Puppygames down...

[princec]

...for a few days, so no need to go PMing me. As usual servermatrix/theplanet have totally fucked up my domain renewal despite me being on to them for a month.

Cas :)

[ragdollsoft]

No way...

Its insane how they can screw this incredibly easy stuff...

While I moved away from dreamhost for hosting, I keep using them as a registrar, their control panel to handle your account is really well done and friendly.

I know many use godaddy, I tried to buy a domain but it scared me off with tons of flashy ads, special offers etc.

[NathanR]

domainmonger.com

always used them, never had a problem.

Tucows is too bloody cheap and efficient a registrar to overlook. (domain monger is a reseller)

[Pyabo]

I know many use godaddy, I tried to buy a domain but it scared me off with tons of flashy ads, special offers etc.

Ah, but they are masters of renewing anything that lets them charge your credit card once again! By default they will renew EVERYTHING you order through them. So something of a pain, but at least you know your domain is safe.

Cas, I can't believe you are *still* having trouble with this. Can't you do a 10 year registration or something???

[Dan MacDonald]

this happens just about every year to cas... without fail. ;)

[Polycount Productions]

...for a few days, so no need to go PMing me. As usual servermatrix/theplanet have totally fucked up my domain renewal despite me being on to them for a month.

Cas :)

Time to switch to LiquidWeb :)

[svero]

i switched to liquid.. no complaints. NOT a fan of servermatrix/planet. Many problems + they ripped me off for an extra month when I canceled.

[PoV]

this happens just about every year to cas... without fail. ;)
Yeah, happy new year everyone.

[princec]

Should make it some kind of Indie New Year event.

Cas :)

[PoV]

Yeah, everybody go buy a Puppygame. :)

[soniCron]

I'm kinda confused. Was it down before you posted this thread? Because it hasn't been down since you posted it... :confused:

[princec]

Well, the domain's expired, so I expect that in short order it will start vanishing off of DNS servers around the world.

Like it does, every year...

Cas :)

[Pallav Nawani]

Why don't you buy it for, say 4 years in a go?

[michalczyk]

...for a few days, so no need to go PMing me. As usual servermatrix/theplanet have totally fucked up my domain renewal despite me being on to them for a month.

Cas :)

Exactly why I do important things like that myself - never trust third party to do a job for you on things that really matter. Especially if it's something as important as your domain name.

[rmedtx]

princec,

I'm sorry to hear you were down; But I'm glad you are back on-line. ;)

[princec]

That bit's the strange bit... I haven't actually renewed it yet. Not sure what's going on. Emails unanswered etc.

Cas :)

[ragdollsoft]

Domain Name: PUPPYGAMES.NET
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://WWW.TUCOWS.COM
Name Server: NS1.THEPLANET.COM
Name Server: NS2.THEPLANET.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 05-apr-2007
Creation Date: 04-apr-2003
Expiration Date: 04-apr-2008

Looks like you're safe for another year...

Btw you can (and should) manage your domain yourself at https://manage.opensrs.net/ (hopefully you know your login info, otherwise ask your host), its not difficult.

[arcadetown]

Let's make a yearly celebration out of this. Mark your calendars!

[Nexic]

I always buy 5 years when I get a domain name. Apparently this helps SEO a little, since it means your site will be around long term.

[Kestral]

I highly recommend pairnic.com. I have several domains with them and have never had a problem. Their control panel is simple yet very flexible. They are more expensive than most registrars, but well worth it to me personally based upon my own track record with them.

[Pyabo]

OK now it's down. Let the yearly celebration begin!

[PoV]

Happy Indie New Year!

[princec]

Yeah, and no sign of getting it back either :(

ThePlanet and Tucows are basically not speaking to each other and neither
of them have offered to help (nor responded when I've specifically asked them to help).

Of course this had to happen at a time when puppygames is my only income.

Priceless. I'm doomed. I'm almost considering registering a completely different .com domain and rebranding the whole lot and starting over from scratch.

Cas :)

[jankoM]

What? What is happening at all?

IMHO if you would go to new domain you would need a lot of time (like a year) to get Google and others PRs back to where there are at puppygames.net ... Even if you go to new one you should fix this one for the time being..

[cliffski]

get them on the phone (if you havent already) most companies try and hide behind email. If neccesary phone their corporate headquraters and try and get a number through there.

BTW, theplanet are scum. they host a warez site I told them about, and they wont do sod all about it.

