Uniforum problems

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Jonathanb

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When will Uniforum upgrade their systems to something a bit more modern and less of a problem. I have a domain where I am listed as the registrant, technical and administrative contacts. I sent through a change request and they sent the change ticket to not just myself but also webmaster@(myhostingcompany) I initially registered this domain name myself and nowhere is the webmaster address listed. I can only thing they got it from the DNS address details but why would they send the ticket to them when they have nothing to do with this domain name. The reason that I register my domain names myself is so I have full control over them as lots of hosts try to hold people to ransom when they want to move hosting or they are just slack in accepting tickets, lots also make themselves the domain owners. By doing this Uniforum are allowing them to have a say in something I own.

On Friday morning I accepted the ticket but the change has still not gone through and I also sent Uniforum support an email asking why the ticket was sent to the webmaster but no reply. They really need to get with it now.
 
Jonathanb said:
When will Uniforum upgrade their systems to something a bit more modern and less of a problem. I have a domain where I am listed as the registrant, technical and administrative contacts. I sent through a change request and they sent the change ticket to not just myself but also webmaster@(myhostingcompany) I initially registered this domain name myself and nowhere is the webmaster address listed. I can only thing they got it from the DNS address details but why would they send the ticket to them when they have nothing to do with this domain name. The reason that I register my domain names myself is so I have full control over them as lots of hosts try to hold people to ransom when they want to move hosting or they are just slack in accepting tickets, lots also make themselves the domain owners. By doing this Uniforum are allowing them to have a say in something I own.

On Friday morning I accepted the ticket but the change has still not gone through and I also sent Uniforum support an email asking why the ticket was sent to the webmaster but no reply. They really need to get with it now.
Click to expand...

Uniforums new EPP system should be online shortly. It's in beta now and we're testing it out.

As for the email address of your web host, Uniform does get that from the dns zone, specifically the SOA record. The rules say "Contact e-mail - The e-mail address of the person responsible for administering the domain's zone file".

I find it quite unethical for them to not release your domain as you own it, this is quite a common problem though.

p.s at Elitehost don't accept/deny any domain transfers, we only let our clients vote count. We also treat our domains and hosting services separately.
 
JasonH said:
Uniforums new EPP system should be online shortly. It's in beta now and we're testing it out.

As for the email address of your web host, Uniform does get that from the dns zone, specifically the SOA record. The rules say "Contact e-mail - The e-mail address of the person responsible for administering the domain's zone file".

I find it quite unethical for them to not release your domain as you own it, this is quite a common problem though.

p.s at Elitehost don't accept/deny any domain transfers, we only let our clients vote count. We also treat our domains and hosting services separately.
Click to expand...

I take it you work for Uniforum then ?
 
UniForum’s EPP solution is already live

Hi, some further information about UniForum’s EPP solution:

We noticed that another ISP posted that they are currently in Beta with the UniForum EPP solution. DiaMatrix is actually the only company that has officially been approved by UniForum as a Registrar and we are already registering domains on the live whois system using the EPP solution

Over the past 18 months DiaMatrix has developed in conjunction with UniForum a new white labeled Multi Registrar / Reseller EPP Control Panel. Under normal development time an ISP can develop / integrate into co.za at best in about 2-3 months with approximately another 2 months in the “sandbox” before migrating to the live .co.za system.

All things being equal, DiaMatrix can cut that time down for you to become a Registrar dramatically, to be exact, a new Registrar will be able to sign up with us and be live with their own Registrar details in approximately 1 hour using our system on our very generic domain ironically called: www.domains.co.za.
We have just completed the Registrar Technical Accreditation for 2 other ISPs who are going to be using our system and we completed the technical side within an even quicker time of only 48 minutes. (This time excludes the time taken for UniForum to approve you.)

DiaMatrix is in the process of testing an API for ISPs to use to integrate with their own billing solutions.

All domains that Registrars manage via our system will communicate directly with UniForum via the Registrar account details. This way nobody will actually know that DiaMatrix could be EPP solution behind the scenes. All whois data / DNS info etc. on .co.za will only reflect as the Registrars. Please see a live domain registration that took place a couple of weeks ago with the new EPP limited information, this obviously shows DiaMatrix in line 1c as the Registrar, all other current domains reflects UniForum S.A. as the Registrar: http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=gowatch

DiaMatrix became the 1st co.za Registrar in SA to register domains at iWeek and is at this point in time the only company in SA that is already registering domains on the live whois system.
 
HIJACK!!!!!!!!

DiaMatrix said:
Hi, some further information about UniForum’s EPP solution:

We noticed that another ISP posted that they are currently in Beta with the UniForum EPP solution. DiaMatrix is actually the only company that has officially been approved by UniForum as a Registrar and we are already registering domains on the live whois system using the EPP solution

Over the past 18 months DiaMatrix has developed in conjunction with UniForum a new white labeled Multi Registrar / Reseller EPP Control Panel. Under normal development time an ISP can develop / integrate into co.za at best in about 2-3 months with approximately another 2 months in the “sandbox” before migrating to the live .co.za system.

