Kicking me on the way out the door, Network Solutions emailed: 'We value your business'
About a week ago I finally moved the cringely.com domain to EasyDNS from Network Solutions, my registrar since 1992. I have written in the past about how much I hate Network Solutions, but this was our final connection and I am now free. But not without them kicking me on my way out the door, crashing this blog for four hours over the weekend.
I began the domain transfer last Monday but Network Solutions, in its infinite wisdom, decided to complete the transfer on June 24, Sunday, at 2:04 pm Pacific time. That’s when they simply shut down my DNS despite the fact that I’m still paying for their service (I’m paid up until November). According to EasyDNS, of all the domain registrars only Network Solutions and GoDaddy drop customers cold like that.
“We value your business” they said in a final message at 2:04 pm.
Yeah, right.
EasyDNS has tech support for six hours on Sundays but I didn’t know the service was down. The service I use to monitor uptime on this blog sends emails when there are problems. But wait, because of the DNS mixup my mail was down, too, so no warnings could get through. Readers couldn’t email me, either, to tell me the site was down.
Finally a reader called me, six minutes after EasyDNS phone support closed for the day.
As a last ditch attempt to get this rag back in print I fired off an email to EasyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic, who called me a few minutes later. Four more calls and my DNS problem was solved for both blog and email, which is through Google Apps.
I don’t know who is the CEO of Network Solutions, but I’ll guarantee you he or she knows even less than I do about DNS. Nor would I get a call from them at home on a Sunday afternoon.
Thanks, EasyDNS.
What I know now but many of you probably knew already is that there is a logical sequence for switching over a domain:
- Copy your server DNS settings
- Set up the name servers at the new registrar with those settings
- ONLY THEN start the domain transfer
I had stupidly switched the domain first then waited like a doofus for something to work or break. It broke.
But it wouldn’t have been a problem if Network Solutions had left the DNS settings up for awhile like every other registrar does except GoDaddy. And it wouldn’t have been four hours of downtime if they hadn’t dropped the records on a Sunday afternoon, which I see as simply mean-spirited.
Some people will say I’m taking this Network Solutions thing too personally. Maybe I am, but I’m glad to be finally free.
Reprinted with Permission