[ragdollsoft]

No way...

You're still the owner of the domain, according to the Whois records! ( http://www.betterwhois.com/ )

You just need to get your login info so that you can access your domains directly ( at https://manage.opensrs.net/ since it's registered with tucows )

Hosting companies usually put an abbreviation of the domain as login name (such as "puppygam"), and they might have put your hosting password as domain password.

Anyway, you should be able to ask the planet for those. According to puppygames.net's whois

Registration Service Provider:
The Planet Internet Services, Inc., support@theplanet.com
214-782-7800
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.

Hosting companies try to scare you into not handling your domain yourself, but you really should.

[KNau]

Every day your site is down it's costing you money. If only as a temporary measure, register something cheap and try to drive a little traffic to it while you fix puppygames.net or find a friendly site that will sell your games for you. Hindsight being 20/20, you probably should have switched hosts the last time this happened.

[princec]

I was just about to and then my wife ran off with someone and it sort of dropped out of the priorities list...

Having trouble phoning people now, seems they're all conveniently away from their desks. Easter holidays popular in the States?

Cas :)

[soniCron]

Having trouble phoning people now, seems they're all conveniently away from their desks. Easter holidays popular in the States? Yes, although that ended several days ago.

[Pyabo]

Just out of curiosity, have you ever offered the owner of puppygames.com a wad of cash?

[PoV]

Yeah, a nice 2 figure wad of cash perhaps?

[Backov]

Then, make sure you switch to Directnic. It's $15 a year, which isn't the cheapest, but it's by far the best. At one point I had over 150 domains with then. Down to only 60 or so now. :)

Once you get access to your OpenSRS management console, you can just make a directnic account and use the domain transfers thing on there to move your domains over to Directnic.

Seriously, damn good company - and no, I don't have any interest. :)

[jankoM]

I don't know what happened that you can't get your domain to work... but if this would happen to me it would be total total sh*t... (I am not even sure I would start again from scratch (visitor wise) with BKG in such case)

If someone ignores you there are some (amnesty international style) community actions we can take... ... like writing a lot of emails (& blog posts) from various prospering and succsesfull online indie developers to the ignoring ears... I mean someone can't just shut the thing you (or me or anyone) have been working on many years down!!

[KNau]

Really, another week or so of being down and you might as well start a new site. Look at it as an opportunity to start smaller and cheaper (weren't you paying an insane amount for dedicated hosting?) and rebrand everything from the start. It could work out even better for you in the long run.

As a last ditch effort, maybe Gibbage will host some of your games to collect even a bit of revenue during this downtime.

[Frozen In Ice]

This was posted in the technical forum of ThePlanet. Seems there are technical difficulties with TuCows.

Posted Apr 11, 1:30pm

I've just received notice that Tucows and the OpenSRS system are down. This outage effects all of our domain and ResellOne customers. We are working with Tucows to establish an ETA as to when systems will be back online. I will post more information as it becomes available.

Thank you,
Brooke Kyle
Marketing Manager

[MrPhil]

Try namecheap.com... simple, easy, no problems. I really like their interface because it is easy to take action against a group of domains instead of one at a time.

[MrQ]

I really feel for you there.
Do you have copies of your letters to renew the site? Can't you take someone to court over this? They basically stole your business!

[Frozen In Ice]

The domain is now showing advertising for puppies....:confused:

[princec]

Yes, it looks like someone has stolen it. I am fucking furious. But no amount of phone calls and emailing seems to be making any progress. Why does no-one else have this trouble???

Who can I go to to get this sorted out?

Cas :)

[Nikster]

I'd suggest the nominet equivalent for .net domains, and explain to them what's happened, I guess if the main guys can't do anything (or won't) could be that court action is the only way, I guess it almost falls into the cyber squatting domain, I'm sure if you can prove contact for renewal and the like they may pass the domain back (if some other entity has purchased it already) in an ideal world, seems like you need a cyber solicitor.

EDIT: just read the tucows stuff and the whois details, might be worth going direct to tucows to see if they can do something, or maybe even register it with someone else ?

[Frozen In Ice]

This is what I get from a whois..

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.


