Hi all,

My dad had a domain with uk2.net and after the 2 years he didn't want to pay their ripoff prices for things like banner removal, dns management etc so he let the domain expire.
UK2.net said they would hold onto the domain for 30 days then it would be available to re-register... well it is now 2 months and they are still holding onto it.
I have emailed their hostmaster and nothing. No telephone number to call them.

Any ideas what I can do to get the domain name back?
I feel they are holding on to try and get me to re-register with them - something dodgy is going on.

A few years ago, my dad wanted a domain name for his new business - we looked at one name (an obscure one) and looked at it a few times. UK2.net then registered it for themselves!
We were livid!

Anyway - if anyone has any advice, I would appreciate it.

James

YES!

That is exactly what they did with myself too!

I stand by you in what you say, about 2000 right?
or just before? Yep, they registered domains that people were looking up on their system, for themselves.

Thus I forced them to do so until they would stop, think I pissed them off!:D

I think it was automated by the way. Obvious checking measures employed.

:D

Yepperz

Around Feb 2000 :)

They are EVIL wankers!

James

You should probably contact Nominet directly.

http://www.nic.uk/

-t

yep, they are crapo!

I would definately suggest contacting Nominet direct, they are pretty helpful and will do all they can to rescue the domain for you.

http://www.nic.uk/

Is the domain actually detagged or is that what you are waiting for??

Thanks

it's detagged - but not released - so it is unregisterable.

James

AFAIK

If it is detagged then UK2 have disowned themselves from that domain name.

Therefore you would just need to contact Nominet and deal with them and because you were the original owner then you could just get it transfered to another domain hosting company.

Basically once it is detagged UK2 dont control it

I might be wrong, but it is worth just phoning up to find out

Thanks

Hello
There is absolutely no evidence that UK2 have monitored whois lookups and registered domains to themselves simply because they were checked for availability.

I can be 100% certain of this because there are no recorded incidents of them attempting to sell any domains which were already regfistered.
None that I have ever heard of or found documented anywhere.

This myth came about by people not reading the .uk whois correctly.
When it says "Registered By UK2NET"
it means they are the registrar not the owner.

Eventually it got into the whole net mythology thing.
If you look at it from a business perspective if they registered every domain checked throught heir system at £5 and didn't attempt to sell them they would basically be losing money.


Gordon

Hmmm well it was deffinatly fishy. The domain was something like safetyman.co.uk (don't think it was that - was 2 years ago) or safety-man.co.uk.

We looked up the domain via UK2.net about 4 times in 2 days. Then WHACK - it was taken by someone with the IPS tag UK2NET.
What are the chances of that happening?

I checked their site a month or so later and it was still pointing to UK2's holding page.

James

As they were the biggest registrar of .uk domains at that time and domaisn were selling like hotcakes then its not surprising it was registered through them by someone.
It would then have pointed to their default holding page.

If you know the domain name you can look it up and see who owns it.

As I said, there is no evidence of UK2NET trading in domain names that are already registered.
It just would not make sense for them to register names like this unless they had an outlet for them which they do not.

Gordon

They DO have a domain name auction site though.


James

For use by other people.
They (as a company) do not trade in domain names.

The whole thing is a myth.
Understandable when you consider the rate at which domain names were being registered 2 or 3 years ago.

Thanks anyway Gordon.

I just got off the phone to Nominet and I have to get my dad to send them a letter with the new IPS tag etc and they will remove it.

Thanks everyone

James

GordonH

I am not going to debate with you on this, one statement this is it.

cmon, I go to one registrar and can check domains fine, I went to uk2 and they get taken by uk2 within 24hrs, thats not like the domain blahblah.com, we are talking anything that was looked for, eg i8f7890k89w3489d5k0q34785.com

That is how you make money, if they did have an auto script its no wonder they SOLD so many domains, and probibly raised their share price so they can get all the raqs they claim to have.

Absolute repeatable pattern.

