Dealing with Intl Domain registrars. What a Pain!

[Harold Mansfield]

There are something like 162 domain extensions in the world. every country has at least one that is specific to their country or territory.

Some of the most popular ones are .TV (for the country of Tuvalu) and .FM ( for the Federated States of Micronesia) .

The problem with some of them is that they are very territorial over how, where and for whom their domains will be used and some are even as strict as to only allow natural born citizens or residents to register their domain extensions.

I have the pleasure of dealing with one such International registrar at the moment and it is very frustrating.
They seem to not want to let my client, who is from country, to use the domain on his hosting account that is from an outside company (outside of their country).

They even have what seems to be approved hosting providers, and they are the only hosts that you can set Name Servers for.

It is the most frustrating thing I have ever seen. On the one hand, they were granted their extension to guarantee access for all equally and I guess that they can set what ever rules they want regarding their extension.

One the other, it is so territorial and petty and goes against the spirit if international trade and cooperation not to allow you to use the domain that you have paid for, where ever you want... and it is pretty much a domain cartel if only select service providers are allowed to host said domains...but that is according to our laws in the U.S. which don't apply abroad.

They aren't exactly saying this is the case, I'm just getting the run around as if I don't know what the difference between setting the Name Server and Domain forwarding.

Has anyone ever dealt with this before?

[billbenson]

Never dealt with it, but why does he need a local domain? Is his business primarily in his country or international? A local domain and hosting help for getting local G seaarches. I would think a .com and local hosting would work just as well. G will figure out where he is hosted.

[vangogh]

Fortunately I haven't had to deal with this, but I do know getting some extensions is much harder than you might think at first. I don't know that you have much choice except to jump through the hoops the registrar is putting in front of you.

Does your client really need a country specific extension? If so then you might want to use a host in the country anyway since it's possible there will be seo benefits that way. It sounds like the country specific extension is important in this case and while it probably sucks I have a feeling you're going to have to comply with what the registrar says you have to do.

[Harold Mansfield]

Never dealt with it, but why does he need a local domain? Is his business primarily in his country or international? A local domain and hosting help for getting local G seaarches. I would think a .com and local hosting would work just as well. G will figure out where he is hosted.



Does your client really need a country specific extension? If so then you might want to use a host in the country anyway since it's possible there will be seo benefits that way. It sounds like the country specific extension is important in this case and while it probably sucks I have a feeling you're going to have to comply with what the registrar says you have to do.

Yes he does. I understand where he is coming from, he is trying to do business with a local company and the culture there kind of looks down on .com's for local business with local countrymen.
That's nothing new, I've seen that before and completely understand it.

Just got another email for the registry pretty much telling me that "they require certain standards for name server registry and our host is not going to meet those standards".

In other words, host with a local company because you can't forward our domains to be used with an outside company.

Ain't that a b*tch? They have their own little domain registry/ hosting cartel.

I kind of saw the writing on the wall when I tried to set the name servers in the beginning. They were kind of beating around the bush at telling me what the real deal was until they figured out that I wasn't confused about how this works and I knew that their system was blocking the Name Servers that I put in.

At first they were trying to make it a technical issue on my part...that I didn't know what I was doing..that really inflamed me.
Clients not happy either but he had a feeling that it would be like this since other business people he knows use "authorized" companies that don't just host, they design the website for you as well as part of the deal.

I'm telling you, it's a cartel.

It's O.K., we had a plan "B" just in case.

[vangogh]

Sounds like a scam, but what can you do. The extension is country specific so that country gets to decide. Let me guess at least one, if not all, of the approved hosting companies are owned by the registrar in question.

Can I ask what plan "B" is or does it need to stay hush hush at the moment.

[Harold Mansfield]

Sounds like a scam, but what can you do. The extension is country specific so that country gets to decide. Let me guess at least one, if not all, of the approved hosting companies are owned by the registrar in question.

Can I ask what plan "B" is or does it need to stay hush hush at the moment.

It doesn't seem like they are all owned, but I'll bet there was some kind of "Registration Fee" to be an approved service provider.

No, plan "B" is nothing special.

They will let you forward the domain to another domain, so we'll just have to forward it to a ".com"..but at least he can still use the other when dealing with the locals we just can't build anything on it... and we have already decided that we aren't playing the "You must host with our companies" game because then they will insist that they build it too and that's my job:).

I've heard of this type of thing before, I just never experienced it first hand. I mean, there's a reason that seasoned domainers, don't mess with certain extensions and this is the prime example. The bureaucracy makes them worthless.

It also limits the creativity and competitiveness of the country on the web. If you have to use an approved provider and they also do the web work, then why would anyone register a domain with their own country ( if the rules are like this) for any start up that has the ability to go global?

Basically, you can't be an internet entrepreneur. How can you do anything like build the next My Space, or Facebook, if you are locked into using approved service providers to build the site?

When you think about it, they are actually stifling their own people and keeping their extensions from ever experiencing any kind of global success.


Just Tragic. TRAGIC!

[vangogh]

It is too bad. You wonder how much business the country loses by people not using the country specific domains. It wouldn't surprise me if some people set up their business outside the country and avoid money flowing into the country like it could.

[Harold Mansfield]

My client's a prime example. He'd love to use the extension from his own country for at least a few of his sites, but not if they are going to tell you who you have to host with and who designs your site.

That's just ridiculous.