Various nominet questions

[Si]

Were you really expecting anything else?!

 

lol - yea, I posted earlier that I expected them to suspend the launch at the last minute (as they normally do with all of their scheduled maintenance updates). Surprised it even went ahead this morning.

 

I would love (dearly love) to hear from people like Othellotech today - he stated here:

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?88807-Various-nominet-questions&p=375091#post375091

 

that he used his own Nominet module and I quote: "don't see....any problem with handling the proposed .uk tld "

Edited June 10, 2014 by Si

[Chris74]

lol - yea, I posted earlier that I expected them to suspend the launch at the last minute (as they normally do with all of their scheduled maintenance updates). Surprised it even went ahead this morning.

 

I would love (dearly love) to hear from people like Othellotech today - he stated here:

http://forum.whmcs.com/showthread.php?88807-Various-nominet-questions&p=375091#post375091

 

that he used his own Nominet module and I quote: "don't see....any problem with handling the proposed .uk tld "

 

We are dealing with these registrations manually and they are not much hassle really as long as you match up the exact details from the original domain. Obviously it's not ideal.

 

I'd like to know who developed the module for that othellotech guy - unfortunately his "input" seems to have been purely to gloat about how he's not affected - while providing no useful info at all.

[brian!]

I'd like to know who developed the module for that othellotech guy - unfortunately his "input" seems to have been purely to gloat about how he's not affected - while providing no useful info at all.

I would imagine that they developed it in-house - they wrote/sell the CentralNIC WHMCS module, so I would assume they are familiar with writing registrar modules.

 

having said that, they currently don't seem to be offering .uk domains through their site.

[Si]

And he doesn't make any effort to be a 'team player' or even make a commercial offering of the 'so called' module.

 

Coming on here as he has, and saying what he has, is a bit like:

I can sell you a 16GB Ram dedicated Server with 1 TB webspace for £5 per year. The problem is, we don't have any in stock

 

IMHO (Happy to be proved wrong Mr Othellotech)

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

We are dealing with these registrations manually and they are not much hassle really as long as you match up the exact details from the original domain. Obviously it's not ideal.

 

Agreed. We're learning all the time today. .org.uk customers cannot register the .uk if someone else owns the .co.uk (So even though the .co.uk owner does not want the .uk domain, the .org.uk domain owner can't register it until 10th June 2019. Contact details, address, tel, email address and the account name all need to be the same. So some customers are going back after the domain is registered and changing their details back again, and triggering all sorts of emails and further validation emails with suspension notification threats from Nominet. NICE

[Chris74]

If the Nominet module was improved to handle these .uk registrations, there would still be a lot of manual work to do. I think the extent of it's functionality would only go as far as to allow the customer to submit a registration for a .uk domain, after them having made the assertion that they own the .co.uk already. We'd still be forced to manually match up the details. Frankly you can do just as much by communicating to the customer what they need to do. I can't see a logical way to handle this via an order form.

[ferahl]

Sorry for the dumb question but what exactly is "account-name"? Really annoying I am trying to add details for .uk and I have no idea what this is, as far as I know I have never entered it when buying a domain. My domains are bought under "UK Individual" and entering my name there tells me it is incorrect.

[Si]

If the Nominet module was improved to handle these .uk registrations, there would still be a lot of manual work to do. I think the extent of it's functionality would only go as far as to allow the customer to submit a registration for a .uk domain, after them having made the assertion that they own the .co.uk already. We'd still be forced to manually match up the details. Frankly you can do just as much by communicating to the customer what they need to do. I can't see a logical way to handle this via an order form.

 

Yes although the problem is, when non-customers (or even customers who have forgotten what you told them) come to your site, and they try to register their .uk domain, they are presented with 'Sorry xxxxxx.uk domain is already taken'

 

So this somehow needs to have something like this uniquely added in the language file for .uk domains:

 

'Sorry xxxxxx.uk domain is already taken' If you already own the .co.uk or .org.uk domain please register as a client (if you are not one already) then raise a support ticket detailing the domain you wish to register.'

 

See, it really is a bit of a mess and cafuffle. Disaster really.

 

 

Sorry for the dumb question but what exactly is "account-name"? Really annoying I am trying to add details for .uk and I have no idea what this is, as far as I know I have never entered it when buying a domain. My domains are bought under "UK Individual" and entering my name there tells me it is incorrect.

 

'account-name' is the registrant name. You can find this by doing a whois search on the qualifying domain. (Remember .co.uk always holds pre-eminence over .org.uk). so if your customer owns the .org.uk and you have entered the correct 'account-name' then you may find that nominet are comparing your entry to the .co.uk domain. Found that one out after about 30 minutes of banging my head off the wall for the same reason. It's been a VERY long day.

