Third-level .name domains leaves some in a lurch — Discontinuation of

People will soon loses their email addresses and websites.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) is discontinuing third-level .name domain registrations, which will cause pain for an unspecified number of registrants.

The firm told ICANN that regarding 22,000 third-level .name registrations exist, but many of them are unused.

ICANN approved (pdf) Verisign’s Registry Services Evaluation Policy requests related to terminating the domains earlier this year. One registrant filed a reconsideration request, which is on track to be denied (pdf).

While it’s unclear how many people will truly be impacted, the impact is real for those who will lose their domains.

Writing on his personal third-level domain website, Neil Fraser explained how this will affect him.

Fraser registered neil.fraser.name nearly 25 years ago. He uses it for his personal website, email address, and as an API server.

His registrar informed him that his registration will be terminated in February (even though it’s paid through 2040). At that point, he’ll lose both his domain and his email address.

Also, all of the IoT devices using services on his domain will stop working.

Fraser is also worried regarding what happens to the second-level domains upon termination. If they are opened up for registration, someone could register fraser.name and hijack any accounts linked to the address.

“There is no way to enumerate all accounts (online and offline) which have been opened using this email address over the past quarter century,” he wrote.

Indeed, losing access to a decades-old personal email address would be a serious hardship for almost anyone.