Thursday 26 November 2009

Sunrise for Russian Federation top level domain .RF (.РФ )

Today, November 25, 2009 starting 12.00 MSK trademark holders may
enjoy .РФ Domains Sunrise Registration.

The .РФ Top level domain stands for "R.F." or Russian Federation.

Before March 25, 2010 RU-CENTER clients - Russian-named trademark
holders may register .РФ domains at 1200 rub.

Before submitting an application for .РФ domain registration we recommend
that you study "Sunrise Registration Schedule in РФ TLD".

Further details about .РФ domains sunrise registration are given at nic.ru

To learn more about РФ TLD please refer to za-rf.ru

Friday 20 November 2009

IP address change of main Nameservers

IMPORTANT

IP Addresses of the nameservers on freenameservers.co.uk are changing from:

ns3.openmerchantaccount.com, from 78.110.167.104 to 85.234.144.8
ns4.openmerchantaccount.com, from 78.110.165.153 to 92.48.88.241

This change will be finalized on the 18th of December 2009, when the old IP address will
fail to work.

Wednesday 18 November 2009

Into DNS, a free DNS checking service



Category
Status Test name Information
Parent Info Domain NS records Nameserver records returned by the parent servers are:

ns3.openmerchantaccount.com. ['78.110.167.104'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=14400]
ns4.openmerchantaccount.com. ['78.110.165.153'] (NO GLUE) [TTL=14400]

udns2.ausregistry.net.au was kind enough to give us that information.
Pass TLD Parent Check Good. udns2.ausregistry.net.au, the parent server I interogated, has information for your TLD. This is a good thing as there are some other domain extensions like "co.us" for example that are missing a direct check.
Pass Your nameservers are listed Good. The parent server udns2.ausregistry.net.au has your nameservers listed. This is a must if you want to be found as anyone that does not know your DNS servers will first ask the parent nameservers.
Info DNS Parent sent Glue The parent nameserver udns2.ausregistry.net.au is not sending out GLUE for every nameservers listed, meaning he is sending out your nameservers host names without sending the A records of those nameservers. It's ok but you have to know that this will require an extra A lookup that can delay a little the connections to your site. This happends a lot if you have nameservers on different TLD (domain.com for example with nameserver ns.domain.org.)
Pass Nameservers A records Good. Every nameserver listed has A records. This is a must if you want to be found.
NS Info NS records from your nameserversNS records got from your nameservers listed at the parent NS are:

ns4.openmerchantaccount.com ['212.227.102.68'] [TTL=7200]
ns3.openmerchantaccount.com ['78.110.167.104'] [TTL=7200]

