Domainz takes flak after server failure

By ADAM GIFFORD

The web site for Domainz, the company which administers the .nz top level domain, was out of action from Sunday afternoon until late yesterday morning because of a hardware fault at Wellington internet service provider Actrix.

Actrix marketing manager Steve Ritchie said a ram card in a Hewlett Packard server failed about 2 pm on Sunday. A spare sent from Auckland by hardware supplier Trilogy was the wrong model, and the ISP had to wait until the next morning before the correct card arrived.

Mr Ritchie said Actrix's mail services were restored within two hours, but web sites hosted by Actrix stayed down until about 10.30 am.

The problem was seized on by some in the internet industry who disagree with the way Domainz and its parent, the Internet Society of New Zealand, are going about taking over responsibility for the .nz registry from Waikato University.

But Domainz chief executive Patrick O'Brien said most major registrars had links bookmarked directly to the university site and were unaffected.

Peter Mott, from Auckland ISP 2Day Internet, said he found it extraordinary an internet infrastructure provider could put itself in a position where its site was down for so long. While 2Day's automatic domain registration systems interfaced directly into the university server, once the system switched over in May it would be totally reliant on Domainz.

Mr O'Brien said the new system would be run on mirrored servers in Auckland and Wellington, so there should be no down time.

Mr Mott has developed a business registering names, and claims to be the largest registrar behind Xtra.

He said the system developed by Domainz and its site developer, Advantage Group subsidiary Glazier Systems, was unnecessarily complex and would be expensive for ISPs and customers.

"Name registration isn't core business for most ISPs, so they don't get excited about this. They just want to interact with the registry in a cost-effective manner, but we are a registrar so we want to compete directly - we want the same access to the database Domainz has.

"If you want to register a name you must go through an ISP or Domainz, and Domainz manages the database, so sets the terms and conditions of service and the price," said Mr Mott.

"We want to offer different things and we want to reduce the price to a third of what it is now.

"What we don't want to do is continue to be an agent because the new system is more complex and they are insisting on having a customer account for every domain name registrant, and they will charge a fee for setting up the account."

Despite setting up a consultation process, Domainz had not listened to industry concerns.

Mr O'Brien said the solution Domainz was putting in place would allow registrars to write directly into the database to keep the domain registration details of their customers up to date.

When he had tried to visit Mr Mott recently to discuss the changes, "I was thrown out of his offices."

Ninety-five per cent of names in .nz were registered through an ISP rather than directly through Domainz. "If you go to their sites you will see each one has a different pricing model and services offered, so for Peter [Mott] to say there is not a competitive marketplace is rubbish."