All things being equal, DiaMatrix can cut that time down for you to become a Registrar dramatically, to be exact, a new Registrar will be able to sign up with us and be live with their own Registrar details in approximately 1 hour using our system on our very generic domain ironically called: www.domains.co.za.
We have just completed the Registrar Technical Accreditation for 2 other ISPs who are going to be using our system and we completed the technical side within an even quicker time of only 48 minutes. (This time excludes the time taken for UniForum to approve you.)

DiaMatrix is in the process of testing an API for ISPs to use to integrate with their own billing solutions.

All domains that Registrars manage via our system will communicate directly with UniForum via the Registrar account details. This way nobody will actually know that DiaMatrix could be EPP solution behind the scenes. All whois data / DNS info etc. on .co.za will only reflect as the Registrars. Please see a live domain registration that took place a couple of weeks ago with the new EPP limited information, this obviously shows DiaMatrix in line 1c as the Registrar, all other current domains reflects UniForum S.A. as the Registrar: http://co.za/cgi-bin/whois.sh?Domain=gowatch

DiaMatrix became the 1st co.za Registrar in SA to register domains at iWeek and is at this point in time the only company in SA that is already registering domains on the live whois system.
Click to expand...

Geez what a hijack of a post. Most people know there is a new system coming which is why I made the sarcastic remake about when they will get a new system, only many years after the rest of the world.

My main complaint is Uniforum sending a change ticket to an email that is not listed as a contact and whom has nothing at all to do with the domain other than be the contact for the name servers. That is crazy. Hey stranger do you want to let this person do something with their property is basically what they are saying. Ridiculous if you ask me.
 
Hi Jonathan

Apologies if you think this post was to "hijack", it was not meant to be that way, yes the EPP system has been coming for many years, people have been speaking about it for a long time but not many people know that it is already live. Some companies developing are in various stages of development or testing so far, but the system is already live.

The new EPP system is a dramatic change from the legacy system / email based system, so what you mention above should not happen.
 
JasonH said:
Hello,

Nope, I don't work for Uniforum, we're just part of the test group on the new system for Uniforum.

:)
Click to expand...

Will the new system allow us to change DNS settings more easily? PLEASE SAY YES!!!
 
DiaMatrix said:
Hi Jonathan

Apologies if you think this post was to "hijack", it was not meant to be that way, yes the EPP system has been coming for many years, people have been speaking about it for a long time but not many people know that it is already live. Some companies developing are in various stages of development or testing so far, but the system is already live.

The new EPP system is a dramatic change from the legacy system / email based system, so what you mention above should not happen.
Click to expand...

The email system is stupid and really old but that has nothing to do with the fact that Uniforum are sending change tickets to an email address that is not listed as a contact and is in fact an email address of the person who controls the DNS zone. That is a policy (must be new as it has not happened to me before) and is so wrong on all levels.
 
soa is set on your ns. do a dig and you'll probably see that authoratative contact was set to webmaster@ by domain admin
i've noticed a few .com ns hosting services use admin/webmaster as a default ticket destination to initiate transfer.
so not entirely uncommon.
if there's an issue, perhaps ask you host to update the email on your ns.
 
murraybiscuit said:
soa is set on your ns. do a dig and you'll probably see that authoratative contact was set to webmaster@ by domain admin
i've noticed a few .com ns hosting services use admin/webmaster as a default ticket destination to initiate transfer.
so not entirely uncommon.
if there's an issue, perhaps ask you host to update the email on your ns.
Click to expand...

I know that but my point is that the ticket should only get sent to the 3 contacts and no one else. No one else, including the authorative contact has anything to do with the domain name so why is Uniforum sending them the ticket.
 
Jonathanb said:
I know that but my point is that the ticket should only get sent to the 3 contacts and no one else. No one else, including the authorative contact has anything to do with the domain name so why is Uniforum sending them the ticket.
Click to expand...

The guy hosting the DNS should be informed of the fact that he may no longer be hosting the DNS. He shouldn't be given Accept/Deny rights.
 
T-Man said:
The guy hosting the DNS should be informed of the fact that he may no longer be hosting the DNS. He shouldn't be given Accept/Deny rights.
Click to expand...

Its got nothing to do with hosting the DNS. Its about submitting a channge ticket to change a postal address and the ticket being sent to the SOA contact for the DNS and the fact that it has absoloutely nothing to do with them. Even if I was transferring the domain to another provider, it has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else but the 3 contacts listed ie: registrant, admin and technical contact.

What I am asking is why Uniforum think that they can send a change ticket for something I own and for which I have informed them of the 3 necessary contacts to someone else that has nothing to do with the domain name except provide a service that I pay them for.

I have asked Uniforum the same question but have not had a deccent reply. Maybe it is me who is not clear in what I am saying.
 
So after a lot of emails back and forth with Uniforum not answering why they send a ticket to the email listed in the DNS record suddenly they dont. For the last 4 days I have been trying to change the contact details for a domain and getting a ticket back which was also sent to the DNS contact. I had never had that before (or not noticed it in any case) I was replying to the tickets but was not getting the email saying it was queued for a change and the change wasnt going through. My emails to Uniforum on why the change wasnt going through were left unanswered.

