Just the other day I signed up with this company called NameZero. Their site states they will register a domain name for you and semi-host your website in return for advertising for them. Their site definetely said that I would be registered as the owner.

Two days later, I get an email from them welcoming me to thier services detailing my domain will be availabale soon. The next day the domain is registered and working. The advertising I thought was going to be a pop-up or regular banner was actually this really huge frame at the bottom of the screen.

That made me unhappy because one of the browsers I use is not frames-friendly. Then I do a whois search on my domain to make sure they got my information right, and what do you know they went and registered the name under someone else [namezero rep I presume]

Then I email them asking to transfer the name to me agreeing to pay the $35 InterNIc fee and what do they tell me? I now have to pay $15 to them to have it transfered. :(

If I would have known what I was getting into I would have registered my domain with totalnic.net which is real cheap, $35 for TWO YEARS!!

Does anyone know if this company is legal? How can I get my name back from them without have to pay them [I don't want to pay them, they lied to me]

Any suggestions would surely help, thanks in advance.

I'm sorry there is no way that you could have that domain unless you deal with them, since to the registrar, the guy is the real legal owner of that domain. If you decide to register another domain yourself, there's a cheaper place called Joker (http://www.joker.com) which charges only Euro 12 (slightly less than US$12) per year for a domain.

Are Joker any good? Their site looks real cheap. But so do BurstNET and they are good..

I'm just asking this out of curiosity, but what was the domain name? I would like to see exactly how big the ad window is. Thanks!

Brian Farkas

------------------
Web Hosting - Design - Promotion - Programming
InfoStar Web Design - Click Here (http://www.infostardesign.com)

http://www.mrpist.com

I just found out that I won't have to pay both internic and NameZero, but I wasn't the only one confused. Some other person on their message board practically wanted to sue them.

They just change the registrant information I guess, but they told me my domain will be paid for the rest of this year and I only have to pay them $14.95

I won't be billed by internic until 2001. Yay! :)

Wow! The frame is big enough indeed. Why don't you try searching for a better host?

Don't feel sad.. don't worry, be happy! :) I know you can find a good one!

I thought they were just a forwarding service. If you use the little cheat code to get rid of the frame, you're at your current page wherever that might be. The service is nice, but they need to cut the frame down a tad. I've already had to deal with 2-3 people that thought they were in charge of the domain name after signing up with namezero. It really frustrates people. The idea of a free domain name is nice... but the advertising frame just overdoes it and the fact that anyone can make the domain name isn't the best thing for them to have done. True, anyone can make a domain normally through a registar, but when they have to pay it makes a lot of the "Hi, my name is Hallaway and I is learning HTMLs!" pages wait until they know what they are doing before buying up.

I use www.joker.com (http://www.joker.com) all the time now for registrations. Yes, their site looks chintzy, but it works. Domain name registration, though, takes about a day longer (than Network $olutions)to propogate through the system in the U.S. as it goes through CORE in Europe and then to the U.S.

I've used Joker in the past, and they've been fine, but there are hidden costs you should be aware of (transferring costs, etc.) - read the fine print.

I now use weblaunching.net (http://www.weblaunching.net) - $12US/year and also extremely reliable too.

Just so you know, you don't own the domain name:

Domain Name.......... mrpist.com
Registration Date.... 2000-04-05
Expiry Date.......... 2001-04-05
Organisation Name.... NameZero.com
Organisation Address. 51 University Ave-Suite-K
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Los Gatos
Organisation Address. 95030
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... Daniel Hoffman
Admin Email.......... admin@idirections.com
Admin Phone.......... 4083951706

Tech Name............ Frank Stanbach
Tech Email........... memberservices@namezero.com
Tech Phone........... +1 408 395 0426
Name Server.......... green.idirections.com
Name Server.......... orange.idirections.com

I'm not affiliated with Namezero in any way, but I thought I'd mention this.

Two of my coworkers here got their domains through them, so I thought I'd check them out. It's in the fine print (waaaaaay in the fine print) that states, once you cut through the legal-sounding bull, that whatever name you register, they own it.

