Outage Brings Down 50 Domain Registrars — SnapNames Server

Outage of (perhaps only one) server takes down 50 registrars.

A reader just informed me regarding an interesting situation affecting regarding 50 ICANN accredited registrars. If you visit any of the 50 domain registrars you will see this error message:

Downtime Notice

We have been dealing with a major hardware failure that has necessitated replacement of hardware and restoration of data. This is a long and tedious process and is expected to finish around 08:00 AM GMT on March 12. We are doing everything we can to bring the system up as soon as possible and will keep you posted.

Rest assured that all operations will resume normally as soon as we are online again.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

All of these registrars appear to be owned or operated by SnapNames. And, given the error message and nameservers for all of these domains, it’s possible that all 50 registrars are hosted on one server. [Update: a bit more research shows that Directi is managing the back end on these registrars for SnapNames.]

The whois information for the registrars I checked are mostly privacy protected, but a historical whois look up at DomainTools connects the dots to SnapNames. The sample I checked have historical records showing the domains are owned by SnapNames. They also point to the nameserver ns1.oregondomains.com. SnapNames is based in Oregon, and a historical record for OregonDomains.com shows that it is owned by SnapNames. One of the domains is registered with SnapNames and does not have a protected whois record.

Another irony? The most of the domain names are registered at eNom, which is co-owner of SnapNames’ rival NameJet.

But perhaps the biggest question when sifting through these registrars is “who came up with all these registrar names?”

adomainofyourown.comÂ Â Â Â Â
allearthdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
atomicdomainnames.comÂ Â Â Â
baronofdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
beartrapdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
belmontdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
biglizarddomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â
bullrundomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
compuglobalhypermega.comÂ
deschutesdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â
domainamania.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
domaincomesaround.comÂ Â Â Â
domaininthehole.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
domainparkblock.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
domainsails.netÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
domainsalsa.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
domainsareforever.netÂ Â Â Â
domainsinthebag.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
domainsofcourse.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
domainsoftheworld.netÂ Â Â Â
domainsouffle.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
domainsoverboard.comÂ Â Â Â Â
domainsurgeon.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
europeanconnectiononline.com
eurotrashnames.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
finduaname.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
findyouadomain.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
frontstreetdomains.comÂ Â Â
godomaingo.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
gozerdomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
gradeadomainnames.comÂ Â Â Â
interlakenames.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
microbreweddomains.comÂ Â Â
namearsenal.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
namecroc.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
namefinger.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
namepanther.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
namesalacarte.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
octopusdomains.netÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
oldtowndomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â
oregoneu.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
pdxprivatenames.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
pearlnamingservice.com
portlandnames.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
protondomains.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
savethename.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
sitefrenzy.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
snappyregistrar.comÂ Â Â Â Â Â
soyouwantadomain.comÂ Â Â Â Â
thirdfloordns.comÂ Â Â Â Â

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