Fasthosts Linux dedicated servers now come with the latest release of the Fedora Core 5 operating system as standard.

Offering enhanced performance and security, simplified configuration and improved caching and filtering options, Fedora Core 5 is primed for use with our latest generation of servers – and includes support for the freshest database technology around such as MySQL 5 and PostgreSQL 8.1.

More about Fedora Core 5

Linux dedicated server customers also have the option to start using new Red Hat Enterprise 4 – the operating system of choice for many leading web-based businesses and large corporations.

Providing improved server performance, enhanced desktop facilities and up-rated security and networking memory features – Red Hat 4 is available for just an additional £20 a month… a price freeze on the previous Red Hat editions available to Fasthosts dedicated server customers.

More about Red Hat Enterprise 4

More about Fasthosts dedicated servers

BELLEVUE, Wash.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 26, 2006–eNom, Inc. (www.enom.com), announced that it has completed the purchase of the business and operations of BulkRegister LLC. (www.bulkregister.com). Already one of the largest registrars in the world in terms of domain names under management, the addition of BulkRegister(R) gives eNom(R) an additional 1.5 million domain names, and 35,000 bulk membership customers. With more than 6.8 million domain names on its platform, the combined company is now the second-largest registrar in the world, surpassing Network Solutions(R), according to Name Intelligence(R) (www.nameintelligence.com).

“We are excited about this significant and synergistic addition to our domain platform,” commented Paul Stahura, founder and chief executive officer of eNom. “Both eNom and BulkRegister have built up strong, loyal and successful customer bases, by providing great tools, high quality service and a solid technology platform. The combination of the two companies is a natural fit.”

John Kane, vice president of business development for eNom, believes that the customers of both companies will benefit significantly from the combined business and its scale. “eNom’s business model is built on a strong network of resellers and retail clients worldwide. Similarly, BulkRegister has been a leader in serving high-volume customers with exceptional service and innovative tools for managing many domain names at once. We believe the combined company will better serve these complementary markets, by bringing together the best practices of BulkRegister and eNom.”

In 2006, eNom’s parent company, eNom Ventures, Inc., was acquired by Demand Media, Inc. The purchase of BulkRegister further expands the size and capabilities of Demand Media’s new media platform. In addition to eNom, Demand Media owns hundreds of thousands of domains and niche content websites, including eHow.com.

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Domain kiting continues out of control!
The numbers are now in for May 2006 and the domain kiting problem continues to rage out of control. In fact, it’s as bad as ever.

92.3% of May registrations were kited domains!
Consider this: Just over 35 million names were registered for the month of May. Of those just over 2.7 million were permanent registrations. That means that 92.3% of all domain names registered were part of a scam now known as domain kiting. These names were kept off of the market, they were used to generate search engine revenue – AND BECAUSE OF A LOOPHOLE ICANN REFUSES TO ELIMINATE – those 32.3 million names were used without being paid for.

A huge problem that affects everyone.
If you do not know what domain kiting is all about, there is a primer at the end of this blog article. You should find a quick glance through that to be helpful. Domain kiting hurts all Internet users. It helps only the fat cats who have the money and power positions to take advantage of the domain kiting scheme.

The Internet is finally acknowledging domain kiting.
Since I wrote about this scheme and gave it the name of “domain kiting” there has been increasing attention given to the problem. The term “domain kiting” now has been used by officials at ICANN – although they’ve yet to deal with the problem — the media, security firms and many others. “Domain kiting” also appears as a term in Wikipedia, and if you search on Google using quotes around “domain kiting” you’ll find there are already somewhere around 50,000 search results on the term. So the problem now has a name – and that’s an excellent start!

Cyber criminals are now using the tactic.
An international security firm, Message Labs, also recognized domain kiting as being a serious problem in a report it issued in May. In its report, Message Labs reported that cyber criminals are using the domain kiting tactic to “acquire domains without paying for them and use them for illegal gains!”

ICANN is doing what they do best — nothing!
It’s been two months now since I’ve written about the gigantic proportions that this scam has assumed, and it is with an extreme sense of sadness that I report to you that, in spite of increasing focus on the domain kiting problem, that ICANN has done literally nothing to even begin to address putting an end to this abuse.

Dotster gets singled out.
In the meantime, several well known trademark holders have filed a large and rather nasty lawsuit against Dotster – a registrar who hasn’t exactly been a stranger to domain kiting – for registering many misspellings of the trademarked names, and associating them with search engine pages.

The names that are alleged to have been unlawfully used by Dotster are not trivial. They include such well known brands as Cingular, Disney, Ikea, Google, Neiman Marcus, Playboy, Verizon and the list goes on.

The whole idea being that Internet users will land on these pages, click on these links and then generate revenue for our friends at Dotster. I don’t know if Dotster’s guilty here or not – but that’s what the suit is all about.

But VeriSign has little to say.
Despite the fact that the Dotster lawsuit further draws attention to the existence and abuse of domain kiting, I also find it incredibly interesting that VeriSign — who operates the .COM registry — has chosen to remain spooky quiet on the issue of domain kiting as well. Could it be that VeriSign doesn’t care because it is focused on getting approval for the lopsided agreement it recently negotiated with ICANN, that gives it a virtual perpetual monopoly — with a built in 7% price increase in every 4 of 6 years? Or does VeriSign have something else up its corporate sleeve? Your guess is as good as mine.

Once again ICANN — Please help!
For the third time I am appealing to ICANN to step up and take action to put an end to domain kiting. The ICANN meeting in Marrakech, Morocco should provide the perfect forum for the ICANN Board to put an end to this travesty. The Board showed that it was able to step up and take action when it came to approving a lopsided deal for VeriSign. I see no reason why it can’t do the same when it comes to doing something for the good of the domain name system and the Internet. After all, isn’t that what ICANN is supposed to be about?

You too VeriSign — Please help!
As for VeriSign, it would be nice to see the keeper of the .COM Registry step up and do something that is simply good for the Internet — something that doesn’t immediately lightening bolt cash into its coffers. C’mon VeriSign. Step up and help us out here.
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