features that the registry offers. The Asia Pacific markets are growing at an incredible pace and support for IDNs by registries and registrars is a key part of the globalisation of the Internet.”

Internationalised domains have been growing in use and allow Internet users across the globe to communicate online in their native languages. The growth of the Internet user base caused by the availability of content in familiar languages and scripts is the backbone of the IDN philosophy.  Neylon Continues: “If the Internet is truly international than all people using it should be able to communicate in their native language. .CO is one of a handful of registries that really understand that to appeal to and be of service to all people, domains can’t be limited to ASCII characters.”

Asian IDNs will be available for registration within the second and third level domains of .co, .com.co, .net.co, .nom.co and any restricted third level domains (.org.co, .mil.co, .gov.co, .edu.co).

Blacknight are currently offering .CO Asian IDNs from €8.80 and suggest that they pair quite nicely with their Minimus and Maximus hosting plans (http://www.blacknight.com/compare.html)  where you’ll also be available to avail of substantial discounts.

To learn more about the suite of services offered by Blacknight or to register a .CO Asian IDN please visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

 

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Asian IDNs Now Available Under .Co is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

From the 27th of May 2013 we will be automating both our bandwidth (traffic) and disk space over-usage notifications and billing.

While our shared hosting plans provide generous allowances for both disk space and bandwidth (traffic) a busy site might be using more resources than the plan you’re on so either reducing usage or upgrading makes sense.

So what’s happening after May 27th?

For any of your hosting packages that are in over-usage the following will happen:
* Bandwidth\Traffic overuse – you will be charged at €0.50 per Gigabyte of overuse
* Diskspace – any plan going over its disk space limit will be automatically disabled at midnight

We will try to warn you via email before you hit your limits and the administrative contact on your Blacknight account will be automatically notified via email when a hosting package is at 80%, 90%, and 100% of its Traffic and Disk-space limits.

This will allow you time reduce your usage or upgrade to a more suitable hosting package.

You can compare our shared Windows and Linux hosting plans  and if you outgrow them we also have cloud hosting plans

Need to check your current usage? You can see your current usage at any time by logging in to your control panel at cp.blacknight.com, picking the subscription you wish to check using the “subscription” drop-down menu, and then going to the “Home” tab.

If you want to upgrade your hosting plan you can do so quickly and easily via your control panel:
https://help.blacknight.com/entries/22943208-How-to-place-an-upgrade-order-for-hosting

Or you can purchase more disk-space or traffic separately if you prefer:
https://help.blacknight.com/entries/23486718-How-to-purchase-more-diskspace-or-bandwidth-traffic-for-your-hosting-plan

Our current limits are:
* Getting Business Online: 5GB Traffic, 0.5GB Disk Space
* Minimus: 200GB Traffic, 10GB Disk Space
* Medius: 400GB Traffic, 20GB Disk Space
* Maximus: 600GB Traffic, 30GB Disk Space
If you have any questions in relation to this, or anything else we can assist you with, please let us know.

Our customer service team is here to help you: https://help.blacknight.com or by phone: +353 (0)59 9183072

Important: Automating Diskspace and Bandwidth (Traffic) Over-usage Notices is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

10 years ago this month my business partner and I sat down and signed the paperwork to incorporate the company. 10 years later and we’re still here.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking a bit about what we’ve been up to over the last 10 years. It’s been great so far, though it’s also been a fairly bumpy ride!

And what about the future? We’ll talk a bit about that too!

But we wouldn’t be who we are if we didn’t have a nice giveaway, now would we?

So we’re giving away a few “shiny objects” this month starting with a lovely Google Nexus 7 Tablet PC with Android 4.1 Jellybean.

You can enter using the competition widget below and the winner will be drawn at random in about 2 weeks time.

The more entries you have the better chance you have to win!
Blacknight 10 Year Google Nexus giveaway

Let the games begin!

UPDATE: We’ve chosen the winner for the 1st Google Nexus 7 BUT we’ve also decided to give away another one!!

Celebrate 10 Years Of Blacknight & Win A Google Nexus 7! is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

We love a special offer and we love being able to bring you BIG ones.

