CircleID

Registrars who support .com domain names will use the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) system by October 28. From VeriSign:

VeriSign plans on making an EPP Automated Batch Pool will be available in parallel with the RRP Auto-Batch Pool beginning on October 3. The hostname for the EPP server will be epp-auto.verisign-grs.com.

The VeriSign plans on decommissioning the RRP Protocol will be decommissioned from the .com/.net Production and OT&E Environments during scheduled maintenance on October 28, 2006. This will include decommissioning the RRP Auto-Batch Pool, per the July 27 notification.

Registrars must use EPP following the October 28, 2006 decommissioning maintenance and will no longer able to perform transactions using the RRP Protocol.

There will be an additional step when trying to transfer a .com domain name among registrars. Specifically, a piece of information called an EPP code (aka auth code, EPP key, transfer secret) must be obtained from the current registrar and submitted to the gaining one prior to approving with the latter.

Many registrants will surely be confused with this measure, which is why registrars should notify them beforehand. Hopefully most if not all have already done this.

Can this completely prevent hijacking? Of course not, especially for those who might "carelessly" have their login details compromised in some way.

Is this an inconvenience? It can be, especially when doing a bulk transfer.

Will people treat this good or bad? Only time will tell.

Written by Dave Zan. Visit the blog maintained by Dave Zan here.

Related topics: DNS, Domain Names, Top-Level Domains