There are myths and there is what I saw happen with my own eyes.

End of subject for me.

OK, time to set the record straight. I'm the UK2.NET Senior Developer, I saw the URL for this forum advertised on Usenet, and I've been ego-surfing for UK2. And I'd like to reply to some of the comments. This is in a purely personal capacity, but with a fair knowledge of UK2's systems.

WildWayz: changing nameservers is now free with UK2. I wish we'd have publicised it more - as it is, the announcement went out with a newsletter that was mostly talking about Valentine's Day cards - but there you are. Slightly less of a rip-off, I'd hope.

Also for WildWayz: if we detag a domain, all that means is that we don't want to have anything to do with it any more. Nominet detag it after a *random* period, to avoid cybersquatters grabbing expired domains. This isn't something we control. If you want to lose your domain, fill in the form on the back of the certificate you got from Nominet saying you wish to surrender your domain. Alternatively, if you want to move it somewhere else, ask your new tag-holder; they'll contact Nominet, and after you've told Nominet, via snail-mail or fax, that you want to move to them, everything should be fine.

I've also heard the stories about UK2 registering any domain that was searched for, on the grounds that it was popular. If that was true, a whois search would reveal that asdljkgasldkjasd.co.uk was owned by UK2. Well, it isn't taken, and we're still in business. Draw your own conclusions.

(People searched for 40,000-odd domains that weren't taken *yesterday*. That's a minimum of £800K per day that we'd have to spend. Even if you restrict that to dictionary words, it's still huge. *Think*, people.)

As for raising the share price by having large numbers of domains registered, that would indeed be a viable short-term strategy. Except that, er, we're not listed.

Hey, anything to get you on WHT! :)

nice to meet you, hope your stay is a happy one...

UK2.net,

Although I edited this post before and changed it appoligising to you, I have changed it back, because I have nothing to appoligise about, also, I siad Id back the other dude up, well...

Now, your a Senior Developer, take a look at my posts, (search icon at btm of post). You will see im not intensionaly nasty, I have a thing about false advertising, I try to help folk where possible but am still learning.

I have no reason either to make anything up or lie about anything I post, apart from to the "Telecoms finance dept who I always owe dosh", if its wrong, I try to appoligise.

Given that it has become a "myth" and that you have not gone out of business, and that the domains in question were owned and registered by uk2.net, I would suggest you have a closer look

I don't know, could it actualy be a technical fault? This seems realy fishy to me, I saw what I saw.

Could someone have been playing games with your reg system, like can "someone else" eg tap kid, be sitting on a UK ISP router, seeing a domain request, go with false card through NSol, reg a domian "fully" in "your companies" name. How much room is there for an opposition company that wants to piss you off / mar your rep. All they have to do is tap and trap uk isp packets to your box. Now given that some UK ISPs give unlisted public services* to network operators :) Could this have happned?
If something like this has happned then it could happen to any sellers, it is a dangerous trick that could potentialy ruin a company.

Disgruntled customer? By the amount of bad posts in this forum about UK2.net, I think this is an area you should maybe look into.

Im not saying your company is at fault, I am saying there is a problem and you should look at it with both eyes open.


Caveat Vendor

PS. If you do want to investigate it I will get for you what info I can to help.

*If you need to ask, dont. I found it by myself and am keeping stump!

:confused:

Well said Sam,
The "UK2NET buy domains if you search for them"
has become a real urban myth.

However there is some truth in the financial side.
Companies who have a transfer out fee are worth:
number of registered domains x transfer fee
because if someone bought the company there would be that amount of income even if all the registrants transferred away.

Companies DO borrow against that potential value to fund expansion,
but of course I am not saying that UK2NET do.

Gordon

I am in the process of doing dealing 100+ domains that have been dettaged from UK2.net.