There IS that fee to transfer owners, but of course, that takes forever to actually get done (I tried transferring ownership of my domain from myself to my company...it took three weeks to find out that I missed a line in my form....:mad :).

Personally, I'd pay the extra money to legitimately register a domain for myself, go with a redirect service and save myself a lot of hassle.

Originally posted by upset:
The advertising I thought was going to be a pop-up or regular banner was actually this really huge frame at the bottom of the screen.

That made me unhappy because one of the browsers I use is not frames-friendly
Does anyone know if this company is legal? How can I get my name back from them without have to pay them [I don't want to pay them, they lied to me]

Any suggestions would surely help, thanks in advance.[/B]

If you email me, I will tell you how to get rid of the frame at the bottom of your page. Actually very simple.

:angry:
One of my fellow bandmates registered the domain for the band through NameZero. He is a keyboard player, not a computer dude. Long story short, we got busted for using the banner killer and upped to the plus support. By doing so, yes, it cost us I think $25.00 ( I had the keyboard player (Band) pay for it) I was able to get listed as the Administrative contact.

I have been fighting back and forth with them for over a year to make simple changes. 6 months to get the account directed to another ISP (Different DNS entries). Everytime I call, they try to log into my account and their backend system is down. This is the same story for about 4 months now. Since I am officially the Administrative contact, I am switching to another Registrar. I am holding my breath to see if it works.

Technically, I am the adminstrative contact, but Namezero registered it, so they have to use their account at Network Solution (at least that is the line they told me) to make modifications to update the domain record.

The frustration is that they are not very well coordinated with NetworkSolutions. NS says it's NameZero's problem, NameZero says it NS problem. And so the world turns. Hopefully within the next few days, I will be in control of my Domain record!

I had trouble with them when they first opened like 2 years ago, I had them register a name and was told the same thing, that I would own it. Their contact info was the only one on thee and I had to pay to get the name back and it took many months, I wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole now.

You guys should check everything related to domain registration, hosting, servers, etc., HERE, before you make the decisions. :D

Everybody should know by now, when NameZero registered a domain for you for free, they own the domain, even when they put frames on your domain.

There are a lot of cheap domain registrars:
000domains.com
registrar.godaddy.com
registerfly.com

Go to your registrar of choice and initiate a transfer. NetSol will get the request, and if you are the admin contact, you will be asked to confirm.

You can check to see if you are the admin contact in your whois record.

-t

Just a friendly moderator footnote, thread dates wayyyy back to 04-07-2000 so don't reply to people's questions/comments from before the current posts.

i use a company called domainpeople.com.

they will even host a 1 page business ad for you into you get a better site. if your host ever goes down or tries to hold you ransom you just sign up with another host, log into your domainpeople account and point you domainnames dns to the new servers. 2 days later you are back to 100%

Neo

Once I almost purchased a domain from them. Liked the name...still do. But don't like it well enough to deal with the contrived way they do business. Read the agreement. Ran away as fast as I could. They also said they had it sold to someone else for less than they asked me...a lie...I don't like lies...And they still have the domain...many months later.

anyone everdone a search on a domain name to see if its free to find out it was not, the look up the registra information a couple of days later to find it was purchased 2 days prvious by the people who you used the search engine from?

be afraid, be very afraid!!!!

Neo

Originally posted by Neo
anyone everdone a search on a domain name to see if its free to find out it was not, the look up the registra information a couple of days later to find it was purchased 2 days prvious by the people who you used the search engine from?

be afraid, be very afraid!!!!

Neo
Do you have a real world example of this? Or is this just idle speculation?

-t

without slandering anyone, no... sorry.

but a couple of years ago a freind of mine was looking to buy a domain name for a motobike club. he done the search and it was available, we searched for a host the next day only to find the domain name was no longer available..

strange we thought so he bought the .co.uk equiv, we looked up the .com domain a couple of days later and it was a company selling domain names. strange thing was they were slightly more expensive than purchasing one not in the list. guess someone at somepoint must have wanted it.

Neo

p.s. dont want to get in a long debate overthis, im sure the company you run is reputable enough not to try tactics like this, but there are others who would. just thankful they are few and far between.

