Please note the following price decrease for .CZ domains that will take effect February 1, 2012:

• Reseller: Reduced from 368.90* (net: 310.00) CZK to 351.05* (net: 295.00) CZK
• Premium: Reduced from 315.35* (net: 265.00) CZK to 297.50* (net: 250.00) CZK
• Platinum: Reduced form 255.85* (net: 215.00) CZK to 238.00 (net: 200.00) CZK

.AC, .IO and .SH – Price Decrease – February 1, 2012

Effective February 1, 2012, HEXONET will be reducing the price for .AC, .IO and .SH domains:

• Reseller: Reduced from 36.30* (net: 30.50) GBP to 34.51* (net: 29.00) GBP
• Premium: Reduced from 34.51* (net: 29.00) GBP to 32.73* (net: 27.50) GBP
• Platinum: Reduced form 31.89* (net: 26.80) GBP to 30.11* (net: 25.30) GBP

* The GROSS price includes Germany’s 19% VAT; many resellers pay the lower NET price without VAT.

Available extensions:

• .EC
• .fin.EC
• .pro.EC
• .med.EC
• .info.EC

Pricing for .EC (Second Level ONLY)

• RESELLER: 79.61* (net price: 66.90) USD per Domain/Year
• PREMIUM: 76.04* (net price: 63.90) USD per Domain/Year
• PLATINUM: 70.21* (net price: 59.00) USD per Domain/Year

Please note, that new registrations have a negative setup fee of -5.60 USD, which reduces the first year registrations fees on all new .EC registrations.

Pricing for .fin.EC, .pro.EC, .med.EC and .info.EC:

• RESELLER: 36.89* (net price: 31.00) USD per Domain/Year
• PREMIUM: 34.39* (net price: 28.90) USD per Domain/Year
• PLATINUM: 32.01* (net price: 26.90) USD per Domain/Year

.EC Registry Information

• The registry: nic.ec/eng/
• WHOIS-Server: whois.nic.ec
• Registration Periods: 1-3, 5, 10 years
• Add Grace Period: 0 days
• Accounting Period: 0 days
• Finalization Period: 5 days
• Registration System: Real-Time
• Transfers: With Authorization Code

If you have any questions about registering .EC domains, please do not hesitate to contact HEXONET at support@hexonet.net.

* The GROSS price includes Germany’s 19% VAT; many resellers pay the lower NET price without VAT.

The .CO registry allows registrars to insert information about a reseller into the .CO WHOIS record for a domain. HEXONET is happy to announce two new fields for the .CO domain whois output – Reseller Name and Homepage URL.

Domain Name:                SOMEDOMAIN.CO
Domain ID:                      D12345-CO
Registrar-Reseller Name:  Reseller LLC
Registrar-Reseller URL:     http://www.resellerhomepage.com
…

We see this feature as a value-add for our resellers and have therefore implemented these additional extensions into our API commands.  These extensions are AddDomain and ModifyDomain, the same parameters already deployed for .com and .net:

COMMAND     = ModifyDomain
DOMAIN      = somedomain.co
X-WHOIS-RSP = Reseller LLC
X-WHOIS-URL = http://www.resellerhomepage.com

If explicit WHOIS branding parameters are not utilized, then the default values are used as entered in the “WHOIS Branding” section of the Control Panel, which can be found under “Manage Account > My Settings”.

NEW PROMOTION

• Promo Start: January 1, 2012 11:00 UTC
• Promo Ends: March 31, 2012 at 10:00 UTC
• Promotional Price: 8.21* (net price: 6.90 EUR) per Domain/Year
• Promotional price only applies to new one year registrations
• Promotional price also applies to the first year of a new multi-year registration
• Transfers and renewals are NOT eligible at promotional pricing

Why .ME Continues to be HOT

• .ME is still growing at a very steady but strong pace
• The registry is close to reaching nearly 600,000 .ME Domains
• .ME domains have been registered by customers from over 200 different counties across the world
• .ME domains in the aftermarket are growing in value, which is driving up the value of all .ME domains
• .ME domains are used for many high profile web addresses and are now heavily used for content based sites throughout the Internet.