The temptation to make silly puns with this one is strong, so I’ll cut to the chase ..

Register a .xxx domain name during the month of May and you’ll get a HUGE saving.

We’re only charging €8.95 (ex-VAT) per year for .xxx domain names throughout the month of May

Also – unlike most of our domain offers – this discount price applies to 1 to 10 year registration, so you can get your .xxx domain name for 10 years for the price you’d normally pay for one year.

Who qualifies?

Anyone who “self declares” as being part of the “adult community” can register a .xxx domain name.

You can find out more about the registry rules and how they validate you before putting a .xxx domain name live here.

So what are you waiting for?

NB: special promotional pricing is only available for new .xxx domain name registrations. Discounted pricing does NOT apply to renewals or transfers.

NSFW! Save BIG On XXX Domains is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m passionate about the Internet. They’ll probably also tell you that I’m very passionate about domains and marketing.

A good domain, in my opinion, can make or break a business. If you’re too “clever” people won’t be able to find you, or send you email.

Sure, if you’re a massive success then it won’t be hard for people to find you, but most online businesses aren’t multi-million dollar global successes, are they?

Choosing the “right” domain for your online venture is an important decision. But also making sure that YOU control it is key.

What about trademark issues?

What about stability and security issues?

And what about confusing domains, awkward spelling or simply unfortunate choices?

I’ll be talking about these and other topics later this month at the Shift Conference in Split, Croatia. (And no, I won’t be killing any puppies!). It’s an event focussing on start ups and, if past experience is anything to go by, it should be both enjoyable and educational. There’s a LOT of cool stuff happening in the Balkans, so I suspect there’ll be quite a few companies from Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and neighbouring countries there ..

I’m really looking forward to it!
Here’s our press release:

Blacknight to Speak on The Do’s and Don’ts of Domains at SHIFT Conference
Leading Irish Registrar talks creativity and valuation in the namespace

May 1, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Michele Neylon, CEO of Ireland’s leading domain registrar and hosting company, Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com) will speak on the value and etiquette of domains at Croatia’s SHIFT conference.

Billed as “Three days of inspiring networking and awesomeness”, the goal of Shift Conference (http://shiftsplit.com/)  is to create an international perspective by, showcasing the best speakers possible from all around the world. The event, formerly known as Startup Live Split, has re-branded as SHIFT Conference, which will take place in the centre of the 1700-year-old city of Split, Croatia on the May 23rd through May 24, 2013.

Events planned during SHIFT include a startup challenge, forums and speakers from around the globe, and incredible parties.  The conference unofficially kicks off on May 22, 2013 with a mentor’s day for those participating in the startup challenge. The Shift Startup Challenge is accepting 32 startup teams that will participate in the mentoring sessions, however, only 16 teams will go forward to pitch their idea during the conference and only one will walk away with a $10.000 USD cash prize.

Neylon has been invited to share his knowledge of domains and the domain business with SHIFT attendees.
His talk titled “Every Time You Register A Domain Name with a Hyphen, a Puppy Dies”, focuses on the importance of creative thinking and valuation when branding a business or personal identity online.

“I am very pleased to be presenting at the SHIFT conference”, Neylon states. “I’ve been buying and building out domains for years – far longer than I’ve been a registrar and in that time, I’ve gained loads of knowledge regarding what to do and what not to, as well as what sorts of domains make good investments. If I can use that knowledge help just one person or startup choose a better domain name, the Internet will be a better place for it.”

The speaker lineup also includes Mike Butcher, the European Editor of Techcrunch and Bryan Calhoun, head of Digital Strategy at The Blueprint Group.

To learn more about the SPLIT conference, please visit http://shiftsplit.com/

To learn more about Michele Neylon and Blacknight please visit http://www.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Think of the Puppies! is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

Waking up today and we’re hearing about more issues with certain plugins so once again here’s the type of blog post you see quite a bit on here. It’s namely the keep your website up to date post. You generally keep the software on your computer up to date don’t you?