Originally posted by Neo
[clip]p.s. dont want to get in a long debate overthis, im sure the company you run is reputable enough not to try tactics like this, but there are others who would. just thankful they are few and far between.
I'm not interesting in getting into a debate over this either, don't worry :).

There was a long discussion over on SitePoint about this and so it's something that does get my attention.

-t

Do you have a real world example of this? Or is this just idle speculation?

I do! I do!

Back in the day, when NameZero actually gave their promised free domain names (Yes I actually ended up getting one) I thought about getting my name.com so I used their whois utility and found it available. According to their rules I could only have 1 free domain, so i registered my other URL with them and figured I'll get myname.com through someone else a little later.

Well guess what? exactly 4 days after I used their whois utility, my name.com was registered by none other than idirections(their parent company). No i have to wait until june of this year to register it myself because the company wants $60 to give it to me....that is cybersquatting, isn't it?

Originally posted by akashd
[clip]Now i have to wait until june of this year to register it myself because the company wants $60 to give it to me....that is cybersquatting, isn't it?
You might have a case there if you want to push it with ICANN.

I'd love to see someone with proof of this push it and get any Registrar or Reseller banned who practiced this.

This kind of behavior marks people as the lowest of the low in my book.

-t

Originally posted by akashd


I do! I do!

Back in the day, when NameZero actually gave their promised free domain names (Yes I actually ended up getting one) I thought about getting my name.com so I used their whois utility and found it available. According to their rules I could only have 1 free domain, so i registered my other URL with them and figured I'll get myname.com through someone else a little later.

Well guess what? exactly 4 days after I used their whois utility, my name.com was registered by none other than idirections(their parent company). No i have to wait until june of this year to register it myself because the company wants $60 to give it to me....that is cybersquatting, isn't it?

What sounds quite familiar... it happened to me too.

go here: http://www.domainsnext.com and transfer your domain to yourself. No mess, no hassle. Then avoid namezero at all costs.

hope that info helps.

ochiba

First off you wont get the domain in your name until you upgrade to the plus membership. They have you in thier clutches. No biggie will cost you a little bit of money . Upgrade and then transfer the the domain to a different registar. Unless the bar is just the problem, then just upgrade and you can make it go away. I speak from expeirence.....been there, done that.

Originally posted by djlightning
First off you wont get the domain in your name until you upgrade to the plus membership. They have you in thier clutches. No biggie will cost you a little bit of money . Upgrade and then transfer the the domain to a different registar. Unless the bar is just the problem, then just upgrade and you can make it go away. I speak from expeirence.....been there, done that.

The incident I spoke about happened a while back... I simply ended up grabbing the .net version of the domain instead and use an alternate registrar now.

Dotster.com only charges $12/year for domain registrations. That's who I use to register all of my domains.

I've been using Joker.com for years now, and never had any issues. Great registrar if you ask me. :)

Not only do you have to upgrade to the Plus package, but you also have to wait 60days before you can transfer out!

Here is the info right off the namezero site:

Q: If I decide to transfer my domain, what do I need to do?

A: Because Namezero offers such a wide range of services, most Namezero members will never consider transferring their domain name to another registrar. However, Namezero understands that some members may have reasons for wanting to change registrars at some juncture, and we are happy to assist you with your transfer. To transfer registrars, you must be a Plus member. This means that if you are currently a member of the free service, you will need to upgrade online.
Upgrading your domain can be done from the Namezero control panel at any time. In the process of upgrading your domain, you must also update the "whois" record found on the "offers" page in the control panel to list yourself as the administrative contact for the domain name. Once you are listed as the administrative contact, you can make an electronic request from your new domain host and they will e-mail you to authorize the transfer of registrars.

Please Note: If the domain name has been registered less than 60 days, there is a sixty day waiting period during which the original registrar is unable to perform any transfers of the domain name. Namezero follows this procedure to protect your domain name(s). We cannot authorize any online transfers sent directly to
us by other domain hosts.

If you need additional assistance or information, please see the Namezero help section, mail the Plus Support Team using the dedicated form in the Help section, or call the Plus Support telephone line. The number is found in the control panel of your Plus domain.

The 60 day wait is actually an Registry restriction, and no one can transfer from any registrar within that window.