V.ME and D.ME Launched
The Registry recently allocated two of their one-character domain names for some unique online services.  The first is V.ME, which was acquired by VISA Inc. for their digital wallet.  The second is D.ME, which was acquired by AVOS, Systems Inc. (delicious.com) for their URL shortener. HEXONET highly encourages our resellers and clients to go to these URLs to see how large corporations are using domains in innovative marketing programs.

.ME Auction Alert – Remember the Date

Another big .ME auction, in cooperation with SEDO, will be held on Feb 2, 2012. Up for grabs are mostly keywords (geo-domains, online business and tech related names etc.). To view the full list you may visit http://www.sedo.com/me or .ME blog at http://www.domain.me/blog/another-me-auction-starts-on-february-2-2012-at-sedo-2976.

HEXONET has just recieved notice from the .ASIA Registry that the Go Live Date for .IDN.AISA is Saturday, June 23, 2012.

Go-Live Info:

• Go-Live: Saturday June 23, 2012
• Time: TBD
• Allocated on a First-come-First-Served basis
• Characters: Min. 1, Max. 63, letters, numbers, hyphens (”-”) – however hyphens at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD will not be accepted
• Registration Periods: 1 – 10 Years
• Domain Name Registration Policies: View
• Go-Live Pricing:
  • Reseller:  $18.09* (net: 15.20) USD per Domain/Year
  • Premium: $16.90* (net: 14.20) USD per Domain/Year
  • Platinum: $15.23* (net: 12.80) USD per Domain/Year

Pre-registration Billing: (IMPORTANT)

HEXONET will start withdrawing DEPOSITS for Go LIVE starting June 11, 2012.  These deposit deductions are only to reserve funds in case all your Pre-registrations are successful. Deposits will automatically be returned back to your reseller account if any Pre-registrations are not successful or if you delete it prior to the submission to the registry (for Go-Live 24 hours prior to the actual launch).

Go-Live applications deleted more than 24 hours prior launch are automatically refunded back to your reseller account. Please note, that Go-Live deletions are not permitted in the last 24 hours prior launch.

Pre-registration via API (Go-Live)

command = AddDomainApplication
class = ASIA_IDN_GOLIVE
domain = xn--5gq0bvk968l.asia
x-idn-language = ZH | JA | KO
period = 1Y | 2Y | 3Y | 4Y | 5Y | 6Y | 7Y | 8Y | 9Y | 10Y
ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
nameserver0 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver1 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver2 = (NAMESERVER)

Pre-registration via Control Panel

Pre-registrations can be submitted through the Control Panel by logging into your account and navigating to “Manage Products > Domains” and clicking the “Pre-reg Admin” link in the left side menu. From here one can list existing or submit new Pre-registrations. Users can modify or delete any Pre-registrations without charge up to 24 hours prior to the launch date.

Should you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us at support@hexonet.net.

* The GROSS price includes Germany’s 19% VAT; many resellers pay the lower NET price without VAT.

Super Saver Volume Promotion for .ASIA Domains – STARTS January 1, 2012!

The more you register the cheaper it gets!

• Promo Start: January 1, 2012 11:00 UTC
• Promotional Pricing Ends: March 31, 2012 at 10:00 UTC
• Everyday Promo Price: 8.21* (net price: 6.90) USD per Domain/Year
• Volume Pricing on 6th – 9th registration on the same day: 7.02* (net price: 5.90) USD per Domain/Year
• SUPER SPECIAL Volume Price for the 10th or more registration on the same day: 5.36* (net price: 4.50) USD per domain/year.
• Promotional price only applies to new one year registrations
• Promotional price also applies to the first year of a new multi-year registration
• Transfers and renewals are NOT eligible at promotional pricing

Top Reasons to Register .ASIA!

1. .ASIA is a natural fit for web content / audience related to Asia and is already adopted by businesses, celebrities and brands. Consider using .ASIA when your website, your brand or your market has anything to do with Asia. It is a natural web extension that echoes your content and speaks directly to your target audience. A .Asia domain name instantly turns your brand into an Asia-friendly name.

2. Secure, reliable and easy to register without government restrictions or complex registration process compared to some ccTLDs within the region.