Once they are detagged you will need to fax Nominet with list of domains and request for ISPTAG to be transfered to your new domain registrar, 123reg.co.ul etc (ISPTAG = HOSTEUROPE)


The problem you then have is that the admin email is set to nominet email or uk2.net email so you can't authorise transfer of domain, i am waiting for Nominet to get back to me about this, but if i get no joy i can fax 123reg.co.uk with request to change admin details.


If you are unsure email Nominet, expect a wait of 5 days for reply.


If you .com or .net you will have to set up a joker.com account with the email you gave as contact when you 1st registered domain, then keep checking you joker account to see when it is released by uk2.net you can then renew it, make your sure you change contact emails and check every day, i lost one good domain because i was not qucik enough to renew, .co.uk are ok as they are held for a while before being released as free.


good luck.

see my previous post please.

I don't particularly understand why 123reg insist on emailing the admin contact before they'll set the domain up on their system. I mean, at that point, the domain is on their *tag*. They're the only registrant that insists on jumping through these hoops.

Well, OK, they might be concerned that once a domain is on their tag someone who wasn't the owner could move it in to their system before the rightful owner managed to get there, and thus gain control over the domain, but a) if someone tries to do that, he's not the rightful owner, can be kicked off, and 123reg have his credit card, and b) we've never seen that happen, even though that could happen in our system.

As for registering domains that people search for, I am pretty damn sure that it's not happening at the moment, because whenever we order a domain for ourselves we get an email sent to all the developers, and I've only seen UK2-related ones since I've been working for UK2 (which is a year and a half now).

Now, there are stories of this happening in the distant past, and I can't honestly say whether they're true or not, but I *do* know that it's not happening now, and hasn't happened for a while.

I registered two domains with UK2.net one domain has become detagged and the other is nearly ready for renewal. I am very unhappy with the service offered by UK2.net and I think that their way of doing business is quite crafty but hey, it's a capitalist world :(

I dislike the way I have to spend £19.99 to move my domain away from your servers when it doesn't actually cost you anything (apart from lost revenue). I also dislike the way that domains are paraded as being only 1p per month or whatever when you should clearly say on the front page that other fees do apply, when I registered as a newbie I was obivously far to naive to realise there was no such thing as a free lunch and now I want my domains back. :bawling:

Is 123-reg.co.uk a good company to move my domain to from UK2.net if all I want to do is point it to my site's nameservers?

123-reg.co.uk is good so far, so is ukreg.com
No hidden costs either

James

Originally posted by Gadgy
YES!

That is exactly what they did with myself too!

I stand by you in what you say, about 2000 right?
or just before? Yep, they registered domains that people were looking up on their system, for themselves.

Thus I forced them to do so until they would stop, think I pissed them off!:D

I think it was automated by the way. Obvious checking measures employed.

:D

That's not news, Network Solutions has been doing that for years.

Originally posted by skington
Nominet detag it after a *random* period, to avoid cybersquatters grabbing expired domains. I've also heard the stories about UK2 registering any domain that was searched for, on the grounds that it was popular. If that was true, a whois search would reveal that asdljkgasldkjasd.co.uk was owned by UK2.

1. Who gives you the right to call people that register EXPIRED domains "cybersquatters"? That's nonsense. It's the same like saying you are not a real programmer because you don't program in Assembly.

2. Give me a break, some argument! You can easily skim through all the garbage and pick the domains that stand out - usually creative names. Just because "asajdjdsjshdgd.com" was not registered by UK2.net does not prove the point.

Network Solutions was doing the same - at least from 1998 to 2000 as far I personally can confirm.

WHAT EVER YOU DONT MOVE THEM TO EASPSPACE LIKE I DID!!!:kaioken: :kaioken: i looked afther registering and i gotta pay £25 to MOVE IPS TAG :( that realy really sucks!

123-reg.co.uk is good so far, so is ukreg.com
No hidden costs either

James

What are you on about? 123reg advertise 39p domains and ukreg advertise 49p domains.

Now you would'nt expect a hammer to be advertised in B&Q for £3, but then when you go to the check out get charged £10!