Parava Networks and DropLimited.com get the boot.
It’s all over for Parava Networks, a domain name registrar that manages valuable domain names such as Marc Ostrofsky’s MutualFunds.com.
Yesterday ICANN sent a termination notice (pdf) to Parava, notifying the registrar that it is losing its accreditation. Parava received a breach notice in February for failing to pay its fees, not escrowing whois data, and not taking steps to correct invalid whois information.
Parava’s 36,000 domain names are now up for grabs to another accredited domain name registrar. ICANN says it has procured the whois information for the domain names, which should ensure a smooth transfer. Nevertheless, I’d be concerned if I had domain names such as Consulting.com held there.
ICANN also terminated its contract with DropLimited.com of Louisiana. DropLimited.com received a breach notice on February 4 for failing to escrow its whois information.
Most whois data for popular top level domain names such as .com is held by the registrar, not the registry (VeriSign). So terminating a registrar that isn’t properly escrowing its whois data means some domain names may be at risk.
Jamie Zoch says
I’m glad I had my friend transfer out CCCP.com from Parava just before this happened! I hope he doesn’t have “others” with them, as this is likely to get messy for some domain owners.
D says
Verisign should change whois to same system as .org uses
MonikerPrincess says
This is horrible news for Parava however if anyone is looking for a new home for thier domain names feel free to hit me up about Moniker!
Thanks
~Bari
Steve M says
Oh, Bari…you sharp-eyed thing, you. 😉
Internet.bs Corp. says
really too bad for Parava and we have also tried to contact them offering our financial help but no answer. If you do not feel comfortable with them anymore do not hesitate to have a look at Internet.bs Corp. we hold many valuable domains and not a single issue with our customers.
Thanks,
Marco
Bill Platt says
I am affected negatively by the Parava termination, in that I cannot post DNS updates at all, so my 36+ domains are all unreachable at this point in time.
Icann has been little help in letting me know how long it will take to move to a new registrar, so that I can get my sites back online.
If anyone knows the answer to this question, I would appreciate the feedback.
Justin Godfrey says
I received this response from ICANN today:
Dear Justin:
Thank you for contacting ICANN regarding your domain names. Consistent with ICANN’s De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure http://www.icann.org/en/processes/registrars/de-accredited-registrar-transition-procedure-01oct08.pdf, ICANN is vetting potential registrars that are interested in managing the domain names managed by Parava. In the coming days ICANN will announce the name of the gaining registrar and all of domain names managed by Parava will be transferred to the gaining registrar. The gaining registrar will contact you directly and provide instructions regarding what you need to do if you are interested in transferring your domain name to another registrar. Please wait patiently until this process is completed and the gaining registrar contacts you.
Thank you for your patience.
Regards,
ICANN Services
Bill Platt says
I received the same notice on Friday of last week.
My concerns remain two-fold. In the sentence:
In the coming days ICANN will announce the name of the gaining registrar and all of domain names managed by Parava will be transferred to the gaining registrar.
What does “in the coming days” actually mean? Does that mean this week, next week, or in the next three months??
My bread-and-butter sites are down completely during this transition, because I am unable to update my DNS settings.
My server was moved to a new ip, so all accounts I have on the site are inaccessible and my email is bouncing.
Hence the second concern. Unless ICANN returns to the Parava whois to see recent updates, ICANN will not be able to reach the email address that was on my domains at the time they originally pulled the whois data off of Parava’s whois server. The email address originally listed in my whois records has been disabled due to the fact that I cannot update the dns records on my account.
I am concerned that they will only use the original email address I had connected to my whois, and that email address in unreachable.
Philip Dhingra says
I spoke with Stacey Burnette who was referenced here:
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/burnette-to-valdes-09apr09-en.pdf
She said all our domains were transferred to tucows.
I’ve been trying to get ahold of tucows to no avail.
Philip Dhingra says
Just spoke with a live person at tucows, apparently our domains are at hover.com now (tucows is just a reseller).
Andrew Allemann says
I’ll have the official word on this later today.
Philip Dhingra says
Cool, glad you’re on top of it!
Andrew Allemann says
Here’s the deal
Monkey says
Lost several hundreds usd, is anyone who feel like me that ICANN should take over their site? parava is STILL using the site to promote…… other tricks!
http://www.web-app.net/?Hosting_and_registrar_fraud_by_Parava_Networks/&action=viewnews&id=76
My suggestion to anyone with such issues, to demand the cash back via the credit card company they would sue the hell out of these cheaters from parava networks.
Monkey says
by the way, I was a bit suspicious about the guys from hover.com and tucows, but now I have renewed my “suddenly” expired domain for 5 years with them, I am happy that hover.com is not exploiting the mess and the situation to earn more on us whom been cheated for hundreds of usd.
SHAME ON THOSE CHEATERS FROM PARAVA NETWORKS FROM 10-DOMAINS.COM stealing money from the poorest internet users, whom else would have dare registering a domain name with them.