Steven Smethurst

Steven Smethurst

Steven Smethurst is a Vancouver based Maker, Hacker, Coder, Artist, and all around great guy!

Domain names and registrar

1 minute read

Domain names and registrar

Currently I am using 6 different registrars for 100+ domains that I have registered over the years. All these different accounts on different registrars with different interfaces, make it annoying to update and keep track of everything, especially when I need to renew all my domains.

I’m in the process of consolidating all my domains and moving them to a single registrar.

Requirements

  • Supports TLDs: .com, .ca.
  • Less than $20 a year.
  • Whois Privacy
  • 99.9% SLA uptime (Yearly: < 8h 45m 57.0s of down time)

Nice to have (In order of importance)

  • Non-US data storage preferably Canadian - With all the revelations about the US NSA, NSL etc.. I would prefer not to do business with a US based company if I can help it. My preference for Canadian is only exists as it makes it easier to deal with them legally incase I have to.
  • Two factor authentication preferably using Google authenticator - Two factor authentication makes me feel better about storing all my domains in a single place. In theory it should make it harder for people to steal my domains incase I am targeted by an directed attack.
  • DNSSEC - Prevents DNS poisoning and adds more security
  • Supports .io domains and other exotic TLDs - I don't need them right now but I might in the future.
  • IPv6 Support - I don't need it now but it might be nice to support it in the future.
  • 99.99% SLA uptime (Yearly: <52m 35.7s of down time) - Not that it matters too much but I do like companies that can keep their servers up and running.

After researching and asking the VHS mailing list I came down to this short list of registrars. I am currently leaning towards Gandi.net

  1. Gandi.net- Good: Supports exotic TLDs, DNSSEC, Two factor authentication, $15/yr, Non-US (French), 99.99 SLA,
  2. EasyDNS.com - Good: Non-US (Canadain), DNSSEC, IPv6, 99.99 SLA, $15/yr (Recommented to me by several people) Bad: No Two factor authentication.
  3. name.com - Good: IPv6, Two factor authentication, Supports exotic TLDs, DNSSEC Bad: US-Based (Denver, Colorado)

 What registrar do you use? and why? 

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