Some time ago Xavier Media acquired a few domain names at Snap Names (not a big deal at all). The domain names are still in our account at Snap Names and today I got 4 emails reminding me to verify the registration data. This is because Icann requires you to review your address information to make sure you have to correct data in the whois records.

The weird part in all this is the registrars mentioned in the emails from Snap Names. As you may know Snap Names have partnered with a few registrars to make it possible to snap names as soon as they drop and when I got xavier-media.com some time ago that name was registered via Snap Names at MELBOURNE IT, but the registrars for these four names are:

Mypreciousdomain.com LLC
Imminentdomains.net LLC
EUNamesOregon.com LLC
DomainsAreForever.net LLC

I got curious and looked them up in the whois databases (since they all got domain names in the company name) and these are the results:

Domain name: domainsareforever.net

Registrant Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent

PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O domainsareforever.net
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Administrative Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent ()
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4256960234
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O domainsareforever.net
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Technical Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent ()
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4256960234
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O domainsareforever.net
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
pdns1.oregonnames.com
pdns2.oregonnames.com

Creation date: 12 Jan 2006 23:14:17
Expiration date: 12 Jan 2009 23:14:17

All four got name servers at oregonnames.com, are pointing to the same IP, are registered via Enom the same year (2006) and are using the same proxy whois . I continued by looking up oregonnames.com:

Domain name: oregonnames.com

Administrative Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent ()
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4256960234
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O oregonnames.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Technical Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent ()
+1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4256960234
PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O oregonnames.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Registrant Contact:
Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Whois Agent

PMB 368, 14150 NE 20th St - F1
C/O oregonnames.com
Bellevue, WA 98007
US

Status: Locked

Name Servers:
pdns1.oregonnames.com
pdns2.oregonnames.com

Since oregonnames.com also used proxy whois that was a complete dead end .

All domain names got a web page promoting manage.snapnames.com selling .com domain names at $100 000.00 per name which makes me think that they don’t want any customers at all .

The big question now is simply: what the heck is going on? Does anyone know anything usefull about these mystery registrars?

My guess is that they are connected somehow to the big failiure when .EU was introduced…… but that’s just my guess.

The sunrise period for the .ME top level domain has started and will end on the 20th of May 2008. A sunrise period is when trademark holders can register their trademarks as domain names in a new top level domain like country code domain .ME.

After the sunrise period closes, domain names requested by multiple trademark-holders will be auctioned between the requesting parties.

Dot ME is the new top level domain for Montenegro which used to be a part of Serbia and Montenegro with .YU as top level domain. The .ME registry is operated by University of Montenegro on behalf of the government.

After the 17th of July the registrations will be open to anyone and not only trademark holders.

If you would like to pre-register your own .ME domain you may do so at eXavier.com for 5 or 10 years at the time.

We have some news from the hosting part of Xavier Media at eXavier.com.

.ws transfers

If you’ve registered a .ws domain, the Web Site domain, at someone else you can as of now transfer it to eXavier.com for as low as $9/year.

Upgraded hosting plans

We’ve upgraded the hosting plans so now you got 10 Gb web space for your files! You also get 300 Gb transfer, 500 email accounts, $20 Google® AdWords® Credit, $25 Microsoft® adCenter Credit and much more for only $3.99/month ($3.40/month if prepaid 36 months). All our hosting plans include Google Webmaster Tools. For a full list of all features, please visit eXavier.com.

Expanded Email for Hosting and WebSite Tonight(R)!

We are just about to start updating Shared Hosting and WebSite Tonight plans with new email storage limits that include more flexibility than ever. All customers, including those with free add-on plans, will have expanded storage limits AND they’ll be able to allot the storage space to the email accounts at their discretion.

The new storage limits will be:
Economy Shared Hosting: 100 email addreses with 100 MB total storage
Deluxe Shared Hosting: 500 email addresses with 500 MB total storage
Premium Shared Hosting: 1000 email addresses with 1 GB total storage

Economy WebSite Tonight: 1 email accounts and 100 MB email storage
Deluxe WebSite Tonight: 200 Email Accounts and 500 MB email storage
Premium WebSite Tonight: 400 Email Accounts and 1 GB email storage

Upgrades should be complete for all users by mid-March.