.eu domain names

[morleymouse]

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Im sure someone here's in the know on when these are going to be available? Last I read they were going to be available before end of the year... not long now or anyone seen anything more recent speculating dates etc?

[Gray]

Just looked at their website

http://www.eurid.org/index.html

and there is still nothing about launch dates.

[talk4]

From their website:

UPDATED Response 8/12/2003:

We cannot begin .eu registrations at this time or set a definitive date to commence.

We are in the final stages of contractual negotiations with the European Commission.

We must then make an agreement with ICANN and have .eu TLD put into the root.

Before we can launch .eu, we must wait for the Public Policy Rules (PPR) for .eu which are currently being drafted by the European Commission, in consultation with the Member States of the EU.

We now understand that these rules will not be announced before the end of February 2004 and with this information we have made a tentative timetable which indicates the sunrise period will commence in September 2004 and general registrations in November 2004.

[morleymouse]

for those interested you can pre-register .eu domains now on 123-reg, £15 a pop if they get it for you its an extra £30 a year, or two cant remember. if they dont u get ur £15 back.

Althought I presume quite a few here know that as a lot of the good ones have gone

[Gray]

This .eu domain name really concerns me at the moment and I would appreciate any help.

Dont mean to sound thick but if the official .eu registrar cannot yet state when they will be up and running can someone who knows please explain if there is any benefit in pre reg with companies like 123reg and others.

As far as I can see from their website there will be a sunrise period with the registrar as there was for .info and .biz so is there any benefit in pre reg and what is the prepayment for since the .eu cannot accept applications at the present time.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Gray
so is there any benefit in pre reg

Pre-registration is worth it, because it will give you a better chance of getting the domain. 123-reg will try to register it for you the moment they become available. Obviously there will be other companies doing the same thing, so they can't guarantee you'll get the one you want, so if there's one you really want it might be worth pre-registering with other companies too.

I 'pre-registered' some .info and .biz domains with 123-reg, and I got the ones I wanted. Would have been worth the effort if these TLDs had become popular.

and what is the prepayment for since the .eu cannot accept applications at the present time.

The payment goes to 123-reg, not to the company running the .eu TLD. At least 123-reg will give you your money back if they don't get the domain you want, not all companies will do this.

[mibut]

As no one knows whether 123-reg or any other company are going to be allowed to register names it makes sense to wait and see.

[morleymouse]

If they arn't you havnt lost anything though have you

And if they are... well chances are they'll be able to get it quicker than me or you.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by mibut
As no one knows whether 123-reg or any other company are going to be allowed to register names it makes sense to wait and see.

If you 'wait and see', someone who wants the same name as you may pre-register it with 123-reg and beat you to it, so you're just taking an unneccessary risk by waiting.

As has been pointed out several times, you get your money back if you don't get the domain you want, so it makes sense to pre-register, to give yourself the best chance possible.


If you want a name no one else will be interested in it probably makes sense to wait, but for a competitive name the people who wait will probably all end up disappointed.

[mibut]

You do not know how the names are going to be sold.
It will probably follow the round robin route that .info took but who knows.
There will be plenty of registrars saying get in now and pre register but it does not and probably will not mean you are first in the queue.
If you want to let some one else use your money for at least 8 months then fine thats up to you.
The same thing happened with .info
Months before everyone said pre register and pay now.
By waiting until the sunrise period I pre registered with oneandone without any prepayment and got all the names I requested.
As I said upto you but my money will stay in my pocket.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by mibut
You do not know how the names are going to be sold.

I don't. But neither do you!

It may well go through a drawn out process like .info did.

But there will be a stage where it's a free for all when the domains become generally available. If you pre-register with one (or more companies) they have automated systems that will try to get the domain as soon as they're released. So surely by doing this you have more of a chance than not pre-registering at all?

I don't know why I'm arguing about this though, I don't think the .eu domains will be particularly popular amoung internet users who struggle to cope with anything more difficult than .com and .co.uk, so I won't be registering any.

[mibut]

No I am not interested in the eu domains either but if you had read what I wrote
"It will probably follow the round robin route that .info took"
then you will realise that what I was describing is not an automatic process with first come first served at all.
There was not a free for all.
Each registrar took it in turns to take a .info
Also anyone who wanted an info domain had to preregister but not all registrars wanted payment upfront.
A lot of the so called registrars who did want payment up front are no longer in existence and the monies paid did not get returned.
Also taken from the eurid website
"PLEASE NOTE THAT AT THIS TIME IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO REGISTER OR PRE-REGISTER A .EU DOMAIN NAME WITH EURid AND THERE ARE NO ACCREDITED REGISTRARS FOR .EU"

[Jeff]

Originally posted by mibut
No I am not interested in the eu domains either but if you had read what I wrote
"It will probably follow the round robin route that .info took"
then you will realise that what I was describing is not an automatic process with first come first served at all.
There was not a free for all.
Each registrar took it in turns to take a .info"

There were two parts of the 'Sunrise' period.

The first part enabled people with registered trademarks to register the appropriate .info domain, before the 'public' had a chance.

Then there was a second period, in which pre-registrations were processed. The registrars didn't 'take it in turns' for this, all the registrars submitted their pre-registrations, and each request was dealt with on a random basis, to make sure no registrar was favoured.

So by pre-registering, you'd got a better chance of getting a domain than if you don't pre-register. That is assuming the company you use is one of those chosen to accept pre registrations!
The more companies you pre-registered with, the better your chance of getting the domain.

Also anyone who wanted an info domain had to preregister

No they didn't. They could have waited until live registrations started. I thought live registrations were due to start at the same time as the pre-registrations were handled, but in fact there was a gap of 10 days between pre-registrations and live registrations.

but not all registrars wanted payment upfront.
A lot of the so called registrars who did want payment up front are no longer in existence and the monies paid did not get returned.

A lot of those taking pre-registrations were not real companies, but just fraudulent operations to con people who didn't know what was going on. I don't think 123-reg come into this category. And a lot of the genuine companies offering pre-registrations didn't offer money back if you didn't get the domain.

[mibut]

The actual process for .info original registrations.
Applications for .info domain names (referred to as "preregistrations") will be submitted to domain name registrars over a period up to 21st September, in trun transmitted to the .info Registry. Unlike the .biz process (whereby all applications are put into one electronic pot and randomised), the .info process is different in that the process will be on a "round-robin" basis.

The registry will firstly determine a random sequence for the many domain name registrars.

The registry will select an application at random from the first registrars list. If the selected domain has not been already registered, it will be registered for the applicant.

The registry will then select an application at random from the second registrars list. If the selected domain has not been already registered, it will be registered for the applicant.

The registry will then select an application at random from the third registrars list. If the selected domain has not been already registered, it will be registered for the applicant.


and so on….. when all registrars lists have been visited once, then the registry will repeat the process again on a "round-robin" basis)

If at any time the registry selects an application that has already been registered, then the registry does not choose another application from that registrants list, but instead moves on to the next registrants list (i.e. effectively "missing a turn").

The process continues on a "round-robin" basis until all the applied for domain names are registered.

I hope this clarifies that it was not a first come first process.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by mibut

I hope this clarifies that it was not a first come first process.

It clarifies what I wais in my previous post. The pre-registrations were dealt with on a random basis. But all the pre-registrations were dealt with before anyone who didn't pre-register could get a domain, so if you don't pre-register then you're not going to get the domain you want if someone else has pre-registered that domain.
If the domain you want is going to be popular it makes sense to pre-register now (with as many companies as possible!), because if you wait you might find someone else has pre-registered using your chosen registrar(s), so you'll have missed your chance.