Error Recursive Queries I could use the nameservers listed below to performe recursive queries. It may be that I am wrong but the chances of that are low. You should not have nameservers that allow recursive queries as this will allow almost anyone to use your nameservers and can cause problems. Problem record(s) are:
78.110.167.104
78.110.165.153
Warn Same Glue Looks like the A records (the GLUE) got from the parent zone check are different than the ones got from your nameservers. You have to make sure your parent server has the same NS records for your zone as you do.I detected some problems as follows:
For ns4.openmerchantaccount.com the parent reported: ['78.110.165.153'] and your nameservers reported: ['212.227.102.68']
For ns3.openmerchantaccount.com the parent reported: ['78.110.165.153'] and your nameservers reported: ['78.110.167.104']
Pass Glue for NS records OK. When I asked your nameservers for your NS records they also returned the A records for the NS records. This is a good thing as it will spare an extra A lookup needed to find those A records.
Pass Mismatched NS records OK. The NS records at all your nameservers are identical.
Pass DNS servers responded Good. All nameservers listed at the parent server responded.
Pass Name of nameservers are valid OK. All of the NS records that your nameservers report seem valid.
Pass Multiple Nameservers Good. You have multiple nameservers. According to RFC2182 section 5 you must have at least 3 nameservers, and no more than 7. Having 2 nameservers is also ok by me.
Pass Nameservers are lame OK. All the nameservers listed at the parent servers answer authoritatively for your domain.
Pass Missing nameservers reported by parent OK. All NS records are the same at the parent and at your nameservers.
Pass Missing nameservers reported by your nameservers OK. All nameservers returned by the parent server udns2.ausregistry.net.au are the same as the ones reported by your nameservers.
Pass Domain CNAMEs OK. RFC1912 2.4 and RFC2181 10.3 state that there should be no CNAMEs if an NS (or any other) record is present.
Pass NSs CNAME check OK. RFC1912 2.4 and RFC2181 10.3 state that there should be no CNAMEs if an NS (or any other) record is present.
Pass Different subnets OK. Looks like you have nameservers on different subnets!
Pass IPs of nameservers are public Ok. Looks like the IP addresses of your nameservers are public. This is a good thing because it will prevent DNS delays and other problems like
Pass DNS servers allow TCP connection OK. Seems all your DNS servers allow TCP connections. This is a good thing and usefull even if UDP connections are used by default.
Pass Different autonomous systems OK. It seems you are safe from a single point of failure. You must be carefull about this and try to have nameservers on different locations as it can prevent a lot of problems if one nameserver goes down.
Pass Stealth NS records sent Ok. No stealth ns records are sent
SOA Info SOA recordThe SOA record is:
Primary nameserver: ns3.openmerchantaccount.com
Hostmaster E-mail address: ns3.openmerchantaccount.com
Serial #: 1256841781
Refresh: 28800
Retry: 7200
Expire: 2419200 4 weeks
Default TTL: 7200
Pass NSs have same SOA serial OK. All your nameservers agree that your SOA serial number is 1256841781.
Pass SOA MNAME entry OK. ns3.openmerchantaccount.com That server is listed at the parent servers.
Warn SOA Serial Your SOA serial number is: 1256841781. This can be ok if you know what you are doing.
Pass SOA REFRESH OK. Your SOA REFRESH interval is: 28800. That is OK
Pass SOA RETRY Your SOA RETRY value is: 7200. Looks ok
Pass SOA EXPIRE Your SOA EXPIRE number is: 2419200.Looks ok
Pass SOA MINIMUM TTL Your SOA MINIMUM TTL is: 7200. This value was used to serve as a default TTL for records without a given TTL value and now is used for negative caching (indicates how long a resolver may cache the negative answer). RFC2308 recommands a value of 1-3 hours. Your value of 7200 is OK.
MX Info MX RecordsYour MX records that were reported by your nameservers are:

10 mail.freebiesms.com.au 212.227.102.68

[These are all the MX records that I found. If there are some non common MX records at your nameservers you should see them below. ]
Pass Different MX records at nameservers Good. Looks like all your nameservers have the same set of MX records. This tests to see if there are any MX records not reported by all your nameservers and also MX records that have the same hostname but different IPs
Pass MX name validity Good. I did not detect any invalid hostnames for your MX records.
Pass MX IPs are public OK. All of your MX records appear to use public IPs.
Pass MX CNAME Check OK. No problems here.
Pass MX A request returns CNAME OK. No CNAMEs returned for A records lookups.
Pass MX is not IP OK. All of your MX records are host names.
Info Number of MX records OK. Looks like you only have one MX record at your nameservers. You should be carefull about what you are doing since you have a single point of failure that can lead to mail being lost if the server is down for a long time.
Pass Mismatched MX A OK. I did not detect differing IPs for your MX records.
Pass Duplicate MX A records OK. I have not found duplicate IP(s) for your MX records. This is a good thing.
Pass Reverse MX A records (PTR) Your reverse (PTR) record:
68.102.227.212.in-addr.arpa -> s15243155.onlinehome-server.info
You have reverse (PTR) records for all your IPs, that is a good thing.
WWW Info WWW A Record Your www.freebiesms.com.au A record is:
www.freebiesms.com.au [212.227.102.68]
Pass IPs are public OK. All of your WWW IPs appear to be public IPs.
Pass WWW CNAME OK. No CNAME

Processed in 0.214 seconds.

This is a sample domain set up on FreeNameServers.co.uk, and the report is from IntoDNS


Thursday 5 November 2009

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Monday 26 October 2009

Expired domain auction for Russian domains

Effective November 9 RU-CENTER'S fee for a domain sold at an auction will
reduce down to 7% and now
minimum and maximum fee limits are thereby abolished. This makes the domains
sale process at auction.nic.ru more profitable!