-t

i used namezero about a year ago durring there 19.90 buy 1 domain get a 2nd free special
and transfering out was a horror

i used www.verycheapdomains.com

took about 1 week but all i did was enter a transfer to them from verycheap domains and was pretty easy to get out of namezero

i will never use them again it was horrible

I am getting ready to transfer some domains away from NameZero and you people are scaring me! :bawling:

Here's hoping I get lucky and get away from them once and for all! :D

My transfer took about 2 weeks to go thru. Mentioned earlyer in the thread. dotster.com is they way I went for the transfer. Took about 3 days to get all the little emails completed and the rest was on Namezero's end. But I did email namezero and asked them first about their side of a transfer process. If you have the domain in your name ( meaning you have Plus Membership ) you can email them and tell them that you want to point it to another nameserver(s) and give them the nameserver(s) address. Being that they are your registar, they are obligated to comply with your request. I did not go this route, but this is what they told me.
:)

I am completely green and more than a bit confused. Why wouldn't you use register.com for registering a domain name?

You could use register.com, if you wanted to pay $35/yr. for some thing you could get for $9-$15 anywhere else. Personally, I'd save yourself a bit of money and ask for suggestions (or search the forum, as it has been discussed before).

I used Godaddy.com, great support and domains are only $9.95/year!

What is the concensus on domain resgistration providers? apparently, register.com is a rip off at $35/year. What does everyone recommend? I have read many of the posts, but I cannot figure out which provider is winning.

I have chriswalsh.cc registered at namezero - cost me $10 so I thought is want too bad. Trouble is, they want someting like $30 to renew it and I dont know any other company that does .cc

Anyways, for my .com and .net s, I use www.powerpipe.com at $8.88/year - I've been using them a couple years now and the first trouble I've ever had with them was this last weekend (theres another post on this) but I'm sure it will be resolved quickly :)

Not mentioning that my credit card number got stolen and there was a $1400 charge put on it - right after I submitted my credit card number to Namezero :( Strange, ah?

Originally posted by Chiessa
I'm sorry there is no way that you could have that domain unless you deal with them, since to the registrar, the guy is the real legal owner of that domain. If you decide to register another domain yourself, there's a cheaper place called Joker (http://www.joker.com) which charges only Euro 12 (slightly less than US$12) per year for a domain.

NameZero = NetworkSolutions = VeriSign = rip off :angry:
I once ordered a domain from them and did not get it + it was charged TWICE too. After complaining it got charged TWICE again! After calling the FBI in Washington - USA, wasting a lot of phone units talking with an agent from the Internet Fraud Department which could not help me much though, I decided to shut down my credit card realizing that they are REAL CRIMINALS!

Don't use joker.com, they are totally inflexible, demanding WRITTEN mail snet to them to carry out orders. I used them, almost went nuts and then switched to dotdealers.com who are higly flexible and forthcoming. And they are only 1$ more expensive then the cheapest on the net (namecheap.com) but their flexibility is REALLY worth it! I have about 70 domains with them (!).

Regards

ShareFile raises a good point, we're talking about a range of a few dollars between registrars. You gotta do a decent volume to really see a price difference between $9-$13 per domain, so if you find a registrar you like, it might be foolish to chase one that saves you $0.43 :-)

I am a happy customer of Joker.com though. Used them for two years and I have needed their email support twice in that time. I always got an answer in a day or two, which for a registrar is good enough for me. However, there is no doubt their interface just.... feels "bad" until you get used to it. Also they do seem to be the strict type, probably not very flexible.

I always use selectmydomain.com

Well... I've got my fingers crossed at the moment.

I initiated the transfer of a domain from Namezero to Namecheap last night... still haven't gotten any correspondence other than a Namecheap receipt

Fingers crossed here as well. I initiated a transfer from NameZero to StarGate. I received approval from Network Solutions, but i have yet to hear a peep from NameZero. :uhh: I am hoping the authorization from NetSol is all I need...

All right, my transfer from NameZero to Stargate completed today. Apparently the authorization from NetSol was all I needed as I didn't hear anything from NameZero at all.

*Happy Happy* :D