New.net lauched today,

March 5, 2001 11:01 AM

New.net lauched today, with their attempt to create their own TLD registrar that seems like a bastardization of DNS. Most people will need to download a plugin, is there any chance this could be successful? Is ICANN doing anything to stop them or will they just die on their own?
posted by mathowie (8 comments total)

I get nothing but a 404 when i click the new.net link.
posted by terrapin at 11:03 AM on March 5, 2001

Hmm, maybe you need the plug-in? :D
posted by Hackworth at 11:11 AM on March 5, 2001

then I guess i won't be seeing it :)
posted by terrapin at 11:14 AM on March 5, 2001

Check out the faux TLDs!

.shop .mp3 .inc .kids .sport .family .chat .video .club .hola .soc .med .law .travel .game .free .ltd .gmbh .tech .xxx

I want www.pepsi.free.

This is a really bad idea, IMHO, overall, and I hope we can look back on it in 20 years and laugh when we're discussing it at mmtp://hyper.emulators.internet1.www.htmlxml.metafilter.co.ca.us.
posted by hijinx at 11:30 AM on March 5, 2001

Hell, they'll die because they're $25/yr. Why am I going to pay $25 bucks for the privilage of making people download a plugin to resolve my site name? Especially when I can register a .com (or any of the new TLDs or countless ccTLDs) for under $15? It just doesn't make sense.

Starting an alternative DNS is a good idea, but this isn't going to take.

You need early adopters, and in a case like this, early adopters are going to be reasonably net savvy; they'll for the most part be looking for an ICAAN alternative. The early market for this is geeks, and there's no way geeks are going to swallow the advertising bullshit. Hell, if a geek wants someone to visit their site on an alternate DNS they'll just start telling people to switch their nameserver.

Also, one controlling company over that DNS' registry? Um, hello, InterNIC2, how are you going to fuck up my domain this week?

Once a domain name is purchased, we generally will not restrict the use of the domain name, but we expect that purchasers of our domain names will provide content that is relevant to the specific domain names purchased.

Well, what's the freakin' point then? Enforce TLD usage rules, that would add some of that ever-so-desired value to your offerings.

idealab!'s a pretty nifty place, I like the concept of think tanks and incubators, but this just seems... naive. Like the company being incubated had to give over a lot to marketing people who hyped it up in a way it shouldn't be hyped. Which is too bad, because from the sketchy material I can see on the site it does appear as though someone with some importance in the company Gets It, but that voice is commonly washed out by the marketroids.
posted by cCranium at 11:43 AM on March 5, 2001

There's nothing new about alternative top-level domains. Hell, I've got the IP addresses for the Alternic DNS servers in my TCP/IP control panel now, where they've been for at least a year. I don't need no stinking plugin (and it looks like you don't need one for New.net if you use a Mac, anyway). Plus, Alternic domains are free, although it looks like there will be a battle over the xxx, med and ltd TLDs, which both services are trying to control.

Alternic

There used to be a FreeNic but they merged, it looks like. Can't find AnyNic at all anymore.
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:06 PM on March 5, 2001

Do I really have to say this every time the topic comes up?

If it does not get popular, it is useless.

If it gets popular, it will eventually come under the same legal constraints as the existing DNS.
posted by dhartung at 12:55 PM on March 5, 2001

A quick read of their faq suggests that they're simply placing the new domains *under* new.net, since they're using the search path facility to get there.

For those interested in *real* alternative DNS, you might look here. I've been running their root zone on my office DNS resolver for about 2 weeks now with no observable problems; in fact, if anything, names seem to resolve faster, which is probably a differential load issue.

I'm turning their root zone loose on my laptop this week, and in another couple weeks, I'll probably roll it out on my client base's firewalls.
posted by baylink at 3:32 PM on March 5, 2001