3. Improve search ability and visibility for searches relevant to the Asian market.  Keyword domains make a difference in search result rankings. The term “Asia” is a frequently searched keyword. Making use of a .Asia domain may improves SEO organically for searches related to Asia

4. Save on cost without having to register multiple country-code-top-level-domains within the region

Starting now, HEXONET is taking pre-registerations for .JP.NET domains in preparation for its “General Availability” (Go Live) on April 24, 2012.

Why .JP.NET:

• .JP.NET is Japan’s newest domain extension – created to fulfill the demands of the expanding Haoanes market and the global market for unrestricted domains.
• Unparalleled Visibility: Combining the .JP country-code and the ubiquitous .NET, .JP.NET possesses a compelling brand proposition that promises consumers global visibility together with focused exposure in the Japanese market
• Desirable Names: .JP.NET will make available thousands of keywords, place names, one and two-character domains available to anyone worldwide and since it is an entirely new space, many highly valuable domains will be available
• Open to Everyone: Registrations are entirely unrestricted – anyone from anywhere in the world can register
  Multiple Markets: Available for corporations and trademark owners, SME’s, online businesses, bloggers, email and domainers

Go-Live Info:

• Go-Live: April 24, 2012
• Time: TBD
• Multiple pre-registrations for the same domain, successfully acquired, go to a private auction (with only pre-registered users for the respective domain) starting at 15.00 USD/Domain
• Characters: Min. 1, Max. 63, letters, numbers, hyphens (”-”) – however hyphens at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD will not be accepted
• Registration Period: 1 Year
• Go-Live Pricing Annual:
  Reseller: 14.28* (net: 12.00) USD per Domain/Year
  Premium: 12.50* (net: 10.50) USD per Domain/Year
  Platinum: 10.71* (net: 9.00) USD per Domain/Year

Pre-registration Billing: (IMPORTANT)

HEXONET will start withdrawing DEPOSITS for Go LIVE starting April 16, 2012. These deposit deductions are only to reserve funds in case all your Pre-registrations are successful. Deposits will automatically be returned back to your reseller account if any Pre-registrations are not successful or if you delete it prior to the submission to the registry (for Go-Live 24 hours prior to the actual launch).

Go-Live applications deleted more than 24 hours prior launch are automatically refunded back to your reseller account. Please note, that Go-Live deletions are not permitted in the last 24 hours prior launch.
Pre-registration via API (Go-Live)

command = AddDomainApplication
class = JPNET_GOLIVE
domain = example.jp.net
period = 1Y
ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
nameserver0 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver1 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver2 = (NAMESERVER)

Pre-registration via Control Panel

Pre-registrations can be submitted through the Control Panel by logging into your account and navigating to “Manage Products > Domains” and clicking the “Pre-reg Admin” link in the left side menu. From here one can list existing or submit new Pre-registrations. Users can modify or delete any Pre-registrations without charge up to 24 hours prior to the launch date.

Should you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us at support@hexonet.net.

* The GROSS price includes Germany’s 19% VAT; many resellers pay the lower NET price without VAT.

To celebrate the release of .XXX and to also celebrate the season, here is a fun little video from HEXONET.

Vancouver, Canada (PRWEB) November 29, 2011.  WIXI and HEXONET announced a major partnership today that would have WIXI manage and operate a number of its key ICANN and ccTLD accreditations through HEXONET’s advanced registrar technology – RegistrarOC. The platform, Registrar Operations Center, is one of a few turn-key solutions, industry wide, that can scale to deliver the performance, reliability, and extensibility to meet the demands of even the largest of resellers and registrars. The addition of WIXI, now makes RegistrarOC the operational platform of choice of several of the top registrars in the world.

“WIXI delivers only the best to our customers and as such we demand the best from our partners,” said Darshaun Nadeau, WIXI’s Chief Executive Officer. “We chose HEXONET not only for their renown engineering expertise with domains, but more importantly, for their first class history of operational excellence.” “I have been very impressed with their technical and operations knowledge, which was clear, when they had us integrated and operational in no time, including critical requirements like Registrar Data Escrow.”

According to Robert Birkner, Chief Strategy Officer for HEXONET, “We are extremely happy to partner with such a great and progressive company like WIXI. No other company has the pulse and understanding of the Japanese domain and aftermarket like WIXI.” Robert Birkner further added, “I am personally excited to be working with Darshaun and his talented team as they integrate even more country code Top-Level-Domains with their already innovative services for the Japanese domain market.”

