linkagogo.com back or not?

Yesterday I received an email from RegisterFly, the domainname provider that manages the linkagogo.com domain name, with a confirmation that they had unlocked the linkagogo.com domainname and provided me with an authorization code. I should now be able to transfer the linkagogo.com domain to another domain name provider and activate the linkagogo.com domain again.

I feverishly started the transfer process on Godaddy, first initiate the transfer process by having Godaddy send an email to the email address of the linkagogo.com administrator. This used to be a registerfly admin address, but since the domain was now unlocked I could update it with an email address I had access to. A few seconds later the email arrived in my inbox. It contained a transaction id and a security code, which I had to provide back to Godaddy for the next step to authorize the transfer. Godaddy then asked for the transfer authorization, which I now had from registerFly. And the transfer was now started.

The transfer can take upto 7 workdays. But since I had already “waited” so long, these few days would not matter; I had seen this work with other domains that I had transferred. However this time I got an email within a few minutes stating that the transfer could not proceed since the status of the domain name is “Pending Delete”. I then contacted Godaddy and Verisign (who is the actual executive administrator for ICANN) and they both said they can do nothing and that only ICANN can provide the order to change that status. So I send an email at ICANN with the request to change the status in such a way that the domain can be transferred. Waiting for that now, they normally responds very quickly, but are covered with red tape.

I am so disappointed, all these organizations all making money of our domain names and noone really able to help you. And now despite paying all this money I run the risk that someone else grabs my domain name I will have to spend more money to get it back. Fortunately I own the linkaGoGo trademark and it should be easy to get it back according to some documentation I read.

So for now we keep operating under the linkagogo.net domain name.

GoGolian

RegisterFlies

I thought I kept myself well informed of trends and news on the Internet, but now I feel like a dummy, a moron, not in touch with reality. Today I ran into a website called registerflies. This is a website dedicated to people who are victimized by RegisterFly. RegisterFly is the registar who managed the linkagogo.com domain. From reading this site I understand this may affect upto 2 million domain names.

I can’t believe after looking at this website and the stories of all the folks that are victimized by registerfly, that I only found out this week what was going on. The sad part is that there will still be people who won't know and will buy new domains or renew their domains and lose their money.

I placed calls, send email, filed support tickets and the result so far is zip. Noone can help me at the moment to regain control over the linkagogo.com domain.

- Registerfly does not respond on my emails, calls or service tickets.
- ICANN forwards my complaints to RegisterFly
- Other Registars like GoDaddy can only help when RegisterFly cooperates.
- Dyndns.org who did the naming service for linkaGoGo says that ICANN is no longer pointing traffic at linkagogo.com.

ICANN apparently filed a lawsuit against RegisterFly to handover all the domains and contact information, so that the can hand it over to another Registar to clean up the mess. If none of the other actions taken succeed, this may be the last resort.

So while this is going on decided to move the whole website over to linkagogo.net. So at least it is accessible for existing members. At the moment there is a mass mail running to inform all the linkaGoGo members of this change. I included a link to opt-out if you are not interested in that kind of information.

Since our regular support email does not work, made the support@linkagogo.net available. Also if you have problems getting your ‘Add to linkaGoGo’ buttons to work you can find the updated ones under Options / Setup.

GoGolian

Where is linkaGoGo?

Yesterday I got a warning from our server monitoring service Hyperspin that the linkaGoGo website was no longer accessible. So I checked it out by logging into my linkaGoGo account and everything seemed fine. Then a half an hour later I tried it again and I could not get in anymore. I tried various ways to test if the server is up, but it wasn’t accessible. Then I verified if my IP provider was up and it was, then I tried to access the linkaGoGo server by its IP address and that worked. This was very strange basically it meant that the linkagogo.com domain was no longer linked to the server.

So after some research I found out the naming servers, basically a phone directory to look up an ip-address based on a hostname, for www.linkagogo.com were saying that the domain name registration was expired. This did not make sense as I just renewed it at the end of February. So I went to my domain registar, which is RegisterFly.com, and it said that the domain expired February 2008, so I had almost a year to go. A bit puzzling was that the NameServer information was empty. So I contacted the RegisterFLy support by phone, and through their online helpdesk and so far no response.

So I googled RegisterFly and then found out that on March 17th it lost its accredation from ICANN. ICANN coordinates the Internet. RegisterFly can therefor no longer operate as a registrar. This meant the linkagogo.com domain is being handled by an organization that is no longer allowed to manage domains. There is even a webpage at ICANN devoted to the “RegisterFly” issue. ICANN sued RegisterFly to handover all the domains to protect the domain owners and promised that expired domains will not be made available to other parties

So where does this leave linkaGoGo? Well first of all I’m trying to get control back of the linkagogo.com domain by transferring it to another registrar like GoDaddy. This is handicapped by the fact that I need some kind of authorization code from RegisterFly, which I haven’t been able to get from RegisterFly yet.

For linkaGoGo users there are a number of options to still access their favorite bookmarks manager. Other tips are welcome as well.

The easiest way is to add two entries in your computer’s host file. They look like this:
38.113.6.51 linkagogo.com
38.113.6.51 www.linkagogo.com
On Windows you can find the hosts file in the directory called: c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc.

We also own the www.linkagogo.net domain, which you can use to access linkaGoGo. So to access your bookmarks, go to www.linkagogo.net and login to your account. This is the same server that operates www.linkagogo.com.

Alternatively you can just type the linkaGoGo ip address in your browser’s address bar. The linkaGoGo ip address is http://38.113.6.51. And then login into your linkaGoGo account.

As soon as I have more news I will update this GoGolian blog, if you have any questions or remarks you can comment on this post or go to the linkaGoGo forums.

I have had some challenging times with linkaGoGo but this one seems to be the biggest challenge so far. And this case it is not in my hands. But we will overcome this one as well, it may slowdown the growth of site for a bit, but we will be back. Actually we are still here but temporary have a different phone number :-) http://www.linkagogo.net

GoGolian

linkaGoGo search plugins for Internet Explorer 7

I like to use the Firefox browser. And off course I installed the linkaGoGo Smart Bookmarks Search plugin. See also an earlier GoGolian article called “A linkaGoGo command line in your browser”

Most of the modern browsers now have a search box on the top left toolbar. Many of them allow you to plugin custom search engines; Firefox was the first one I think, followed by Opera. And now Internet Explorer 7 also has one.

So I decided to make two search plugins for Internet Explorer. They act and behave the same as their Firefox counterparts. They are different from Firefox in the way they get installed. The Internet Explorer once can be installed from any linkaGoGo page by clicking on the dropdown button in the Search toolbox on the top-right of the Internet Explorer browser.

One of the plugins does a regular search on your linkaGoGo favorites. It is called linkaGoGo Favorites Search. This plugin will search all your linkaGoGo favorites with the search terms you provide.

The other plugin is my favorite and is called ‘linkaGoGo Smart bookmarks’. With this plugin you basically get a linkaGoGo commandline in your Search box or location box as it works in there as well if you have the ‘linkaGoGo Smart bookmarks’ plugin as your default plugin. For instructions to use your Smart bookmarks see the GoGolian article above. You can find more information about the linkaGoGo plugins on the linkaGoGo addins page.

With the tabs and now my favorite search plugin available in Internet Explorer I may even consider switching back.

GoGolian