Sunday, April 02, 2000, 10:08:00 AM, you wrote:
Richard and all,
OpenSRS is in a position established by ICANN whereby we must make
the contract between the Registrant and Tucows and we cannot
arbitrarily change the rules. In addition, we cannot give out
information (like a login/pass) for a property of someone else to
another person. It would make our lives much easier but we simply
are not allowed to do it in any way we have investigated. But you,
on the other hand, can do many things to make the system work for you,
as well as protect yourself from chargebacks, etc., even if we don't
provide the direct tools.
For instance, you can add your own contract which states that you
own the domain name for the first 90 days or until such time as
funds have been irrevocably secured. Or (or in addition to), you
can do something like one RSP I know where he integrated the
OpenSRS management tool with his own control panel. A login and
password are not provided to the user for direct access to the
OpenSRS DB but rather, to your own. When changes are made they are
made to your local DB (this can include managing POP accounts, DNS,
whatever) and then some sort of cron job is built to check for
changes every 5 mins or so and if a change is found, it will make
the proper updates. This allows you to keep the real login/pass
hidden while still allowing for your user to make changes. And you
will be able to make changes on their behalf at any given time. Of
course, you'd need to address the need for clients leaving for
another RSP or breaking out a domain from their profile in the even
of a domain sale but that shouldn't be too much more work.
In summary, we may not be providing the direct tools, nor do we
officially advocate circumventing the system provided but we are not
by any means tying your hands. We are simply protecting ourselves
from liabilities which would result if we were to give out
information that we are not allowed to distribute.
-tom
>> Further, by denying the reseller control of the domain record, OpenSRS is
>> making it impossible for the reseller to provide the level of service that
>> many honest customers want and expect.
>>
>> --Richard
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Richard B. Pyne, KB7RMU
>> rpyne@kinfolk.org
>> http://pyne.kinfolk.org/rbp2
>>
> This is certainly true. We wrote a script to allow our hosting clients to
> manage many functions such as FrontPage extensions, mail forwarding, setting
> up autoresponders, email aliases, etc themselves. We also wrote a detailed
> explanation in the support manual on how to use the control panel.
> Yet we receive requests every day from clients asking us to perform these
> functions for them. We could tell them to use their control panel and do it
> themselves, however we go ahead and do it for them. Some people just don't
> feel comfortable doing these things themselves. It also makes for better
> client relationships when we assist them in small things like this.
> Fortuantely the majority do it for themselves.
> But I don't think OpenSRS is denying the reseller of the control panel. I
> will reread the contract, but I don't remember anything in the contract
> stating that the reseller must give the client the use of the Domain
> manager. If you do not give them that link from your site, then they will
> be unable to make the changes without your knowledge.
> Frankly, I want them to have the Domain Manger. For the same reason we
> developed the Control Panel for our hosting clients. Saves my staff a lot
> of work if the client will maintain their own site or domain name. It is
> also good advertising to make such control available.
> I'm not debating the issue of OpenSRS policy allowing a theft to keep the
> fruits of his theft. It's a waste of time and bandwidth. If this becomes a
> large enough problem, I suspect that OpenSRS will make changes to the
> policy. If it is isolated, then I don't expect much will change. I just
> hope news of this policy doesn't hit all the warez sites.
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