There are new features, bug fixes and security patches being released all the time. WordPress is no exception. So the message here is patch up plain and simple. If you don’t log into your CMS (Content Management System) that often you can forget these things and you may feel it’s a hassle to sort out.

If you plan on doing the updates yourself then there’s a handy plugin to keep you notified it’s called WP Updates Notifier. You can see from the screen shot below it’s pretty easy to configure.

Just enter in your email address ( and send a test email and make sure the updates aren’t sent to your spam folder just in case ).

The next time there are updates for your WordPress install you’ll hopefully get a mail.

We’ve tested the plugin and it’s working fine on the latest version of WordPress 3.5.1 and hopefully the developers will be maintaining this one as it’s incredibly useful.

Not using certain plugins why not deactivate them and fully remove them from your install?

As with everything we highly recommend you backup before you do anything.

(Original Image: Robot from BigStockPhoto)

Patch up WordPress ( please ) is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

Blacknight Announce New ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement
Irish registrar says New RAA is a step in the right direction.

April 23, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Leading Irish domain registrar Blacknight, announces positive changes to the New ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).

Under the previous Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) some registrars were placed in awkward position as they straddled the line between obeying the data storage laws of the countries in which they operate and fulfilling their contractual obligations to ICANN. European registrars in particular could find themselves in violation of local data storage laws to meet the requirements set forth by ICANN. However, under the 2013 RAA EU registrars will be able to comply with both their contractual obligations to ICANN and also be able to respect local law.

Blacknight CEO Michele Neylon explains: “The new RAA docs are a significant improvement over previous ICANN contracts. From a European registrar (and registrant) perspective there are now very clear acknowledgements of both national / local law and the significant differences with respect to both data retention and data privacy obligations.”

Previously an EU registrar could not get a waiver from ICANN relieving them of certain aspects of the RAA that would place them in violation of local law unless they were already dealing with a data protection authority, investigation or complaint. However, under the new agreement, a registrar who may be in violation of their operating countries policies may write to ICANN to obtain a waiver from compliance with the RAA.

Blacknight intends to engage with ICANN in order to ensure that they are able to get any waivers needed to deliver a smooth customer experience.
Neylon continues: “The new RAA docs are a good step in the right direction toward ICANN actively addressing the needs of the global Internet community.”

The new RAA agreement requires retention of registrant information for a period of two additional years including: first and last name of registrant; first and last name of administrative, technical and billing contact; postal address of all contact persons listed; the telephone number of all contact persons listed; WHOIS information; types of services purchased with the domain registration; and recurring payment methods and data.

Blacknight additionally looks forward to other aspects of the new RAA should help to clarify both their obligations and those of their clients. For instance, a clear policy on WHOIS formatting should help reduce the customer service issues often encountered during transfer leading to an overall enhanced customer experience.

To learn more about the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), please visit http://blog.blacknight.com/new-domain-registration-agreement-recognises-local-law-and-privacy.html

Please visit http://www.blacknight.com for more information on Blacknight’s suite of domain and hosting services.

About Blacknight:
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

Press Release: Irish registrar says New RAA is a step in the right direction is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

I’ve spoken about the RAA (Registrar Accreditation Agreement) in the past.

I haven’t always been too positive about the planned changes to the contract and considering some of the things we were being asked to do my reaction was, in my view, quite reasonable.

Not only did some versions of the text demand far too much information from us, it also imposed a lot of restrictions on you, our customers, which we felt was, for lack of a better word, “mad”.

So what exactly is the RAA?

It’s the contract that governs our relationship with ICANN and also obliges us, as a company, to do certain things when we’re registering and managing generic top level domain names for you, our clients. There are also a bunch of obligations (and rights) for you as registrants.

All gTLD registrars have to have a contract with ICANN. Any company that sells gTLD domain names (com, net, org, info, biz etc.,) either does so directly as an ICANN accredited registrar or via a reseller or agent of a registrar. So any changes to the contract and its obligations will have an impact on the entire supply chain.

So what’s in the new RAA?

The new contract that is “almost cooked” is the output of over 18 months of negotiations between registrars and ICANN. It’s been a long slog, but the final product is something that we (Blacknight) will be happy to sign.

