help registering / activating a .gov domain name

[Jeff]

I've been asked by my local township to setup a .gov web site for them.

I filled out the registration form at http://www.nic.gov/ and the domain is now showing as reserved but not yet active. The township faxed in the authorization form, but apparently the first time they didn't put it on the township letterhead so I got an email from registrar@nic.gov saying to refax it which was done last week.

Now the problem - when you go to http://www.nic.gov/customersupport.html the phone number results in a message that it cannot be completed as dialed, and when I try to email registrar@nic.gov I get an (reason: 550 5.7.1 Access denied) error message.

I'll try and communicate with them via fax again tommorrow, but does anyone have a phone number or email you can use to inquire about a .gov registration?

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at phoenix.futurequest.net.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<registrar@nic.gov>:
Connected to 65.213.195.6 but sender was rejected.
Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 Access denied

--- Below this line is a copy of the message.

Return-Path: <email-removed@mydomain.com>
Received: (qmail 13197 invoked from network); 10 Feb 2003 21:42:57 -0000
Received: from x75.futurequest.net (63.151.147.75)
by phoenix.futurequest.net (63.151.147.105 ); 10 Feb 2003 21:42:57 -0000
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Message-ID: <12e701c2d14d$f6a23df0$6600a8c0@island>
From: "email-removed" <email-removed@mydomain.com>
To: ".GOV Registrar" <registrar@nic.gov>
Subject: domain-name-removed.gov
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2003 16:47:06 -0500
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The authorization letter has been faxed by the Township on the official =
Township letter head - sorry for the error the first time. Can you let =
me know what the status is and if the Township needs to do anything else =
to make this domain active?

Thanks very much,

< Contact Information Removed >

----- Original Message -----=20
From: ".GOV Registrar" <registrar@nic.gov>
To: <email-removed@mydomain.net>; <registrar@nic.gov>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 11:22 AM
Subject: domain-name-removed.gov


> We received your authorization letter. However, the letter was not on =
your=20
> Town letter head. I need you to resubmit the letter on your Town =
letter=20
> head. You can fax a copy of the letter to the Registrar at =
703-935-7457.
>=20
> Thank you,
>=20
> .GOV Registrar
> 703-375-2252

[Bob]

I have never been involved with Registering a .gov domain however I do note this on their web site:

However, at this time, state and local domain names will NOT be Activated until final publication of the proposed rule. No definitive date has been set for finalization of this rule, however, the rule is working its way through the final clearance stages.

http://www.nic.gov/help_qualify.html

So the problem may be simply one of they don't have all the rules in place to handle these registries as of this time

Good luck,
Bob

[Jeff]

Yikes - thanks Bob. I do not believe that was there when we started this process in January

This section of the rule is very troubling too, in addition to no date being set:
http://www.nic.gov/proposed_rule.html

GSA's final rule, ``User Fees; Network Registration Services'' (64 FR
32196, June 16, 1999). In section 102-173.45 of this proposed rule, GSA
proposes to employ a system of collection that will include a one-time
set fee for new registrations which will be in a range from $250 to
$1000, depending on the level of assistance that may be provided by GSA
and a recurring annual charge in the range of $100 to $500 for all dot-
gov domains. The fees are based on anticipated costs for operating the
registration service and are consistent with industry charges. Please
provide any comments on whether a one-time set-up fee and an annual
recurring charge is the appropriate mechanism for recovering GSA's
costs and the proposed range of fees.

Is this a joke!?! $100-$500 a year plus a $250-$1000 setup fee for a simple domain registration - consistent with what industry charges??? I've not seen another domain registrar charging 1/10th this much!

The worst is that when we started this process the first of the year the web site said that .gov registrations were currently at no cost but they reserved the right to charge a registration fee in the future. Without doing the research I probably should have, I assumed from that statement that registration fees, if enacted in the future, would be inline with typical registration fees for normal domains just to cover the maintainenace of the database and servers or some such. If we do go ahead and setup a .gov, and they then implement a fee of $500 per year just for the domain registration, that would mean the local government would have to discontinue use of the domain because I can't believe taxpayers would appreciate the township paying $500 for something so similar to a .org domain which costs $15.