[isdoo]

Of course, surely it is not good to switch from co.uk to .uk for google ranking / listing reasons?

 

Having the .uk pointing to the .co.uk might be a better option?

[Chris74]

Of course, surely it is not good to switch from co.uk to .uk for google ranking / listing reasons?

 

Having the .uk pointing to the .co.uk might be a better option?

 

Whether or not .uk is completely pointless, is not really the subject under discussion here.

 

I've found another stumbling block that I wasn't aware of before today.

 

If the registrant of a .uk domain is outside the UK - they cannot use their own address details to register the domain. WHMCS throws back an error from the API. Nominet say that in order to register a .uk domain to a foreign entity, they must use an additional "Service Address" based in the UK. This is something they have added to their API for .uk - so new order form changes would be needed to support this in WHMCS.

 

We are having to manually register these via Nominets website.

[Si]

We just received this from a customer who has received the dreaded validation email from nominet:

 

This is triggered by recent mail from Nominet regarding verification of domain registration contact details.

 

Your own web form for checking or amending Domain Registration details does not operate correctly, or does not match capabilities of Nominet own info form.

 

The details I already have at Nominet are correct.

 

Specifically, you only have a single Street line entry.

Nominet has capability of up to 3 lines; which we use; with extra lines being optional. Nominet then display this in the "normal" UK fashion; comma separated.

 

Your form does not handle this correctly and turns the result into word "Array". It does not display or edit the correct detail so there is a mismatch and the address does not display in your pages.

 

This call for your information only - our Nominet details are correct and do not require editing. Your form we will not be trusting, for the reason stated.

 

I am aware that only STREET1 is mandatory, but full postal address is longer and comma is not illegal character so interpreting this as "Array" is still incorrect.

====================

 

Says it all really, WHMCS. The Nominet module is not fit for purpose. No wonder WHMCS users are seeing their customers receiving these validation emails with the threat of suspension - especially now on the back of the .uk TLD launch. I repeat - nightmare.

 

I have this raised as a support ticket and will update with any information WHMCS provide.

Edited June 12, 2014 by Si

[Si]

Just had this reply back from support:

 

I've been able to replicate this issue on my end as well, and do find this to be an issue within the software. I've opened case # 4524 with our developers in order to have this resolved for future releases. Unfortunately, I cannot provide an estimated time for completion for this. However, once we resolve cases and push features they are available at our change log, here: http://changelog.whmcs.com/

[lance]

Si... With you on this one... Have not responded yet as you seem to have covered everything already.... This needs to be sorted asap.

[ivaserver]

when a registrant gets: Your domain registration - additional action required email from nominet and they go on to validate the address they still get the same email from Nominet next time they regsiter a new domain.

 

This is because each domain registered through WHMCS creates a new nominet account-id even for existing customers.

 

anyone got a work around for this?

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

How are ecredited members validating registrant details to satisfy Nominet rules?

[Gazza]

with the new UK domains, many people who have purchased a .co.uk domain

have got the new equivalent .UK domain name reserved for them

so if you own say example.co.uk you have example.uk reserved for you.

Proof has to be provide that you own the .co.uk, so how do I implement this into WHMCS

so when a customer tries to order a .uk domain they can provide the relative info.

it needs some sort of form that the customer can fill out to prove they own .co.uk

 

hope I have explained that clear enough

 

How have you iimplement this or is it on the WHMCS to do list

 

thank you

[CCSupport]

You don't need to supply any additional information as far as I believe. The company information/contact needs to match the .co.uk though. Apart from the it's a normal registration.

[Si]

with the new UK domains, many people who have purchased a .co.uk domain

have got the new equivalent .UK domain name reserved for them

so if you own say example.co.uk you have example.uk reserved for you.

Proof has to be provide that you own the .co.uk, so how do I implement this into WHMCS

so when a customer tries to order a .uk domain they can provide the relative info.

it needs some sort of form that the customer can fill out to prove they own .co.uk

 

hope I have explained that clear enough

 

How have you iimplement this or is it on the WHMCS to do list

 

thank you

 

Welcome to the ongoing party and the fiasco of Nominet and UK domains:

 

- Link Removed -

 

Theres a lot of reading there for you to catch up on, as well as details of items that WHMCS now have in 'development' or 'fix' mode.

 

Quite frankly, it's a mess. (Both the WHMCS nominet module....which wasn't working correctly before the new nominet validation system, and is now inadequate, and the whole nominet approach to this).