Are we 100% happy with it?

No, of course not. There are several clauses in the contract that could cause us headaches, but overall we’re happy with it. And hopefully ICANN will finalise the contract language in the next few weeks so that we will be able to sign it and move to implementing the changes on our end that will be required to be compliant.

Are the changes drastic?

For us as a registrar, no, not really. For some registrars I suspect the changes will involve quite substantial changes, but for us they won’t. We’ve discussed most of the changes internally and while they will require a certain amount of work they’re not impossible to implement.

But what about for domain name registrants?

Here there are quite a few changes. While many of them won’t have a big impact there are some that will.

So what will change?

Most of the big changes for our clients are with regard to validation and verification.

We will need to validate all data fields and elements that are submitted for domain name registrations, transfers and updates.

On the plus side this means that we should have overall better quality data, but on the downside we’re going to have to validate address formats which could prove messy. While some countries have relatively “neat” addresses with a relatively consistent format that isn’t always the case. A lot of Irish addresses, for example, consist of simply a townland and nothing else. They’re valid and the post will get there, but how we validate them pro-grammatically could be a challenge.

We will also need to validate email addresses or phone numbers for both account holders and domain name registrants. This may incur extra costs and push up the price of domain names.

What about Irish and EU law?

The new contract language does specifically state that we cannot be expected to be put in conflict with local law, so any obligation under the contract that puts us at odds with Irish law will need to be examined carefully. There is a process for getting a “waiver” based on “legal opinion”

We have already been in touch (informally) with the Irish Data Protection Commissioner and will be following up with them as well as with a number of EU officials. Some of the new obligations that we’d view as problematic are probably problematic for all EU registrars.

What about privacy?

If we can argue that a contract provision is in conflict with Irish law then we should be able to ask for a waiver. This would include some aspects that are related to privacy.

What about whois privacy and proxy?

The new contract brings a certain degree of clarity and should help with both users of proxy / privacy services as well as 3rd parties who need to interact with them. This should help in the case of registrar failure or when domains are abused.

And what about the law enforcement stuff?

Pretty much all of the law enforcement requested changes to the contract are in there in some form or other. They may not be exactly what law enforcement was asking for, but they’re there. We are an Irish company, so we only interact with Irish law enforcement. If anything that has been clarified.

What next?

ICANN has published all the documents for public comment.

Assuming there aren’t any substantial changes we’d expect to be able to sign on to the new contract once we are able to comply.

When do the new contract provisions come into force?

Some of them come into force as soon as a registrar signs the new contract. Others come into force from January 1st 2014.

(Original Image: common sense just ahead from BigStockPhoto)

New Domain Registration Agreement Recognises Local Law and Privacy is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

Next week I’ll be heading off to Valencia in Spain for Domaining Spain 2013. I’ll be speaking on a panel next Thursday afternoon which will be focussed on new TLDs. The panel will include myself, Tim Switzer from .Green and Xavier Buck (EuroDNS). Tim and I have been playing email ping pong about the panel on and off for the last couple of weeks so we should have quite a lively discussion.

The rest of the conference will be a mixture of sessions on both existing domain name extensions, including ccTLDs and the upcoming new TLDs. There’ll be panels on legal issues, policy, marketing, investing and a whole lot more.

Full details over on the conference site.

Here’s our press release:

Blacknight CEO to Speak at 2013 Domaining Spain Conference
Leading registrar to discuss impact of New TLDs

April 22, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Leading Irish domain registrar and hosting company Blacknight heads to Spain to speak about New TLDs at the 2013 Domaining Spain Conference.

Domaining Spain (http://domainingspain.com/) , which is in its second year, is billed as a ccTLD and New gTLD conference. The event will be held from April 25 through the 27th at the Sorolla Palace Hotel in Valencia, Spain.

The Domaining Spain agenda includes a keynote speech by Godefroy Jordan titled “New frontier in domain names: Why new gTLDs are going to be a huge success and will change the Internet user experience!” A Q&A with Trademark Clearing House and a session on “Myths and Truth about Traffic Portfolios.”