Furthermore, the users may specify the dedicated rubrics, for which the sold
domain may be attributed to.
This will ease the domain search for the buyers and enhance the chance of
its successful sale.

Rubrics and descriptions of the domains sold may be changed at any auction
stage.

With a view to the above, effective November 9, 2009 the "Domain Name
Auction Schedule" will be modified accordingly.

---

RU-NIC Administrative Group
e-mail: auction@nic.ru
phones: +7 495 737-0601
fax: +7 495 737-0602

Registering a Slovenian (.si) domain name

When setting up a Slovenian (.si) domain name, you can check the DNS setup with this tool on
zrd.arnes.si/dnstool/index-en.html , the slovenian NIC.

When working correctly, the results should be:

DNS PREDELEGATION PROCEDURE:


-------------------------
Automatically is being checked:

  • domain name registration
  • number of NS records
  • values in SOA record
  • consistency of SOA and NS records
  • authority of given nameservers
  • activity of email address in SOA record



DNS checking is based on following standards and recommendations:



Lines in report that start with:


  • OK: are messages about successful tests
  • INFO: are informative messages
  • WARN: are messages about potentially problematic settings
  • ERROR: are error messages



ERROR: line is usually followed by a group of INFO: lines that describe possible reasons for errors.



Note: Messages describing errors can be repeated in predelegation process
if checkings are performed in different phases of the process.



If you notice domain name repeatedly in error messages, for example:


INFO: Primary MX record for domain.si: 10 mail.domain.si.domain.si


this means you forgot to put an '.' at the end of the record, which results in default addition of local domain.



Whole procedure and possible error reasons can be found below.

For additional information about domain delegation, please contact your registrar.





WARN: Domain name xxxx.si already has following DNS records:


xxx.si. 86400 IN NS ns1.xxx.com.
xxx.si. 86400 IN NS ns2.xxx.com.

INFO: Testing if domain name pocenileti.si is registered
OK: Domain pocenileti.si is registered


INFO: Checking SOA record for pocenileti.si on ns3.vuelosbaratos.net
INFO: SOA record for pocenileti.si on ns3.vuelosbaratos.net:
xxx.si ; domain
xxx.xxx.ie ; email
604800 ; expire
10800 ; minimum
ns1.xxx.net ; origin
10800 ; refresh
3600 ; retry
2009102601 ; serial
OK: SOA zapis za pocenileti.si na domenskem strežniku xxx.si obstaja


INFO: Checking NS records for pocenileti.si on ns3.xxx.net

INFO: NS records for xxx.si on ns3.xxx.net are:
ns1.xxx.net, ns3.xx.net
INFO: Computer ns3.xxx.net has IP numbers: 85.xxx.3.133
INFO: Computer ns1.xxx.net has IP numbers: 86.xxx.98.194
OK: NS records are OK


INFO: Checking values in SOA record

INFO: Primary nameserver change ns3.xxx.net -> ns1.xxx.net
WARN: Refresh time (10800) is not in the zone of recommended values [28800-86400]
WARN: Minimum TTL time (10800) is not in the zone of recommended values [86400-432000]
OK: SOA record is OK


INFO: Checking if email in SOA record is active

INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 20 on fallback001.xxx-concepts.nl
INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 10 on mail.xxxx.ie
INFO: MX record xxx.ie with preference 30 on fallback002.xxx-concepts.nl
INFO: Primary MX record for xxx.ie: 10 mail.xxx.ie
OK: Email address xxx@xxx.ie on 65.182.xxx.78 is probably active.


INFO: Checking consistency of NS and SOA records

OK: NS records for xxx.si on 85.xxx.3.133(ns3.xxx.net) and ns1.xxx.net(86.109.98.194) are the same
OK: SOA records for xxx.si on 85.xxx.3.133(ns3.xxx.net) and ns1.xxx.net(86.109.98.194) are the same
OK: NS and SOA records are the same on all nameservers
OK: Nameservers for xxx.si on 86.xxx.98.194 are the same as nameservers in registry.


