Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results 243
Robert Accettura writes "Network Solutions has updated its whois interface, giving it an interesting new twist. On top of regular info provided, it shows data that appears to be from Alexa, including a screenshot of the homepage (though not terribly recent), as well as looks up your IP, and displays lots of information on it. It even shows the server type, if it supports SSL, DMOZ, Yahoo listing, traffic ranking, and lock status. This comes right after they announced rapid DNS updates. Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?"
rheoric question (Score:2)
Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my site (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2, Interesting)
At least the rest of the info appears to be correct; right down to the registrar name (GoDaddy).
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:3, Informative)
One thing that interests me is that it says my company's web server is Apache. We switched to IIS6 like two months ago.
-Lucas
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2)
Oh well.
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2)
Mine is right, kind of.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Totally useless answer, but technically correct. I should expect no less from Verisign. heh.
not verisign (Score:2)
Re:Mine is right, kind of.. (Score:2)
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:3, Interesting)
But yeah, we're "e-commerce: yes" too, which is fightin' words, as we're a free site, where "free" doesn't mean "call it free then shove ads at you."
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2)
They haven't won this geek over.
Sorry boys, try again when you've hired someone competent. (or fixed your DNS problems.)
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:3, Informative)
Not even consistant wrong answers.
Re:Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my sit (Score:2, Funny)
Perhaps? (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?
Maybe. However, my bet is on friendlifying (hey, I just coined a word!) the service for something far more sinister. This wreaks of targetting manadrones with all sorts of feelgood updates that don't serve that much purpose for real geeks...
Maybe I'm paranoid, but when you're dealing with a group like this, you can't look at it with too much suspicion.
Re:Perhaps? (Score:2)
I agree, this is suspicious.
Unfortunately, I can imagine a scenario...
Re:Perhaps? (Score:5, Funny)
No you didn't. [google.com]
WHAT?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:WHAT?!? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:WHAT?!? (Score:2)
See your inbox for ways to fix this problem.
screenshot of the homepage (Score:5, Informative)
Re:screenshot of the homepage (Score:5, Informative)
For example, whois.sc actually tells how many yahoo links a site has. (Slash has 288 DMOZ and 22 yahoo links? Holy cow!)
netsol just has a link to the yahoo search...
plus whois.sc is so much easier... just add the domain name to the end of the url you want to search...
http://whois.sc/slashdot.org
http://whois.sc/c
netsol doesn't give you this easy ability...
I'm sticking with whois.sc
Davak
Re:screenshot of the homepage (Score:2)
Re:screenshot of the homepage (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:screenshot of the homepage (Score:4, Informative)
Because they want to extort more money from you to hide it:
random domain info [networksolutions.com]
Add Private Registration: $9 a year per domain
Keep your registration information for assadasfdas.com out of the hands of spammers and telemarketers with Private Registration.
Re:screenshot of the homepage (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Microsoft Owner features an innovative, user-friendly interface that leverages off of the Microsoft setup Wizards.
To use:
click on icon for Microsoft Owner.
Next->Next->Please enter the domain name
Let's see. How about... www.google.com
Next->Next->Reboot
login->Next->done
www.google.com is Google!
Only for NS Hosted Domains (Score:5, Interesting)
And in some respects the Tucows approach is better. A Network Solutions query shows all my details directly. Tucows requires a query to input a grahpics based password so it is harder to harvest the info.
Re:Only for NS Hosted Domains (Score:3, Informative)
It's odd, but Network Solutions required the same thing up until this launched. I guess it was just more cost effective to let people scan the db. I've been using whois.net from the opera command line with much success, but every time in the past year I came across a bloody Network Solutions domain I'd
And for those who can't see? (Score:2, Interesting)
Tucows requires a query to input a grahpics based password so it is harder to harvest the info.
So what are blind people supposed to do? The TUCOWS Whois interface doesn't seem to provide a way to download the digits as an audio file in Ogg Vorbis format.
Fails when no referrer and User-Agent (Score:5, Interesting)
Just what we need - a fussy site.
No .us whois lookup (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't Verisign like the
Register.com lets me do a lookup. Perplexing.
it's actually quite nice (Score:2)
the picture detail on the whois record is cute, although bandwidth wasting, still cute...
Thanks, fellas... (Score:2)
They're going in the right direction, but I still don't trust them nor will I ever use them for domain services.