About HEXONET

Since 1999, HEXONET has been a leading developer and service provider of reseller technologies for the domain industry, including domain backordering. Thousands of resellers, startups and service providers from across the world trust HEXONET as their domain platform provider. And today, HEXONET manages over 700 thousand domains for its clients. 1API GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of HEXONET.

About WIXI Inc.

WIXI is a Japanese corporation founded in 2009. WIXI specializes in the secondary domain market, in particular, for the .jp extension through domain backordering, drop catching, parking, monetization and domain name auctioning. WIXI is also renown for developing an extensive set of tools for statistical analysis of domain name traffic and quality, as well as, engineering an industry leading domain auction platform.

The executives and marketing leaders of the Las Vegas Sands truly understand how to protect one’s brand and reputation online.  The proactive (offensive) registration of SayNoToSands.com, KeepTheVenetianOut.com, and SayNoToAdelson.com (Sheldon Adelson, CEO of Las Vegas Sands) are key domain properties that will limit the messaging from those opposing their casinos.  This practice of Defensive domain registration has been common with most Fortune 500 companies and is a wise strategy for even the smallest of businesses to follow.

Basics of Defensive Domain Registrations:

This type of registration is designed to protect third parties from registering exact matches and/or variations of a company’s valuable trademarks. Some registrations may also include common typing errors (typos) of their brands and domain names, as well as, popular ‘negative’ keywords typically used to attack a company (like the word ’sucks’).  Just as important would be registration of the same domain in multiple country-code Top-Level domains (ccTLDs), even if the company doesn’t even have a presence in that country yet.

Defensive Registrations Protect You From:

Cybersquatters: People who intentionally register a corporate trademark in an attempt to extort a payment from the trademark holder or profit from website traffic generated from customers of the trademark holder.

Typosquatters: By registering common misspellings of a company’s trademarks the resulting web traffic is monetized. Examples would be similar to Starbuckss.com or Facebok.com.  Intelligently, Starbucks and Facebook proactively registered these typo domains long ago.

Homographic Domain Names: These are designed to exploit the visual resemblance, or near resemblance of certain characters and symbols.  For example, one could easily mistake the domain name Google.com for G00gle.com (using the number zero). Again, fortunately, Google has already locked up this registration.

Anti-sites: This is a website that is designed to attack a company or organization. For example, there may be an irate customer or disgruntled employee who is on a mission to defame a company. For example, ABC-Companysucks.com  or StopABC-Company.com  These anti-sites are becoming more prevalent these days.

An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure:

Proactive registration of these types of domains is your best defense.  Though there are dispute resolution protocols to go after cybersquatters, typosquatters, etc., often litigation is required and thus very costly.  Comparatively, a defensive registration may only cost a few dollars a year.

Some registries even make it easy to protect one’s brand, for example, .XXX domains.  Although primarily intended for companies operating in the adult entertainment industry, the registry operator, ICM, established a special type of defensive registration called Sunrise B.  Trademark holders using Sunrise B prevent others from registering their domain and is blocked from live use on the Internet. At HEXONET, .XXX pre-registrations for Sunrise B have been very popular among our corporate clients.

Protecting Your Brand in 2013 and Beyond:

Starting in 2013, many new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) will be coming to market.  It is predicted that hundreds of new gTLDs will flood the market in the years to come.  What are brand and trademark holders supposed to do?

It doesn’t make sense to defensively register every new TLD that comes to market.  Conversely it doesn’t make sense to not register any.  Here are important questions to ask when evaluating a defensive registration:

• What are the company’s most important brands/trademarks?
• What markets or areas of expansion are planned? Any new countries?
• Are language specific brands and trademarks important to protect (securing IDN (Internationalized Domain Names) versions of their trademarks)?
• If you currently have some defensive registrations what are the current metrics for those domains, and do the numbers justify registering more?

Many of HEXONET’s resellers currently offer corporate domain name management services to their clients. Through HEXONET, resellers are able to access hundreds of TLDs/ccTLDs. HEXONET will also offer pre-registration services for many of the new gTLDs. Please be sure to check out our website for the latest news and information.