THE END OF PREDELEGATION DNS CHECK FOR DOMAIN NAME pocenileti.si



OK: Domena xxx.si ustreza kriterijem za vpis v DNS.

Thursday 22 October 2009

Namecheap downtime

During the maintenance communication with the registry will be unavailable affecting new registrations, renewals, and transfers.

Starting at 6 PM PT on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 until Saturday, October 24th at 2 AM PT, namecheap will be conducting maintenance on our database and datacenter. As a result communication with the registry will be unavailable affecting new registrations, renewals, and transfers.

The following services will not be affected and will continue to be fully operational:

- DNS will resolve normally - although operational through this downtime, any changes to DNS settings may be delayed intermittently for a period of up to 24 hours from the start of the maintenance period
- All web hosting services will work normally
- Email will send and receive normally
- Email and URL forwarding will operate normally

Namecheap anticipate the maintenance will only last up to eight hours.

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Calculating Pagerank with matricies



Google pagerank is calculated as a function of how many pages link to you, and how many pages link to the pages that link to the pages that link to you, and so on.

Evidence suggests that this pagerank is calculated by google using Matrix calculations, not least, because it would be much faster to calculate.

Here is how it is done.

Imagine six web pages, that interlink as shown
(See image Left)

From this, we create a 6x6 matrix, where the rows represent pages, and the columns represent links to other pages.

A "Link" is a Matrix cell in the format 1/x where x is the total number of out-links from that page. So 1/2 means that there are 2 out-links.


This is the Matrix shown in Fractions (above). This needs to be converted to decimals, so I can feed it into Wolfram alpha for the calculations:
{{0,0.5,0.5,0,0,0},
{0,0,0,0,0,0},
{0.33,0.33,0,0,0.33,0},
{0,0,0,0,0.5,0.5},
{0,0,0,0.5,0,0.5},
{0,0,0,1,0,0}}

To calculate the pagerank, we need to pre-multiply it by a matrix {1,1,1,1,1,1} known as the Pagerank Vector.




This then yields the result:



Which shows, in relative importance, which page would be deemed most important, in this case "1.5" which is Page 4.

Wednesday 2 September 2009

Namecheap affiliate program

Namecheap's new affiliate program

And here's their prices:

biz $9.69/yr
bz $28.88/yr
ca $15.95/yr
cc $28.88/yr
cm $104.99/yr
cn $28.88/yr
co.uk $8.88/yr
com $9.69/yr
com.cn $28.88/yr
de $17.88/yr
eu $11.44/yr
in $21.00/yr
info $2.98/yr
me $21.98/yr
mobi $7.99/yr
net $9.69/yr
net.cn $28.88/yr
nu $28.88/yr
org $9.69/yr
org.cn $28.88/yr
org.uk $8.88/yr
tv $17.99/yr
us $8.88/yr
ws $28.88/yr

Tuesday 4 August 2009

Price comparison for .gr (Greek) domain names

Shopping around for a .GR (Greek) domain name, I came up with the following prices

Papaki.gr - 20 Euros / 2 Years
Pointer.gr - 17 euros / 2 years
dnhost.gr - 17.85 euros / 2 years
domains.gr - 23.68 euros / 2 years
hyperhosting.gr - 19.04 euros / 2 years
aws.gr - 20 euros / 2 years
EuroDNS - 35 Euros / 2 years

The two cheapest, Pointer.gr and dnhost.gr don't have an english version, however, many common words are in english, but to be honest, I prefer to pay an extra 2 euros, to be more comfortable that I don't have to rely on Google Translate to deal with tech. Support.

A few second level domains are emerging in Greece, such as the common .com.gr, .net.gr, .org.gr, and the less common .co.gr, and the newly promoted .aws.gr

In Greece, the Greek alphabet is used rather than the latin alphabet, so IDN domains are rising in popularity, but it is still possible to transliterate words from Greek to Latin.

Thursday 23 July 2009

Free SMS to the Isle of Man


FreebieSMS.IM
Free SMS to the Isle of Man

This site allows people to send free SMS messages to the Isle of Man's Manx Telecom network, and every other UK network, for Irish mobile phone networks please click the link above.

If you want to want to put this on your own website, we also have an Affiliate Program