Domain Name: PUPPYGAMES.NET
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://WWW.TUCOWS.COM
Name Server: NS1.RENEWYOURNAME.NET
Name Server: NS2.RENEWYOURNAME.NET
Status: ok
Updated Date: 15-apr-2007
Creation Date: 04-apr-2003
Expiration Date: 04-apr-2008

>>> Last update of whois database: Sun, 15 Apr 2007 16:02:34 UTC <<<


This url might be of some help..
http://www.internic.net/

Hope this helps.

[arcadetown]

Welcome to the world of domain parkers. They have 30 days to try it out and see if like it for free, then must pay for domain or give it up. Put a snapnames on it asap and if the domain parker gives it up it'll be yours again.

NEVER NEVER EVER trust someone else to take care of your domains. It's your live blood, always handle them yourself directly.

[soniCron]

I don't know how this applies since Cas is in the U.K., but the U.S. has a Cybersquatting law that prevents people from registering domains that feature trademarked names. In this case, if Cas was located in the U.S., they'd have to give him the domain back because they registered it after Cas developed the Puppygames brand.

Since he's in the U.K., however, his mileage may vary.

[princec]

For all your amusement, here's the support ticket I eventually had to end up opening when I got sick of trying email tennis between thePlanet and tucows.

Angry phone calls tomorrow I think.


Master User - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 5:53 AM CDT
Will somebody *please* tell me what is happening to our domain puppygames.net?

Rather urgent, it's been down for a couple of days now and we're losing money.

Maybe someone can explain why this has happened every year since we got the domain too.

Dustin . - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 6:07 AM CDT
This domain is currently in Transfer: Pending Owner Approval.

Master User - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 6:57 AM CDT
I know that, except, *I* am the owner, and no-one's asked me for approval yet.

Would be grateful if somehow it could be fixed...

Eric L. - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 8:30 AM CDT
If you did not receive the request at you main address cprince@puppygames.net it most likely went to the administrative contact from your "whois" foo@CIX.CO.UK. If this needs to be changed you will need to change it at the current registrar. Also the status may be changed.

Registrant:
Shaven Puppy Games LTD
3 Waverley ROAD
RG30 2QA RG30 2QA
GB

Domain Name: SHAVENPUPPY.COM

Administrative Contact:
Prince, Caspian foo@CIX.CO.UK
Shaven Puppy Games LTD
3 Waverley ROAD
Reading
England
RG30 2QA
UKR
+44 734 391966 fax: 999 999 9999

Technical Contact:
Master, DNS dnsmaster@compulink.co.uk
Telenor Business Solutions
Global House
Ashley Avenue
Epsom, Surrey kt18 5ad
UK
+44-1635-35544

Record expires on 28-Jun-2007.
Record created on 28-Jun-2000.
Database last updated on 10-Apr-2007 09:17:43 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

NICKEL.COMPULINK.CO.UK
GOLD.COMPULINK.CO.UK


Domain Name: SHAVENPUPPY.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: GOLD.COMPULINK.CO.UK
Name Server: NICKEL.COMPULINK.CO.UK
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Updated Date: 06-oct-2006
Creation Date: 28-jun-2000
Expiration Date: 28-jun-2007

Master User - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 10:22 AM CDT
We don't want the shavenpuppy.com address; it's the puppygames.net address, which we have had registered via you for the last 4 years or so, which we'd like fixed. Every year this happens despite our best efforts.

Master User - Tuesday April 10th, 2007; 5:53 PM CDT
Any chance of some help here?
Don't really want to resort to the phone.

Master User - Thursday April 12th, 2007; 12:03 PM CDT
*tap* *tap* *tap* is this thing on?

Master User - Friday April 13th, 2007; 5:31 AM CDT
This is possibly the worst customer service I have ever received.

Naomi A. - Friday April 13th, 2007; 9:47 AM CDT
Hello,

We do apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you. Transfer Request message was sent to cprince@shavenpuppy.com but was never approved. So the transfer has timed out waiting for owner approval. You will need to resubmit the transfer request.

Thank You
Naomi

Master User - Friday April 13th, 2007; 11:11 AM CDT
1. I own puppygames.net already. You registered it for me. You have registered it for me for the last 4 years.

2. cprince@shavenpuppy.com has been defunct since 2002. I have tried on various occasions to get you to update it but to no avail (strangely enough, the 4th of April every year, when you fail to renew my domain successfully).

3. Just get it working. Fast. Now. Got it? Then I'll transfer it away to someone who knows what they're doing and all will be well with the world.