 

They (nominet) were happy to send out an email 2 days after the .uk launch to all tag holders bragging about the 50,000 .uk domains registered on launch day, while seemingly totally oblivious to the manual work put in by the tag holders to make even the submission of those domains possible. They failed to mention how many emails they then sent out stating customers had provided name and address details that they couldn't validate - (partly because WHMCS' nominet module doesn't allow for the correct passing of information).

 

New registrations are easy -

apart from the fact that WHMCS passing the registrant information to nominet incorrectly which immediately causes the registration to fail the validation checks nominet are now enforcing. (threat of suspenion and cancellation of that domain if not manually fixed by the customer in 30 days). And no, they can't do that in your WHMCS install, because it is part of the problem.

 

Customer's securing reserved domains - not easy -

Lots of manual work on your part, and if you make changes to the contact details to push the domain registration through, both the qualifying .co.uk domain and the .uk domain will face the above validation email (suspension threat).

 

Result = hard work and customers not happy and all of us nominet tag holders who use WHMCS looking like amateurs.

 

a total mess - and as you will see from the above thread - this was expected, and there were many unheeded calls to WHMCS months ago.

 

============

On another note - if you haven't yet gone through the reclassification process of your tag(s) - just look at the demands nominet are making on that side of things too. I predict a LOT of smaller tag holders throwing in the towel and registering their domains through the big players. It seems nominet have an agenda which is not in the favour of the smaller registrar.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Infopro
Threads Merged Link Removed

[Gazza]

thank you for your explanation

[Chris74]

I thought I heard somewhere that in the 5.3.8 update we were given an option to change the registrant address details for registering .uk domains (where the original .co.uk address details don't match the client details), without having to edit the customer account info in WHMCS. Perhaps I dreamt this.

 

We are still having to change the customers profile details in order to register these domains - I can't see an option in the Admin area to choose a different contact, or change the details without having to edit the profile and then change it back afterwards.

 

The "claim your UK" module is a small step forward in that it allows .uk domains to show up as available instead of not - but the remaining issues are still unresolved.

 

I spoke to Nominet a few weeks ago about how a very large number of their domain registrations will be processed through WHMCS and asked them if they might be interested in developing a module themselves - the answer was somewhat disappointing...

 

I was told that if we didn't have the means to develop our own systems then we should consider becoming a reseller instead of a tag holder.

 

I've held a Nominet tag for over 10 years and I'm quite alarmed that Nominet are so disinterested in helping smaller businesses. They have almost unlimited resources - you'd think if they wrote their own WHMCS module, they could take some big strides towards fixing the data quality problems that arise from poorly developed software like this.

[Infopro]

We are still having to change the customers profile details in order to register these domains

 

Pardon me for asking what may be a silly question, but why wouldn't you consider emailing your UK Clients directly and ask them to update their profile properly to facilitate the need for completed profile details when purchasing a new domain?

[Chris74]

Pardon me for asking what may be a silly question, but why wouldn't you consider emailing your UK Clients directly and ask them to update their profile properly to facilitate the need for completed profile details when purchasing a new domain?

 

It is necessary to make sure that the .uk domain is registered using the exact registration details of the pre-registered .co.uk domain, which invariably is not the information in the client's profile info.

 

Where the client's profile details do not match the original registration details, the only way to get around this is to edit the client's profile to change their details to match - then register the domain - then change their details back again.

 

This happens almost every time.

 

EDIT: I should also add that it is often also the case that the client has updated their profile details periodically, but never taken the time to update their domain's contact details - so in order to register their domain they would need to be aware of this and then change their profile to reflect those old details, before attempting to register.

 

In order for the client to do this properly, they'd have to look at the whois details for their own domain (which may not be available if the client has opted out) and either change their profile, or create a new contact at the time of registration, to match those previous details exactly to the letter.

 

In most cases the client considers that they have not changed their details since they signed up and therefore they don't need to supply different information - but rarely does the info match up.

 

The most logical way to handle this would be to allow the admin to associate a domain with an additional contact from the client's account, but there is no way to do this from the admin side, so the only way to register the domain is to change their details.

 

I also want to add that if the Nominet customer profiles were integrated into WHMCS, this problem wouldn't exist at all.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Chris74

[WHMCS John]

Hi,

The changelog for v5.3.8 is posted at http://docs.whmcs.com/Changelogs so you are review exactly what changes were and were not made.

[malfunction]

Another issue with this module is where a non-UK person/entity attempts to register a .uk (short) domain name. That requires a UK service address in addition to the regular registrant address which may be anywhere. There's no provision at all for this in the WHMCS provided module.