Suddenly today I send another through and what do you know, the ticket is not sent to the DNS contact but just the 3 contacts listed as it should be and I get the domain is queued email. Guess they must have had a problem just not wanting to say so.
 
Of the 200 or so domains that I've registered with Uniforum for almost 20 years now, I must say that I have never experienced having any of the contacts changed without my knowledge or consent. What has happened is that I allowed an ISP to transfer a domain on my behalf because I thought it was worth the hassle for the 30 bucks they charge to do it. Wrong move. They made themselves tech, billing and admin contact, thereby hijacking control. After a call they remedied it, but this is not the norm with many ISPs. It is also, as many have noted, a huge weakness in the current system: that the legitimate domain owner can be excluded from the voting process, and their domain can change hands without their knowledge.

So how did Jonathanb lose his voting rights? I can think of a few ways, but all of them involve some illegal activity like identity theft or fraud. For example: the ISP that hosts the domain also manages the mailbox that was listed for the domain owner (e.g. [email protected]) . When the voting ticket comes thru, a sendmail rule trashes it and [email protected] never gets to "deny" the ticket - heck, he didn't even see it! This, of course, is a weakness in the system, but Uniforum would not be aware of email tampering, and cannot police and therefor cannot act on illegal activity. I don't know if they still do, but Uniforum used to accept faxed/paper update requests on company letterheads (useful for things like deceased estates). This is also an avenue for abuse.

If you feel that someone has illegally gained control of your domain, then go through the change history on the whois record and see when the change happened. If necessary you may need to get your lawyer involved.


Off topic: One of the great things about the pre-EPP system is that it is completely democratic and anyone with R50 can register their own .co.za domains directly with Uniforum. By contrast, becoming an ICANN registrar will cost a minimum of USD6500 and USD4000 per annum, plus USD500 for each additional TLD, a barrier to entry that could easily make it exclusionary and elitist. Perhaps a new thread on EPP and its ramifications would be appropriate.

EDIT: I posted this without seeing Jonathanb's last post. Ignore if you want...
 
Last edited:
@Potion I do agree that it is wrong that ISP's, hosts make them selves all 3 contacts. When I had my hosting company the owner was always the client. Making the client the registrant still doesnt stop the pirate hosts from denying changes till the client has paid fees not due (as someone else posted here) but it also stops the client from being able to move without paying due fees. In a way it is better than other registrar's such as godaddy where it is generally only the host or owner who has a say.

I know the hows, etc my 2 questions are:

1. Why Uniforum feel that the DNS contact should have a vote in changes as all they do is provide the DNS? Surely it should just be the registrant, admin and tech contacts that decide however they might have a reason to think the DNS contact should have a say but tell me why.

2. Why one day they send a vote email to the DNS contact and the next they dont? This happenned to me this week. I am the registrant, tech and admin contact and sent a change of registrant as I sold the domain name. The admin and tech remain me. They sent the voting mail to myself and the DNS contact. The next day I sent another change to ammend the address and they sent it to me but not the DNS contact.

They cant answer me and just tell me they do it when clearly they dont always and dont seem to know why.
 
Jonathanb said:
@Potion I do agree that it is wrong that ISP's, hosts make them selves all 3 contacts. When I had my hosting company the owner was always the client. Making the client the registrant still doesnt stop the pirate hosts from denying changes till the client has paid fees not due (as someone else posted here) but it also stops the client from being able to move without paying due fees. In a way it is better than other registrar's such as godaddy where it is generally only the host or owner who has a say.

I know the hows, etc my 2 questions are:

1. Why Uniforum feel that the DNS contact should have a vote in changes as all they do is provide the DNS? Surely it should just be the registrant, admin and tech contacts that decide however they might have a reason to think the DNS contact should have a say but tell me why.
Click to expand...

as per RFC 1035, section "3.3.13. SOA RDATA format"

RNAME A <domain-name> which specifies the mailbox of the person responsible for this zone.

Jonathanb said:
2. Why one day they send a vote email to the DNS contact and the next they dont? This happenned to me this week. I am the registrant, tech and admin contact and sent a change of registrant as I sold the domain name. The admin and tech remain me. They sent the voting mail to myself and the DNS contact. The next day I sent another change to ammend the address and they sent it to me but not the DNS contact.

They cant answer me and just tell me they do it when clearly they dont always and dont seem to know why.
Click to expand...

This is simple:

dig bookyourholiday.co.za soa

; <<>> DiG 9.7.3 <<>> bookyourholiday.co.za soa
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: SERVFAIL, id: 38083
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;bookyourholiday.co.za. IN SOA

;; Query time: 348 msec
;; SERVER: 206.223.136.205#53(206.223.136.205)
;; WHEN: Thu Dec 1 07:49:39 2011
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 39


ie - your hosting provider no longer resolves your domain so the SOA can't be retrieved.

regards

--Calvin
 
Hi Calvin

Thanks, that answers the second question as to why it wasnt sent to the DNS contact but I am still unsure WHY the person responsible for the DNS should have a say in what happens to a domain name but maybe Im just stupid.

Thanks anyway
 
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