VeriSign and Network Solutions are not the same (Score:5, Informative)
Re:VeriSign and Network Solutions are not the same (Score:2)
Re:VeriSign and Network Solutions are not the same (Score:2)
More info (Score:3, Informative)
Nov. 26, 2003: Pivotal Private Equity Acquires Network Solutions. [networksol...edback.com] "Pivotal Private Equity announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire control of Network Solutions, the world's largest domain name registrar, for $100 million.
Not original... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.whois.sc/
I use that for quite a while now...
Yes, it must be from whois.sc (Score:2)
When I read the description in the original post, that was the first thing that came to my mind.
They either bought whois.sc, or got in some sort of agreement with them.
However, when I went to the whois page listed in the original post at http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois, this info is not available. What gives?
Umm.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Alexa Violating Copyrights (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe everyone who has screenshots of their website in Alexa should file a DMCA complaint Amazon. Seems fair to me since Amazon loves bogus patents.
Re:Alexa is Spyware (Score:2)
My spyware blocker software goes nuts with alexa stuff. So, now I know I pick it up when I look at Amazon without blocking the scripts. Is there no respect anywhere?
Re:Alexa Violating Copyrights (Score:2)
Re:Alexa Violating Copyrights (Score:2)
Church of Scientology wields the DMCA, Google removes xenu.net [kuro5hin.org]
As for proving a point, I think that using the DMCA is just fine. After all, Amazon is part of the patent problem and if you used Amazon's patents without permission, you could expect that they would have say something about it. If they expect people to observe their pate
duh, that robots.txt should read.... (Score:2)
Disallow: /
Re:duh, that robots.txt should read.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Basically this allows Google to spider my site, but when robots like msnbot decide to ignore this, reading and parsing robots.txt at each line, they'll follow block_crawler.pl, which is a script th
Re:Alexa Violating Copyrights (Score:3, Informative)
Doesn't mention the registrar (Score:5, Interesting)
You have to click on "underlying Whois data" to get the registrar info. At least you still can.
Registrars are going to be annoyed about this.
Re:Doesn't mention the registrar (Score:2)
I have GoDaddy mentioned all over my Whois lookup result.
Re:Doesn't mention the registrar (Score:2)
Verisign isn't showing the registrar link and the registrar name from the common registry database.
UhOh (Score:4, Insightful)
People with vision impairments (Score:2, Insightful)
What I want to know is why they did away with having the results be returned as an image.
Under certain conditions involving government contracts, American companies have to comply with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act [section508.gov], which requires the company's web site to be accessible to people with disabilities. Try retyping a web address from an image if you're blind.
Re:People with vision impairments (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:UhOh (Score:2)
Just pay em some money and they take your MX! Mail is scanned then forwarded on to the real mail server.
(also a ploy to get you to let them host DNS)
Definately not a company I'd let store and forward my email....
I hate "whois". (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I hate "whois". (Score:2)
Uberm00
N/A
N/A, Ontario N/A
Canada
Oh, and of course my phone number, which you can all reach me on, is (602) 555-5555. Apparently GoDaddy doesn't like a 555 area code and changed it for me
Re:I hate "whois". (Score:2)
Re:I hate "whois". (Score:2)
Why the cynicism? (Score:5, Insightful)
banned! (Score:5, Informative)
Security (Score:5, Insightful)
Would it be terribly difficult to implement a system like whois.sc, where it shows images of your email address instead of text? I think not. I could probably do it and I'm a pretty green PHP coder.
Section 508 (Score:3, Interesting)
Would it be terribly difficult to implement a system like whois.sc, where it shows images of your email address instead of text?
Yes, in the United States, at least. Are you familiar with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [w3.org]?
Re:Section 508 (Score:2)
To a private individual, it means dick.
And like other posters said, there are CLI whois clients out there, no need to use WWW at all.
wow (Score:2)
my search on my own domain returned links to "snap up" the domain when it expires, "make an offer" on the domain, register the same domain with other extensions (forcing me to now consider buying the other domains if i want to stop that happening).
and as if those tactics aren't low enough, they also have sitefinder.
oh and did i mention my email is printed without
No more captcha (Score:3, Interesting)
That was nice of them.
