Major company can’t get domain names to resolve without www.

Last week I went to payroll processor Paychex’s web site, typing Paychex.com into my internet browser. After a few seconds I got an error message “Network Timeout. The server at paychex.com is taking too long to respond.”

The problem? I didn’t type in www. before the domain name, and the company hasn’t set up its servers and DNS correctly to handle this. It’s a simple thing and only takes five minutes. But by not setting it up correctly, customers think the web site is down. For a transaction oriented web site such as PayChex, this is a major no-no.

I sent a message to Paychex via Twitter and received a response that it would “pass that suggestion to our web department”.

Thanks, but calling it a “suggestion” is the wrong term. Someone on the web team should have fixed this yesterday. Pick up the phone, call the CTO, and get him to fix it. It’s still not fixed at the time I’m writing this.

Do you know of other major web sites that haven’t set up their servers/DNS to resolve correctly?

SnapNames auction ends today; more auction activity in the weeks ahead.

SnapNames’ first “Showcase Auction”, a new monthly online domain name auction, ends today at about 12:15 PDT. Auctions that receive bids in the final minutes will be extended.

At the time of writing, about 40% of domain names have met their reserves. DegreePrograms.com is leading the board at $8,914 with 8 bidders. WatchMeNow.com has one bidder at $3,300 in second place.

There are a number of good one and two word domain names that have met their reserves at attractive prices. Pumped.com, Defeated.com, HeadButt.com, and LukeWarm.com have all met their reserves at under $1,200.

Sedo’s monthly GreatDomains auction ends on Thursday. 5b.com is leading the pack of domains that have met their reserve, garnering 15 bids up to $7,305.

Sedo also has an auction ending today for WeightTraining.com at $12,500. This is interesting since the domain name sold for $19,000 at last month’s Domain Roundtable auction in Washington, D.C.

In other online auction news, Rick Latona Auctions has announced an online auction beginning July 23. There will be 100 domains in the auction and they are still accepting submissions. Bidding is available at proxibid.com/ricklatona.

National Arbitration Forum to cease credit card and consumer arbitration under agreement.

Just one week after the Minnesota Attorney General filed suit against National Arbitration Forum, the two sides have settled. As part of the agreement, National Arbitration Forum will no longer perform arbitration for credit card and other consumer arbitration.

National Arbitration Forum is one of the two largest arbitrators for domain name disputes under UDRP, but the case did not involve domain arbitration. The company can continue to perform domain name arbitration proceedings.

The Minnesota Attorney General alleged the company performed arbitration for 214,000 consumer and credit card disputes in 2006. Pulling out of this market must be a big hit to the company, but the company claims that consumer disputes aren’t a good business anymore, citing increasing regulatory pressure and the economy.

National Arbitration Forum did not admit wrongdoing.

A look at winners and losers in the domain race in the first half of 2009.

The first half of 2009 was tumultuous for many domain name registrars. But a few — including GoDaddy — continue to grow their registration base.

Here’s how the top 10 registrars (plus a couple others popular amongst domainers) fared in terms of domain registration base from January 1 through June 30, 2009. This data is from RegistrarStats, and only covers .com, .net, .info, .org, .biz, .us, and .mobi. They are listed in order of size from biggest to smallest.

GoDaddy – up 8.42% to 34,453,064 domains. This includes Wild West Domains, GoDaddy’s reseller unit. Bob Parsons has proven that marketing is simple: girls and low prices. Works for everything else, so why not domains?

eNom – up 2.6% to 9,039,185. Will it break through the 8 figure barrier? The last million is always the hardest.

Tucows – up 3.3% to 7,432,309. Started adding ItsYourDomain domains in late 08/early 09. Reseller channel working well. Will new direct-to-consumer Hover brand boost volume?

Network Solutions – down 1.1% to 6,563,744. Given that many of its customers pay $35 a year for domains, I’d be willing to put up with a bit of churn as an investor.

1&1 – up 3.9% to 4,797,417. “Take our domains. Please!” Cut rate prices and big ad budget.

Melbourne IT – down 3.5% to 4,798,615.

Register.com – down 0.7% to 2,726,896. Another registrar getting away with murderous pricing.

Moniker – down 2.4% to 2,587,695. Loyal customer base trimming portfolios, but sticking around.

PublicDomainRegistry – up 2.75% to 2,331,684. Directi’s army of resellers is working hard.

Fabulous – down 13.7% to 1,110,624. Big drop likely due to culling its own portfolio, but surely doesn’t account for 176,000 domains lost.

Dotster – down 2.8% to 1,036,550.

Company denies Westerdal’s counterclaims.

Thought Convergence (TCI) has filed an answer to Jay Westerdal’s counterclaims in an ongoing lawsuit over TCI’s acquisition of Westerdal’s company Name Intelligence.

The 12 page response (pdf) basically denies all complaints Westerdal made.

So what’s next, now that both sides have lodged their allegations at each other? Most likely a settlement.

“Neither side will want to air their dirty laundry with so may people watching,” said Enrico Schaefer, an attorney with Traverse Legal. “Most of the issues really amount to unnecessary ambiguities in the contracts, poor drafting and poor setting of expectations.”

A settlement would probably be a calculated decision based on how much money is at stake, future legal bills, and if one or either side doesn’t want the public exposure a lawsuit brings.

“If it does not settle, it will go to discovery where everyone will send oppressive questions and demands for documents seeking leverage,” said Schaefer. “Depositions will then be taken of people who already have an axe to grind with the person or company they are testifying against.”

Schaefer says that discovery would proceed at a snail’s pace and be costly for both sides.

Domain Name Wire will continue to keep you posted on the lawsuit.