[gnso-pednr-dt] another real-world example of PEDNR problems

["Mike O'Connor" <mike@xxxxxxxxxx>]

wow.  that last thread was tasty.  thanks folks -- i think the conversation is 
really useful.

OK, for today's conversation-starter here's one based on personal experience.   
i'm going to leave his name and domain-name out of this discussion because he's 
a moderately well-known public figure in the US and i want to respect his 
privacy, although he's given me permission to share his name if people really 
REALLY want to know.   but, if you find out, please keep his name and domain 
off this public list -- he's purchased the privacy service from the registrar 
but it's taking a long time for it to kick in and his contact info is out there 
in the breeze on WHOIS right now.

my friend registered his name (a single-word generic dot-com that would 
probably fetch 4-5 figures on the aftermarket today) through his ISP in 1994 -- 
long before the era when WHOIS privacy services were perfected and offered by 
registrars.  in an effort to protect their clients' privacy, the ISP used their 
own hostmaster email account for all the contacts and used the generic word as 
the contact name (rather than my friend's real name).  so the whois data looked 
kinda like this;

Registrant:
GenericName
ISP Address
Big City, Zip
US

Domain Name: GENERICNAME.COM

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact:
GenericName  hostmaster@ISP's-domain.com
ISP's Address
Big City, Zip
US
ISP's-phone-number

all went swimmingly until this last round of renewals.  one weekend several 
months ago my friend noticed that his web page and email had failed.  his 
original ISP had gone out of business so, when he called his current ISP they 
said "everything looks OK from here" meaning that he was paid up with them and 
that *they* hadn't taken his web page and email down.  the current ISP's 
weekend support person didn't think to look at the WHOIS entry for the domain.  

after some head scratching, my friend called the registrar (again, during the 
weekend) and explained the situation.  the registrar customer-support rep 
explained that his domain had expired and entered the ARGP -- and that because 
his name didn't appear in the WHOIS record, there was nothing the rep could do 
about providing access to the account controlling the name.  the rep was very 
sympathetic though and offered a 2-week temporary extension of pointing the 
domain back at my friend's web and email servers to provide a little time to 
sort things out.  soon thereafter, web and email started working again.

the following Monday my friend called the registrar again and began the process 
of trying to validate his identity in order to gain access to the account that 
controlled the domain.  unfortunately, this proved to be impossible since his 
name didn't appear anywhere in the records for the domain and the ISP who had 
acted on his behalf was out of business.  the rep at the registrar was 
sympathetic but unable to offer a solution, even after my friend had faxed 
various forms of documentation linking himself with the name.

at this point, many registrants would have been out of options.  the domain 
would have gone into auction and probably fetched a handsome price given that 
it's a one-word dot-com generic that has a fair amount of traffic.  
fortunately, my friend knew that i was interested in domain names and called 
me.  even more fortunately i knew somebody at the registrar who was in a 
position to help escalate this situation and resolve the problem.

i am happy to report that my friend was able to hang on to his domain, and that 
i have been amply rewarded for my efforts with a delicious box of chocolates.  
but i offer this as a real-life situation in which the registrant, a 
sole-proprietor, would have lost his domain were it not for extraordinary good 
luck.  

mikey


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