4. Got a problem with this? Then I expect a phone call. +44 7894 xxxxxx.

Master User - Sunday April 15th, 2007; 1:25 PM CDT
THERE IS NOW A DOMAIN SQUATTER ON MY DOMAIN. MY BUSINESS IS FUCKED AND I HAVE NO INCOME.

FIX THIS.

NOW.

Note how much more annoyed I get as the days pass.

Cas :)

[MrPhil]

NEVER NEVER EVER trust someone else to take care of your domains.What do you mean when you say that, on a practical level? I mean we all have to use a middleman at some point, don't we?

[Jack Norton]

1. go on www.godaddy.com and signup
2. register your domain, in my case www.winterwolves.com for TEN YEARS, for less than $80 (in practice 4 sales)
3. godaddy WILL send reminders to you when is about to expire

not that hard... I never trusted webhosting services to register MY domains!!

[Sharpfish]

1. go on www.godaddy.com and signup
2. register your domain, in my case www.winterwolves.com for TEN YEARS, for less than $80 (in practice 4 sales)
3. godaddy WILL send reminders to you when is about to expire

not that hard... I never trusted webhosting services to register MY domains!!

This is basically what I do (with godaddy) I keep all my names completely seperate from ANY hosting/offers (except for one that 'came free' with the hosting but it's not an important one). I reg them till 2008/2010 or some other decent amount of time. I learnt this the hard way after initially bundling an important domain name in with my web hosting and having to pay to transfer it out as I was cancelling my hosting, and that's nothing compared to Poor Cas's problems. I would be ready to commit murder if what has happened to had happened to me especially with their stupid/inept replies and track record.

I remember last year when this happened (to Cas) and I joked about nabbing his nice Page Rank 6 domain name, now it seems like someone has tried to do just that. :(

Hope you can get it sorted. And if you need any files hosting in the meantime then let me know i've got plenty space spare.

[cliffski]

What do you mean when you say that, on a practical level? I mean we all have to use a middleman at some point, don't we?

I don't think so. I go straight to internic for my main domain. I have no idea how that happened, but there is no intermediary and I have to actually send a signed piece of paper on headed company paper (snigger) if I want something changed, which I very rarely, if ever do.
Its way more convenient having an intermediary, but you run the risk of cas's problems.

[Backov]

For quite a few years now, Internic has been just another reseller.

That, and they're an absolutely horrible company to deal with. Don't ever do it.

[Jamie W]

I have my domains with godaddy.com too (reistered in blocks of 2 years), is this not safe?

Sorry to hear about your plight Cas, there aught to be someone you can call and sort this out, it seeems obvious you have a good claim to the domain. Is this (http://www.internic.net/faqs/udrp.html) information any use? Hope it's sorted soon for you.

[Backov]

I have my domains with godaddy.com too (reistered in blocks of 2 years), is this not safe?


Godaddy is a reseller that gives you direct control, so you're safe as you can get. That said, I've heard a few things about Godaddy service I didn't like, but they seem ok apart from that.

[Pyabo]

Cas is still the registered owner of record, so I don't think there is any reason to panic about someone grabbing the domain. It's just being parked by Tucows.

Registrant:
Shaven Puppy Ltd.
The Old Farmhouse
Plainsfield
Over Stowey, Somerset 75207
UK

Domain name: PUPPYGAMES.NET

Administrative Contact:
Rychlik-Prince, Caspian cprince@shavenpuppy.com
The Old Farmhouse
Plainsfield
Over Stowey, Somerset 75207
UK
+44 1278 671969
Technical Contact:
Support, Technical caspian.prince@covalentsoftware.com
1950 Stemmons Fwy
Suite 3048
Dallas, Texas 75207
US
214-800-5999 Fax: 214-800-5998



Registration Service Provider:
The Planet Internet Services, Inc., support@theplanet.com
214-782-7800
This company may be contacted for domain login/passwords,
DNS/Nameserver changes, and general domain support questions.


Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 15-Apr-2007.
Record expires on 04-Apr-2007.
Record created on 04-Apr-2003.

[MrQ]

You need to ring them and find someone at the top of the chain. Don't engage with some teenager in customer support for this.
I would personally be threatening legal action and looking to re-claim the lost revenue. I'm sure that would get thier asses moving.

[KNau]

Having a lawyer draft a letter will usually do wonders for the speed of customer service. It costs a bit of money but then so does waiting for the problem to work itself out.