Ben
Probably got sued (Score:2, Informative)
They used to require you pass a captcha to get the information about the domain
And then one of the following probably happened: either somebody with less than perfect sight sued NSI under some sort of Americans with Disabilities Act, or Hewlett-Packard "gently reminded" NSI of U.S. Patent 6,195,698 [uspto.gov]. (Read More... [everything2.com])
Traffic Rank? (Score:2, Interesting)
Am I the only one... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Am I the only one... (Score:2)
Interface? (Score:5, Interesting)
localhost:~$ whois slashdot.org
NOTICE: Access to
This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree that you will us
(snip)
I don't know about this being intended to court the geeks, as any actual geeks would be rather unlikely to use a web interface to do a whois query.
Woah.. Backorder (Score:4, Insightful)
Certified Offer Service - Make an offer on this domain
Backorder - Get this name when it becomes available
Similar Names - See suggested alternatives for
this domain
In addition a sidebar has all the other
tld
Excuse me? I don't mind getting legitimate offers to purchased this domain but they seem to be offering services to encourage squatters to either steal it (when the registration expires)
or to grab similar sounding names so they can profit off typos? Whose brilliant idea was this?
Re:Woah.. Backorder (Score:3, Insightful)
At least verisign (maybe others) will suspend your domain before it's released but after it's expired. If you forget to renew it all year and don't notice that it's expired then you gave it up on your own will, it's not stolen. It also helps get your domain back from squatters. The
The similar names are stupid, not typos.
The REAL point of this... (Score:4, Insightful)
*sigh* All this work.... (Score:2)
Just to save themselves the minor pain of providing a decent user-interface for their domain registration.
Really. Despite the fact that they're 3 or 4 times more expensive than some of their competitors, a lot of people would still stay with them if trying to do business with them wasn't like trying to give an enema to a herd of feral cheetahs.
steve
Wow, glad I tried it out. (Score:2, Interesting)
I noticed that the one weak link for the company I'm contracting to, that's on my list to fix (one of the reasons I'm here now), namely the domain name stuff...was actually in the MIDDLE of being compromised. They seem to have just kidnapped our corporate domain, and were on their way to our actual product site. Not all our domains are with NSI (thank god), but the fact I lucked out and checked it by fluke is damn scary.
DMOZ urls capitalized?! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:DMOZ urls capitalized?! (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe we need to tell verisign that "domain name" is not the same as "URL" and are defined in completely different technical specifications.
("domain name" is case-insensitive, but the path of a URL is most definitely not. And it's not even as if the majority of web servers are running on Windows, luckily, so that can't be the reason for the error)
- Erwin
Not impressed. (Score:2, Interesting)
Copyright Violation? (Score:2)
Not withstanding the fact that no one will be won over by anything V*r*sign/N*tw*rkSolutions do if they bring back S*tefinder, they do not acknowledge their use of ODP (DMoz) data (even on the detailed ODP listings page--which contains only ODP data and which N*tw*rkSolutions even claim the copyright for). I do not know whether they are illegally copying the other data (e.g.: Yahoo's) but "pirating" information released under a
IE for Screenshots (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Correct.
But it had all the hallmarks of shoddy Microsoft R&D, so although designed and manufactured by Nintendo, you could make the argument for Microsoft being its spiritual father, so to speak.
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Hold your horses, the patent hasn't cleared yet.
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
I assume you're referring to Sitefinder?
Yes, bad ideas happen. However, actively destroying expected behavior of the entire internet is just plain sinister. The only thing they can fall back on is that "technically" they didn't break anything in the sense that wildcards are legitimate.
Mistakes happen, sure. Sitefinder, however, was just malicious profiteering and status abuse.
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2)
Don't attribute to malice what could be easily explained by stupidity.
Re:Or maybe... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Slashdot... (Score:2)
Re:timothy must be great at parties.... (Score:3, Funny)
The whole world isn't out to screw you over.
That's yet to be proven.
Re:timothy must be great at parties.... (Score:2)
Re:timothy must be great at parties.... (Score:2)
Re:timothy must be great at parties.... (Score:2, Funny)
Well, I'm out to screw him over, and so is everyone I just asked. Actually, we're all pretty amazed, we all thought we came up with the idea on our own. Small world, huh?
Say... do you have any magazine subscription cards? We ran out.
Re:war? (Score:5, Insightful)
So at least that's one step in the right direction for Network solutions, even if they're going the wrong direction in so many other instances.
Re:war? (Score:2)