

Support EFF: Move Your Domain Day on Namecheap (1/22) - ted0
http://www.namecheap.com/2nd-moveyourdomainday.aspx

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paulgb
Namecheap is still a good registrar (I've been with them for nearly 7 years),
but they've gone downhill a little lately. I see more ads than I used to when
I go to change a DNS setting, including ones that look like application alerts
but are really ads for hosting or SSL certificates.

~~~
derefr
I had the same experience with Namecheap--I frequently have to change my
records, but it was a deep dive past a lot of layers of fluff to get to that
part of the control panel each time I wanted to do it.

Oddly enough, though, the process became a lot more pleasant when I began
using CloudFlare, purely as a side-effect: my domains are still _registered_
with Namecheap, but since CloudFlare requires you to host your DNS records
through them to do their magic (I grumbled at the time, I admit), you do all
your little zone-record edits through their DNS control panel instead. And
it's a _nice_ control panel. Now I only have to deal with Namecheap when I
actually need to renew/buy/transfer something, which seems about right.

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ameen
Not many know about <http://www.badger.com>. What I love them is that they're
a no-frills registrar. Been pretty happy with them.

P.S. Most of their front-end code is on Github.

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omervk
I'll just put this here:
[http://plaintextoffenders.com/post/39285063264/namecheap-
com...](http://plaintextoffenders.com/post/39285063264/namecheap-com-domain-
name-registrar-they-sent)

~~~
tamar
Hey omer - I'm Namecheap's community manager and just want to clarify some
things:

I investigated this as soon as it was brought to our attention a few weeks
ago. First, this is NOT Namecheap's control panel. This is Kayako, our support
system, and only is created when one does not have a Namecheap account.
Therefore, your account data on Namecheap is completely secure.

Second, as soon as we were alerted to this being an issue, I brought it to
Kayako's attention. They replied and told us that the information is stored in
a hash.

More info in these tweets:
<https://twitter.com/Kayako/status/288304914151661568>
<https://twitter.com/Kayako/status/288305161737220096>
<https://twitter.com/Kayako/status/288306260644880384>

We value customer privacy and security and hope that Kayako will resolve this
as soon as possible.

------
arn
Still hoping/waiting for some sort of two-factor authentication at Namecheap.
They don't offer it yet.

They suggested they were looking into it in 2011, but nothing yet. GoDaddy
offers it. :)

~~~
tamar
It'll be ready soon.

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corford
Damn. I just moved 4 domains to them earlier today, would have waited if I'd
had known about this.

In case it's useful for anyone else, I moved them because they're currently
running a promo for transferred domains where they'll throw in a years whois
privacy for free and a discounted SSL cert.

~~~
tedivm
You could always donate two to six dollars to the EFF directly for the same
effect- or round up to $10 just to one up them.

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kylemaxwell
I still have a domain or two on GoDaddy that I keep meaning to move. This is
the impetus I needed, I think.

~~~
benesch
Namecheap is a decent registrar, and I'm glad to see they support a free and
open internet.

But if you want a _good_ registrar:

[1] <https://iwantmyname.com>

[2] <http://www.gandi.net>

iwantmyname has a refreshingly clean interface and absolutely no frills.
Register a domain (tons of TLDs), set DNS. Done.

gandi claims it's a "no bullshit" registrar. More features, like auto-setup of
vanity nameservers, but less focused on domains.

Both better than all the alternatives. You pay ~$5/year extra for the lack of
features (how ironic), but it's well worth it. No intrusive interstitial ads,
no sad excuses for DNS managers, no cluttered control panels, and no constant
upsell attempts.

~~~
dangrossman
Gandi is a little _too good_ for those of us running anything other than a
comment-free religious blog.

The contract you agree to when purchasing a domain legally binds you to
observe, uphold, and enforce on your visitors a code of ethics. That code
involves, among other things, fighting "deviant uses of the internet" and
"protecting public order and good moral standards". That's just the beginning
of your extensive moral policing duties should you not want to give Gandi the
right to steal your domain from you at any time.

Good luck explaining that your post about hacking on a Raspberry Pi is not the
type of hacking they prohibit you from discussing using a domain you purchased
from them. There's virtually no way to run a forum, blog with open comments,
or anything else enabling user-generated content without breaching your
contract.

I'm not making this up. I think their "no bullshit" policy is marketing
bullshit considering the actual stuff they put in their TOS. The terms are
ridiculous for the service they're providing -- commodity domain registration,
which is the updating of tiny records in a database at Verisign. Read it
yourself:

[https://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.3-EN....](https://www.gandi.net/static/contracts/en/g2/pdf/MSA-1.3-EN.pdf)

~~~
benesch
While in practice I don't think it'd be much of an issue, that's really scary.

Thanks for pointing that out.

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rmccue
Unfortunately, doesn't include .io domains. Anyone know a good place that
handles those?

~~~
colmvp
I personally like: <https://www.gandi.net/>

~~~
benesch
See dangrossman's comment below. [1] (I was shocked too.)

iwantmyname [2] is great and supports .io registrations, but you'll pay a
little extra for the clean interface.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5085850> [2] <http://iwantmyname.com>

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codequickly
I've transferred about half of my domains from godaddy to namecheap at the end
of last year. It looks like I have a great excuse to transfer the rest of them
now.

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subsystem
Would love to switch, but for some reason they don't allow whois privacy on
.ws domains, unlike a number of other registrars.

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lucian1900
There are other good registrars. I use Gandi.

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electrotype
How much will be the renewal fees?

~~~
dangrossman
$10.69/year for .com without a coupon. It's a fair price for working with a
good company that's stood up for its customers in court, whereas a certain
top-selling budget registrar frequently does the opposite.

<http://www.namecheap.com/domains/domain-pricing.aspx>