[princec]

Having a lawyer draft a letter will usually do wonders for the speed of customer service. It costs a bit of money but then so does waiting for the problem to work itself out.

Hm, I don't realistically earn enough money in a month to actually cover a lawyer's time...

Cas :)

[spellcaster]

Simply using the word "lawyer" or "legal action" in the conversation might help. You loose both sales and prestige, esp. since a squatter is using the web-space right now.

[MrPhil]

I don't think so. I go straight to internic for my main domain. I have no idea how that happened, but there is no intermediary and I have to actually send a signed piece of paper on headed company paper (snigger) if I want something changed, which I very rarely, if ever do.
Its way more convenient having an intermediary, but you run the risk of cas's problems.
So I did some poking around and this is what I learned. ICANN (http://www.icann.org/) is the oversight body that “is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's system of unique identifiers.” They then give responsibility for top level domains to company’s. For example .com is run by Verisign who manages the ICANN-accredited registrar’s transactions for those domains. These company’s then have reseller agreements with smaller companies like namecheap.com.

Here is the list of who runs which domains and who is accredited http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

So I guess the safest and least amount of middle men would be to use an ICANN-accredited registrars. I did notice Go Daddy is an accredited registrar, so that might be an option for some.

It comes down to reputation, relationship and features. I like namecheap.com, and haven’t had any problems with them. One of their great features is they allow you to have a balance in your account that you can setup to automatically renew domains with. So I always have a small balance and make sure all my domains have the auto renew setting on. Ah… worry free.

Jack Norton’s advice of signing up for ten years is solid.

[MrQ]

Hm, I don't realistically earn enough money in a month to actually cover a lawyer's time...
Cas :)

You need to ring and talk to someone up top, you should be a bit more assertive with this! Even threatening legal action will (and rightfully so by the looks of it) increase the prioriety of your matter. Some lawyers will give you advice for free.

[george]

yes as the others said it looks like it's being parked by tucows until its renewed, thank goodness it doesn't appear to be stolen...

this is exactly why i decided to register my most important domain names with a reliable registrar with 24 hour telephone tech support, like register.com ... sure they are more expensive but IMHO it's worth it (plus you can find some discount codes easily by searching google.) but either way the extra $20-$30 a year you have to pay is worth it... godaddy is another good one (and extremely cheap) if you don't want to pay the premium price of other domain registrars like register.com and network solutions... forget domain name resellers (especially those without telephone tech support!!!)

good luck man...

[DanMarshall]

Would it help if everyone here sends them an email telling them to sort it out?

Once they've had a hundred, they might sit up and take notice...

I will. What's the address?

d

[jankoM]

I will too, just PM me the email if you don't want to posti it publicly.

[princec]

A quick update: I just sent a Word letter with a scanned drivers' license attached to it to admin_support@opensrs.org. They want some sort of govt. photo ID linking me with Shaven Puppy Ltd (my company, which owns the domain) but of course no such ID actually exists in the UK. I can't believe this doesn't happen more often. Hm. I've asked them to email and phone me if there is any problem. I wonder if they'll bother.

Anyway, they say it takes 2 days to sort out. Fingers crossed.

Cas :)

[cliffski]

Would it help if everyone here sends them an email telling them to sort it out?

Once they've had a hundred, they might sit up and take notice...

I will. What's the address?

d

I'm up for that too if you think it might help.

[Bad Sector]

I'll send them an email too...

[FreshlySqueezed]

I too, will stand shoulder to shoulder in calling them useless twats.

[MrQ]

I'll give em a spam too if needed :D

[DanMarshall]

What's happening with this? Did we win?

I see you're up again. Are you charging them an extortionate amount of money for the downtime? I know I would.

[jankoM]

wow... Puppy has risen back from the grave... I just hope it's not in pet Pet Sematary's way ;)

[electronicStar]

Happy PuppyGames return day everyone.

[Jamie W]

Congrats on the restoration of your site Cas. Hope you can somehow secure your URL better in future!

[Jack Norton]

Just follow my (and others) advice... register it for XX years (where XX is > 5). At least for some years you're safe :p

[arcadetown]

Just follow my (and others) advice... register it for XX years (where XX is > 5). At least for some years you're safe :p
No way! Then we'd miss our yearly bit of excitment around here.

[princec]

well, seems to be up since I got back from Madrid.
Same time next year I guess... ;)

Cas :)