October 24, 2008
Patterico's Pontifications - Possibly "Hijacked"
My pal and erstwhile blogboss Pat Frey has discovered that his domain registrar, 1&1 -- evidently a German company, "1und1" -- is now auctioning his longtime domain name for Patterico's Pontifications, patterico.com... despite the fact that he renewed his registration before expiry:
The company “1&1″ has allowed my domain, patterico.com, to be hijacked.
Look up at the address bar. This is still the Patterico site -- but I no longer have the patterico.com domain -- even though I renewed it before the expiration date. My domain registrar has apparently seen fit to sell the domain out from under me despite my having taken timely steps to renew it.
If they can do this to me, they can do it to you. They can do it to anyone.
I have spent the past couple of days trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, but they’re now selling it off, so it’s clear they’ve been lying to me.
For the nonce, his URL will be http://patterico.net/ -- dot-net instead of dot-com. But you can also still get there via the raw internet address, http://70.32.75.225/ (at the moment, the raw IA redirects to the new .net URL).
He's also seeking lawyers who are competent at web-based litigation.
Let's keep our eyes crossed that this is just some dreadful mistake on 1&1's part, or else that their hijacking can be aborted (whichever turns out to be accurate), and that Patterico's Pontifications may once again return to the patterico.com domain we've all come to know and lob.
Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 24, 2008, at the time of 1:43 PM
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Comments
The following hissed in response by: antimedia
I had something similar happen to me. My domain was registered by my hosting company but put in their name. They failed to renew the domain and so it lapsed. Now the hosting company refuses to let me buy the domain until one year has passed since the last payment. So I haven't blogged in months, because my domain is unreachable and will be until April of next year.
Whether I can purchase it then is an open question. The registrar has been very unhelpful. I sure wouldn't want to buy it from them and get stuck with their lousy system.
The above hissed in response by: antimedia ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://biglizards.net/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
at October 24, 2008 3:26 PM
The following hissed in response by: Voiceguy in LA
I feel sorry for Patrick, but the truth is that 1&1 is a terrible choice and this is truly a case of getting what you pay for. There are far more reputable registrars and web hosts out there. True, they might cost an extra $5 per year or so, but it's silly to penny pinch on this kind of thing.
VG
The above hissed in response by: Voiceguy in LA at October 24, 2008 3:34 PM
The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh
VG:
I know that Pat is down on Hosting Matters because of some serious disagreements they had, but I've had nothing but smooth sailing... and I initiate many help tickets! HM has always been courteous, patient, and helpful to me; they charge $15 per domain per year, plus $11 per month for the account (which includes two working blogs, including this one). I pay extra for significantly expanded disk space, but that's fine with me.
Dafydd
The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh at October 24, 2008 4:36 PM
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