Registrar Connections

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA – March 27, 2008 – VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the leading provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, today announced, effective as of October 1, 2008, an increase in registry domain name fees for .com and .net, per its agreements with ICANN.

VeriSign announced that the registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $6.42 to $6.86 and that the registry fee for .net domain names will increase, from $3.85 to $4.23.

Traffic volume continues to increase with the emergence of consumer-driven services, the surge in Web-connected wireless devices and the proliferation of technologies and services using the Domain Name System (DNS). VeriSign processes a peak of more than 33 billion DNS queries per day under normal traffic conditions. Read more…

Asia Registrar Days: Beijing and Seoul – May 2008

The VeriSign Asia Registrar Days events will be held on May 6 in Beijing at the China World Beijing and May 8 in Seoul at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel. The events in each city are designed for .com/.net ICANN accredited registrars’ executives with responsibility for strategy, marketing and the general business. Participating registrars will have the opportunity to learn about the latest global industry trends, Internet growth realities and impacts, region-specific research data, and product-news from VeriSign as well as network with other registrars.

The online registration and agenda will be posted soon and we will notify you at that time. In the meantime, for more information, please contact your account manager or send an email to namingmarketing@verisign.com.

How Does DNS Work?

VeriSign Publishes Primer on DNS and Domain Names – Contributed by Jill McNabb, Marketing Director

With over 1.3 billion users globally, the Internet is the fastest growing technology of the past decade or any other decade before. According to Business Week, it took radio 30 years to reach 60 million people and television 15 years; the Internet has grown to almost 20 times this size in a much shorter period of time. A domain name is key to doing just about anything on the Internet, from setting up a Web site to sending and receiving email to building an online store. Today there are over 153 million registered domain names. The Domain Name System (DNS), which supports these domain names, is the engine that makes the Internet simple and accessible for users around the world. The DNS is not just important to the smooth running of the Internet but it also plays a very important part in everyday life. Visits to the ATM machine, paying for groceries with your credit card, placing a long-distance telephone call, would not be possible if the DNS was not functioning. These activities rely on the Internet or Internet technology, and the DNS is a fundamental part of the Internet: without DNS, the Internet doesn’t work. And yet, for too many people, the DNS belongs in the confusing realm of the technical experts.

The Domain Name Primer, recently published by VeriSign as a part of its Domain Name Industry Brief series, provides an overview of how the Domain Name System works and why it is so important for the continued operation of the Internet. Registrars are invited to download the Domain Name Primer at www.verisign.com/domainbrief and leverage the report in their employee training programs as well as customer education and outreach efforts.

The Case of Leap Year

Ever wonder what happens to the expiration date of domain names registered on February 29? Do you know someone born on February 29, say in 1980? Are they only eight years old this year, or 27 years old?

Similarly, leap year provides domain name registrations with an interesting situation. Your customer service team may benefit from understanding the process to confidently handle customer inquiries about future expiration date, renewal, and the auto renewal of affected domain names.

Below is how the leap year expiration date logic works in the .com/.net Registry:

Considering the expiration date logic explained above, here is a table which explains the expiration date calculation logic using four different examples.

Domain Name	Created Date		Expiration Date		Logic
Domain Name	(EST) US Eastern Standard Time	(UTC) Coordinated Universal Time	(EST) US Eastern Standard Time	(UTC) Coordinated Universal Time	Logic
sample1.COM	2007-02-28 21:30:49	2007-03-01 02:30:49	2008-02-28 21:30:49	2008-02-29 02:30:49	The registration date in EST is 2007-02-28 compared to 2007-03-01 in UTC. So, the expiration date is set to 2008-02-28 in EST which is 2008-02-29 in UTC.
sample2.COM	2007-03-01 16:41:55	2007-03-01 21:41:55	2008-03-01 16:41:55	2008-03-01 21:41:55	The registration date is 2007-03-01 in both EST and UTC. Because of the logic mentioned in [bullet 2] above, the expiration date is set to 2008-03-01 in both EST and UTC.
sample3.COM	2008-02-28 21:58:49	2008-02-29 02:58:49	2009-02-28 21:58:49	2009-03-01 02:58:49	The registration date in EST is 2008-02-28 compared to 2008-03-01 in UTC. So, the expiration date is set to 2009-02-28 in EST which is 2009-03-01 in UTC.
sample4.COM	2008-02-29 02:30:39	2008-02-29 07:30:39	2009-02-28 02:30:39	2009-02-28 07:30:39	The registration date is 2008-02-28 in both EST and UTC. Because of the logic mentioned in [bullet 3] above, the expiration date is set to 2009-02-28 in both EST and UTC.

Compliance Corner: Who’s Who in Registry Support
by Mayra Vargas, Contracts Administrator

Registry Customer Support is your first line of support for all issues. Technical Support Representatives are available 24/7 and a supervisor is always on call and available after normal business hours, if needed. Some of the issues that they can assist you with include:

You can contact customer support via telephone at +1-703-925-6999, via email at info@verisign-grs.com, and most recently via the new chat function available on our web site.