Blacknight CEO, Michele Neylon will speak on a panel discussing the impact of New TLDs. Neylon will be joined on the panel by Tim Switzer of .Green and Internet Entrepreneur Xavier Buck.

Neylon, a seasoned conference speaker who opines on a variety of registrar issues has been closely involved with New TLDs. “I am honoured to be speaking at Domaining Spain,” Neylon explains. “As a European registrar, I will lend the registrar perspective on the impact of New TLDs. There are a lot of issues on the registrar side that people who aren’t entrenched in that part of the business need to know but might not think of. “

Also speaking throughout the event are: Andee Hill, Director of Development for Escrow.com; Natasa Djukanovic, Sales and Marketing Director for Domain.me and James Morfopoulos, Director for DomainTools Inc. and the COO of Ocean Networks Inc.

The organisers of Domaining Spain stress that the conference is not only focused on updates and new information regarding today’s domain industry and where it is headed. Domaining Spain is also a place for select industry movers and shakers to meet up with the others and extend their networks and forge new business relationships.

Neylon Continues: “ The Spanish internet is such a rich resource, particularly with the inclusion of the Catalan community, which Blacknight fervently supports. One of the larger goals of Blacknight is to work to strengthen the ties of the European Internet community and Domaining Spain provides a great space to exchange ideas and grow our relationships.”

To learn more about the Domaining Spain 2013 Conference, please visit http://domainingspain.com/

About Blacknight:
Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com/) are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and co-location as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.

 

(Original Image tapas menu in valencia from BigStockPhoto)

The Domains In Spain Fall Mainly On .. is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies

I’ve been to several RIPE meetings in the past and they’re an interesting mix of material covering both policy and highly technical topics. This time round I’m speaking in the anti-abuse session about fake pharma and hope to be able to introduce some of the people behind ASOP to the RIPE audience.

You can find out more about the meeting here

Here’s our press release on it:

 Blacknight Announce Session and Sponsorship for RIPE 66
Leading Irish Registrar to lead discussion on Fake Pharma

April 15, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Blacknight are proud to announce both sponsorship of RIPE 66 and a session during the conference on combatting Fake Pharma.

A Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE, French for “European IP Networks”) meeting is a five-day event where Internet service providers, network operators and other interested parties from Europe and the surrounding regions gather. The event will take place from 13-17 May 2013 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

Blacknight joins Netflix, Google, HEAnet and several others in sponsoring the 66th RIPE Conference. Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “We are pleased to be sponsoring RIPE66. All of the sponsors of the event are integral to the Irish Internet and we are proud to be among the prestigious organisations that support it. Our participation in the RIPE meeting is a natural extension of the consciousness raising in which we continue to be engaged.”

RIPE is open to anyone interested in wide area IP networks. RIPE’s function is to ensure the administrative and technical coordination necessary to enable the operation of the Internet.

Blacknight has long been actively involved in aiding the improvement of Internet function, participating on numerous committees and working groups aimed at fighting cybercrime and creating a safer user experience online.

Neylon will be leading the session “Save Money Online Without Killing Yourself” on Thursday, May 16th. Neylon explains: “Save Money Online Without Killing Yourself is a session on Fake Pharma which is an issue that Blacknight is very active in fighting. We’ve partnered with LegitScript so that we would have the infrastructure in place to take a more active role in preventing fake pharmaceutical sites from funnelling through our hosting and domain services. My aim through this session is to give others the tools to avoid falling prey to or innocently facilitating this mayhem.”

Other topics that will be covered during RIPE 66 include Global Policy Overview, The Future of Home Networking and Costs of IPv4-IPv6 Transition Plans.

(Original Image: Ha Penny Bridge from BigStockPhoto)

Related articles

• Going on Offensive Against Fake Pharma, Irish registrar announces partnership with LegitScript (blacknight.com)
• With and Without Makeup [Podcast #58] (technology.ie)
• Don’t Ignore The Internet’s Nuts and Bolts (blacknight.com)

RIPE Coming To Dublin And We’re Sponsoring AND Speaking is an article from Blacknight Blog - News, tips & offers from Ireland's leading hosting & domain registration companies