At 1/21/02 4:51 AM, Charles Daminato wrote:
>Effectively it's a matter of education, which will take time (as it took
>time for many registrants to realize there was more of a choice than just
>network solutions).
However, in this case, the people who need educating are the registrars,
which makes the problem much simpler. I don't see why it would take 60
days or more for Neulevel to make sure that each registrar is showing the
AuthInfo key in the customer's domain management screen.
At least, I sure hope that there's going to be a consistent method for
how end users are going to get their AuthInfo keys from their current
registrar, and that Neulevel is going to enforce it.
If, instead, Neulevel is going to allow each registrar to provide the
AuthInfo key in a separate manner, that's going to be a serious issue --
I already spend half my time trying to help customers figure out how to
approve transfers from various registrars.
I need to be able to tell my customer something like "Go to your old
registrar, log in to your account management page, and look for the the
text that says 'transfer approval key'".
This requires that Neulevel (and Afilias) place requirements on
registrars for:
- Terminology: the AuthInfo token MUST be referred to by the same phrase
(in English, anyway) by all registrars. "Transfer approval key", for
example. Otherwise I'll be telling customers "look for a thing that might
say 'AuthInfo' or 'key' or something like that, somewhere at your old
registrar."
- Accessibility: the token MUST be accessible somewhere in the customer's
account management pages for all domains, without the customer having to
specifically request that the registrar send it or show it.
The latter is especially important, otherwise we'll find all kinds of
shenanigans going on, just like the current CNO transfer situation: I can
just see some registrars not sending the token to you until you write and
explain to them why you want to transfer (one registrar already does this
for CNO transfers -- they won't enable an "approve this transfer" link
until you explain why you want to switch), and of course, where's the
registrar incentive to respond to such requests promptly?
I really would ask that Neulevel rethink this whole thing, though. Short
of the registry really cracking down hard on registrars to make the
AuthInfo tokens available, this scheme puts all the power in the hands of
the losing registrar to withhold the token. It's in their interest to do
so, just as it's in the interest of dishonest registrars to reject CNO
transfers now. (Maybe I'm cynical, but I suspect this is already
happening -- I sense registrar foot-dragging around this issue already.)
I submit that this kind of thing -- inter-registrar issues -- is exactly
what a neutral registry SHOULD be handling, to make sure that registrants
don't get screwed by the losing registrar. If Neulevel wants to use
AuthInfo tokens, that's fine -- but have the registry handle them and
send them to the admin contact on request.
-- Robert L Mathews, Tiger Technologies"The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was."
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