I suppose it is the government paying the government but it still seems a bit steep for local government for registring a single domain name. Ah well... maybe we will have to use a .org or .us for the local township web site after all. Frustrating to not even have a phone number or email address to contact about this

[TVB]

Jeff,

There was something in the news (sorry, I don't remember where I read it betwixt the AP wires I get, and all the different news sources I read--check a search at news.google.com) that talked about tightening the process for .gov domains. The article was about an organization that obtained a .gov and while it looked quite official, was actually a lobby organization or something masquerading as a government site. The item that Bob wrote about is probably fall out from that.

Betsy

edit: it was maybe two weeks ago max.

[Jeff]

Yes I saw that too. Maybe that's what's behind this.

It would be quite sad though if the verification process costs $500/year per domain just to distinguish what is a state or local or federal government entity and who or what is not.

I would think simply increasing the legal penalty for forging the signed document necessary to activate such a domain would be sufficient to prevent non-government entities from attempting to register one.

Even if everything is being changed over to a new system, you would assume that there would still be a contact person with a valid contact email to give you some idea of when or who to contact. Simply saying that 'there is no set date' leaves me not knowing what to say at tommorrow's meeting - I'm not sure if they will have the procedure decided in days, a week, a month, or a couple months. The township wanted to have city-mi.gov and this was approved and reserved by the nic.gov registry, but now won't be activated it seems for some unknown amount of time... and it also appears that they will now or possibly at some point in the future start charging a simply huge fee which I can't possibly see the township being able to justify to local taxpayers, nor should they. The township thought that having city-state.gov would be logical, and this made sense to me and was consistent with the seemingly logical regulations formerly in place. It's clearly a local sub-state level government entity, and is distinguished as an official site as it probably should be rather than an unofficial organization. Now I guess I'll have to propose a .org instead of a .gov as the .gov system worries me as being too unpredictable - I don't want them to start a local government web site and then have to abandon a domain because a $500/year domain registration fee is imposed. I'm sure taxpayers wouldn't approve of spending 33x the going rate for a domain name registration.

[TVB]

Yep...I think I would have issues with that too as a taxpayer. For what it is worth, my township has a .org as does our school system. The schools use it mostly for routine business and school closings due to weather.

Betsy

[sheila]

I am really sorry to hear about this situation, Jeff, and the problem it is causing for you and your city.

For whatever it may be worth, here is my city's domain:

http://CityOfDiamondBar.com/

[Randall]

Originally posted by TVB:
The article was about an organization that obtained a .gov and while it looked quite official, was actually a lobby organization or something masquerading as a government site. The item that Bob wrote about is probably fall out from that.

Business Week (Feb 5): Feds pull suspicious .gov site

Much too recent to explain the registration fees -- that proposal is almost a year old. And this being government, "no definitive date" might as well be "never."

The article above mentions that state and local gov'ts had been allowed to register .gov domains at one time, but currently they're restricted to "approved" federal agencies. Doesn't explain AONN, but again, this is government.

Randall

[Bob]

Then to muck up even more regarding special TLD Registrations:

" The ".edu" Internet domain, currently available only to colleges and universities, will be opened up to a wide range of educational institutions that teach everything from mortuary science to marriage counseling, the Commerce Department said."

http://www.forbes.com/technology/net...rtr876560.html

"This policy will be expanded on April 15, 2003, to allow postsecondary institutions that are institutionally accredited by agencies on the U.S. Department of Education's list of Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies to apply for .edu domain names. This list includes both "Regional Institutional Accrediting Agencies" and "National Institutional and Specialized Accrediting Bodies."

http://www.educause.edu/edudomain/policy.asp

The Government at work
-Bob

[Randall]

Is .us no longer the favored TLD for state/local government sites, now that anybody can get one?

I've always thought it'd be neat to have a street.city.state.us domain, just for fun.

Randall