what a great topic since ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers) just met to discuss almost this exact issue! There is
currently a lot of debate over future nomenclature policy, methods of
allocation, and overall logistics. For a listing of the current 'root'
servers head to www.wia.org/pub/rootserv.html. I believe most of them are
in the USA with a dozen or so total. There is currently debate over who
can act as a registry server and the methods in which they do it. A lot
of this is a little fuzzy at the moment from what I have read.
ICANN is proposing two new
domains: www.icann.org/yokohama/new-tld-topic.htm while DNSO proposes
many more: www.bc.dnso.icann.org/approav5.doc
just FYI since it was being discussed, sure you ISP'ers out there know a
lot more on this topic-comments?.
/frank :-)
> However, if you were a trusting soul, you would hope
> that whoever inherits the domains a registrar
> registered would honor whatever agreements the
> original registrar had made (probably mandated by law
> anyway). Obviously, the only utility that exists in
> prepayment of any sort (since there is no price break
> here) is convenience (and not having to remember to
> pay your bill for the next x number of years).
>
> In any case, doing just about anything on the Internet
> is a matter of trust. No matter who you register
> with, there is no guarantee that they won't take away
> your domain next week anyway (see
> http://www.politechbot.com/p-01285.html).
>
> Regarding cost, domains next year could also be more
> expensive. For example, what if the kind souls who
> run the root servers suddenly decide they need to
> recoup the cost of hardware/bandwidth related to their
> service, and charge a surcharge $2.00/year per server
> for all new registrations. Suddenly your $12 domain
> costs $32.
>
> All in all it comes down to who you can trust.
>
> And as an aside, i would agree that registering a
> domain for 10 years is a bit silly anyway. That is
> equal to a century in Internet time, so who knows if
> you would even care about that domain 5 years from
> now...
>
> -r0
>
> --- Bob Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Radix Zero wrote:
> >
> > > Registrations are running about $12/yr now, and
> > you
> > > can prepay all the way up to 10 years. I've used
> > them
> > > in the past and they're pretty good.
> >
> > Why would you want to prepay 10 years?
> >
> > 1. Next year, domains may be a lot cheaper. I mean,
> > really, a domain
> > is about 1K of bits on the root servers' disk.
> > How much does 1K of
> > disk space really cost?
> >
> > 2. Most of these registration companies are only a
> > few months old.
> > Will they be there in 10 years? Will your
> > registration be
> > correctly passed to somebody else if they fold?
> >
> > --
> > K<bob>
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED], http://www.jogger-egg.com/
> >
>
>
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