.ca dn registration - any recommendations for inexpensive registration?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org>

| On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, Peter Armstrong wrote:
| 
| | > --- Leigh Honeywell <nyetwork-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
| | > > On 12/13/05, Scott Elcomb <psema4-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org>
| | > wrote:
| | > > > Netfirms charges $9.95/yr -
| | > > http://www.netfirms.ca/domain-names

I just tried to transfer my .com registration to them.  After spending a
couple of hours at this, I have decided not to do so.  Here is a
summary of my adventures/discoveries.

- for some reason, my FireFox thought the page was UTF-16 and showed
  Han characters and hex in boxes.  I told it "UTF-8" (View:
  Character Code: UNICODE (UTF-8) and all worked.  Odd!  No idea why,
  so I don't know who to blame.

- their web page did not work the way it was documented to (this may be
  related to something I discovered later).  In particular, their
  article http://support.netfirms.com/article.php?id=33 says to "begin
  the signup process at http://www.netfirms.com" whatever that means.
  The next line may be the answer: select a hosting plan.  But I don't
  want any hosting, so it is hard to choose a plan.

- tech support pointed me at a page.  I think that it was not the
  correct one since the prices were US$ whereas netfirms.ca has
  prices in C$.  But I use it anyway.

- I am asked to specify my domain name, select "DNS Transfer", and
  press search.  (A tech support person agreed with my suggestion that
  I really should select "Registrar Transfer" instead; the web page
  description for each is essentially identical.)

- when I clicked "search", all I got was that the domain "is
  unavailable".  Makes one kind of sense: I already own that domain.
  But in another sense it doesn't: I'm asking for a transfer.

- after talking to tech support for a while ("live chat" and by phone)
  it turns out that their account names are "domain names" (not
  really, but that is what they call them) and someone else has
  created an account with them with the name of my domain.  Yikes!
  BTW, they told me his email address -- perhaps they should not have.
  Maybe Nepalese privacy laws are weaker than ours (his email address
  ended in .np).

- BTW, "live chat" is a bit like "half-dead chat".  Lots of delays in
  responses.  Fine.  But when I go away for 5 minutes, they terminate
  the call.  On the other hand, they do answer the phone and don't
  seem to be clueless call-centre types.

- They will not evict the guy from the "domain name" that is the same
  as the domain name I own.  Even though the can see (from whois) that
  I do own it.  I guess that it wouldn't upset me nearly as much if
  they called them "account names".

- The upshot is that I cannot create a "domain name" (account name)
  with the name of my domain.  The confusion of terms makes the
  conversation sounds a bit like "Who's on first".  I asked if I could
  create the "domain name" ibm.com to create a login and they agreed
  that I could if it isn't taken (I doubt IBM uses them).

I take all this trouble as a warning: what's life going to be like
with them after the marriage?  I'll go elsewhere.

Now I'm open to suggestions.  I want to renew a .com.  My current
Registration Service Provider is getting out of the business.  I want
no hosting: no mail hosting, no web hosting, and most of all, no DNS
hosting.  (Sales people at netfirms.ca *seemed* to understand this.)
Actually, I would accept hosting if it were on my terms (like, for DNS
hosting:  that they accept zone transfers from my machines), but that
is unlikely.

I like paying as little as possible, for no good reason.  The couple
of hours I spent with this so far is an example of why price isn't
everything.

One thing that I liked about netfirms.ca is that they are a Toronto
company.  Oh well.
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