VeriSign also has a Customer Affairs Office (CAO) that is responsible for assisting newly ICANN accredited registrars with meeting the requirements to become certified VeriSign registrars for .com and .net. In addition, this team can assist you with the following:

The Customer Affairs Office team is available Monday through Friday (7:00 am – 5:30 pm ET) via email at cao@verisign-grs.com.

360 View: Strengthen Internet Infrastructure
VeriSign Expands Project Titan to Strengthen Internet Infrastructure with New Security Upgrades
After Tenfold Increase in Capacity for .Com and .Net Domain Name Systems, Proprietary Security Upgrades Being Deployed to Protect Infrastructure from Cyber Attacks

Mountain View, CA – March 20, 2008 – VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the leading provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, today announced an expansion of its Project Titan initiative to include additional security upgrades aimed at strengthening its global Internet infrastructure.

When it initially unveiled Project Titan in February 2007, VeriSign announced plans to increase capacity of the .com and .net Domain Name Systems (DNS) by 10 times by 2010, and the development of new proprietary technologies and processes. Now, VeriSign is announcing the deployment of additional proprietary security upgrades and monitoring tools to identify, track and isolate malicious Internet traffic generated from cyber attacks.

More than 40% of all women in the US who go online—some 35 million people—are mothers who have children under 18 at home. Being a parent makes going online almost a necessity. But while moms regularly participate in parenting-related activities online, they are also highly engaged in search, entertainment and shopping.

As key influencers for a variety of family purchases (not only groceries and clothing but also travel, automobiles and electronics), mothers rely on the Internet. Upwards of two-thirds of online moms research products online, so it is critical for marketers and retailers to understand the role of the Internet in their purchase decisions. Whether the end result is an online or offline purchase, the Internet weaves its way into moms’ shopping activities on a regular basis.

To read the full article, please contact Jennifer Moore at +1-212-763-6046 or send an email to jmoore@emarketer.com.

In the News

This section contains a selection of articles pertaining to the Domain Name Industry compiled by Information, Inc.

"Use of IPv4 Declines"
Daily Champion (Lagos) (03/12/08)

Use of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is on the decline, according to a recent report. IPv4 is currently the most widely used version of IP, however there have been concerns that it would run out of IP addresses in the near future. IPv4 allows for about 4 billion different IP numbers. Slowing use could lead ICANN or IP addresses managers from accepting IPv6 as the dominant version. The report, released by the Border Gateway Protocol, showed that global utilization rose from 64.9 percent to 69.7 percent in 2007. There were 177.8 million fewer addresses available at the end of the year, even though 196.77 million were reportedly handed out. During 2007, one of the old Class A address blocks was returned, opening up an additional 16.78 million addresses. After the report was released, ICANN announced the final call for comments on its proposal for the allocation of IPv6 address space. http://allafrica.com/stories/200803120320.html

"R.N.C. Snap Up Domain Names"
New York Times (03/06/08) Bennett, Kitty

In this presidential election year, the two major political parties and the campaigns themselves have been quick to register domain names that they can use to attack their opponents. For instance, at least 45 domain names related to the candidacies of the two Democratic presidential candidates, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, were registered by the Republican National Committee or showed up on servers it uses. Most of the names were related to Clinton, including canttrustclinton.com, clintonisbad.com, and clintoniscorrupt.com. About 20 of the domain names, including hesnotready.com and norealexperience.com, were related to Obama. The RNC has also registered domain names that could be used to attack its presumptive nominee, John McCain, including voteagainstmccain.com and flipflopmccain.com. The Democratic Party has mostly registered domain names that refer to its national convention, including denverdemconvention08.com. Cybersquatters have also been busy, having registered nearly 2,000 domain names related to the presidential candidates, NetNames says. More than half of those domain names were related to Clinton, followed by 635 domains related to Obama, and 269 domains related to McCain.

"UK Launches First Internet Governance Forum"
Computerworld UK (03/07/08) King, Leo

The United Kingdom held its first Internet Governance Forum Thursday at Parliament, with representatives from Nominet and the Specialist Crime Directorate in attendance. The UK is the first country to set up its own internet governance forum, which will share information and discuss ways to curb online crime. The forum will interact with the international IGF, which was established by the United Nations in 2007. The UK's forum is independent from the government, though there are representatives from Parliament and law enforcement involved. Alun Michael MP, a forum chair, said that was important to make the organization independent of Parliament because it could not wait for the government to legislate. "We have to make the IGF work, otherwise we'll end up with a bureaucratic straightjacket." The forum will initially determine how the different organizations taking part can work together most efficiently. A spokesman for Scotland Yard is pushing for a special online crime unit, because current police procedures do not take Internet crime into account. http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/online/e-business/news/index.cfm?newsid=7882

March 2008

In this issue:

VeriSign Announces Increase in .Com/.Net Domain Name Fees

Asia Registrar Days: Beijing and Seoul – May 2008

How Does DNS Work?

The Case of Leap Year

In the News