Gandi IWI Blog

IP Transit Outage in France Telecom

Leland Vandervort — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:16:00 +0100

Some customers located on networks in France Telecom (Orange, OpenTransit, etc.) may be experiencing difficulties accessing Gandi Services. A network incident has occurred within the FT network and is affecting many of their customers' access to large portions of the internet. France Telecom are working to resolve the issue.

We will keep you updated as more details are made available.

Update: 13:50 CET: The issue at France Telecom appears to have been resolved.

Maintenance Gandi.Net and API

Leland Vandervort — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:18:00 +0100

In order to deploy the new version of the website, we will be performing maintenance tomorrow morning (13 January) between 06:00 and 08:00 CEST.

During this time the Gandi website and the reseller APIs will be inaccessible. It will not be possible, therefore, to perform any operations to purchase, renew or modify Gandi products during this time. This maintenance should last less than half an hour but we we are of course leaving sufficient margin in case a rollback may be necessary.

The VPS Server, Gandi Mail, Blogs, Gandi Sitemaker, and other Gandi services will not be affected by this maintenance.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience.

Gandi Technical Team

.CN domain creation suspension

Ryan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:41:00 +0100

Hello,

Following a change in the Chinese registry, which is (in)directly managed by the Chinese government, it is no longer possible for us to sell .CN domains.

After an initial change at the end of last year that surprised everyone in limiting purchase of these domains to companies only, the registry has just added a very clear and simple rule: in order to have stricter control over the domains that are sold, they simply and plainly forbid new registrations to registrars that are not Chinese!

Renewals and transfers do not appear to be concerned by this for the time being, though we are not immune to unwelcome surprises.

We will keep you informed as events unfold.

-50% discount for .ME extensions

Lyn — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 11:28:00 +0100

The Registry in charge of .ME (nic.me) extensions is offering a -50% promotion in creating new .ME domains. Domain transfers and renewals are not affected by this promotion.

This means creating new .ME domain names are on sale at $12.00, or 7£, (excluding tax) for A rates until February 1st 2010.

.HK domains now available at Gandi!

Ryan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:18:00 +0100

Gandi does not just limit its development of new extensions to European countries. If we get many requests for a particular extension and if it does not have major conditions along with it, then we will be happy to add it.

We are therefore pleased to announce that we now provide .HK Hong-Kong domains! This extension is open to everyone, though you will be asked for a contact ID number for each owner contact, depending on the type of the account. Individuals will need to provide their passport number; companies, associations, and public organizations will need to enter their business or association registration number.

.HK domains are available for €24 (£22, $35) excl. VAT under A rates. Note that transferring a .HK domain is more expensive (€60, $99, £60 excl. VAT) than a creation, though it adds a year to the expiration date.

You can see all .HK prices here.
More information on the extension can be found here.

Accented .EU domain names open on December 10th at 11:00 CET!

Ryan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:31:00 +0100

From December 10th 2009 EURid, the registry that is in charge of the .EU zone, will allow domain names to be registered that include accented characters for the first time. This is of course a great benefit to the 28 countries of the European Union where accented characters are very common: http://www.eurid.eu/en/eu-domain-names/idns-eu.
There will not be a Sunrise period to guarantee protection of existing trademarks. The registry has chosen to use the "first-come, first-served" approach. This means that if you already own a domain name in its unaccented version, you will not be given priority for buying the same domain in its accented version. For more information on .EU Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), we recommend visiting their FAQ on the topic.

You can already start placing your accented .EU domain order requests at Gandi! All pre-registration requests will be sent to the registry (in the order that we received them) on December 10th. Orders that cannot be completed will be fully refunded. To pre-register an accented .EU domain name at Gandi, simply write it in its accented form in the domain name search box on Gandi's home page.

As a reminder, the IDN System is specified by RFC standards 3490, 3491 and 3492. This system is now recognized by all modern web browsers (ex. http://www.스타벅스코리아.com). However when using IDNs for email, only the encoded version (below) is recognized at present. It is not possible, for example to have an email address like ryan@스타벅스코리아.com.

Technically, the "special" characters are encoded using a conversion table. This is why an IDN domain name will begin with the four characters: xn––. For example: bébé.eu becomes xn-–bb-bjab.eu. So ryan@bébé.eu would become ryan@xn-–bb-bjab.eu for use in email.

IDNs are also now available on a first-come, first-served basis!

If you would like to comment on this, please visit the GandiBar!

.PT domains available at Gandi

Ryan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 10:17:00 +0100

With the addition of this highly-anticipated extension, we have completed the coverage of southwestern European countries!

In order to register a .PT domain, you must have a Portuguese taxpayer ID, as well as a document that proves that the domain name corresponds to a trademark, family name etc. (for example: the TVA number of the company Martin would be needed to register martin.pt).

If you do not meet this criteria, you can nonetheless register a .COM.PT domain. These domains are open to everyone, with the condition that individuals must provide a national ID number or passport number, and companies must provide their intra-Community VAT number.

The registration .PT and .COM.PT domains are sold at €24 ($35, or £22) excl. VAT per year under A rates. Transfers of .PT or .COM.PT to Gandi are available at only €1 ($1, or £1) for all.

See the .PT information page.

If you would like to comment on this, visit the GandiBar!

Network Maintenance overnight 19-20 November

Leland Vandervort — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:12:00 +0100

We will be performing a major network maintenance operation during the night of 19 to 20 November in order to further improve our infrastructure.

This maintenance will commence on 20 November at 01:00 AM CET and finish at 07:00 AM CET.

During this time, three connectivity outages are expected, each lasting approximately one hour and will impact most Gandi services.

All hosting operations will be suspended throughout the maintenance period.

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused.

Hosting: Launch of multiple IP addresses for your servers

Ryan — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:33:00 +0100

Hello,

Today we have launched the functions allowing you to manage your own interfaces. You may configure up to 4 interfaces per server.

To add an additional interface, you will need to add additional IP address quota via the resource management interface.

Each additional IP address costs €1 excl. VAT per month (if paid monthly), or €10 (ex VAT) per year if paid annually, e.g. 2 months free!

This new function lays the foundations for us to provide you with some really cool features in the future such as an IP failover system, the utilization of IPv6 addresses or even creating a private networks between your servers.

As this has been at the top of your Wishlist for several months, we sincerely hope that this new feature will make you smile!

You can find documentation on this in our wiki here.

If you would like to comment on this entry please visit the GandiBar.

Your server on IPv6?

Leland Vandervort — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:42:00 +0100

Today we are opening the beta-test phase for the implementation of IPv6 on our hosting platform.

As a reminder, IPv6 is the successor to the current IPv4 upon which the internet is based, and given the generous attribution of the early IP addresses, the IPv4 address space is rapidly running out of available adresses.

Its replacement is gently making its appearance across the internet. An IPv6 address is made up of 128bits as opposed to 32bits for an IPv4 address. We are moving from 2^32 available addresses to 2^128 (excluding reserved allocations, of course) which gives us a few decades.. erm.. centuries to breathe!

If you wish to participate in the beta test phase, you must:

- Have some basic knowledge of IPv6
- Have a Gandi server in expert mode (i.e. with root access)
- Send us a request to participate to ipv6beta@gandi.net and include your gandi handle/user-id. (You will receive an email by return with the procedure to follow).

Initially, we will limit the beta test to approximately 50 servers, so don't wait to send in your request!

As usual, you can comment on this post here...

Stay Tuned! .AM and .FM domains are now available

Ryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:38:00 +0100

We are pleased to announce that Gandi now manages .am and .fm domains.

These ccTLD, while being the official extensions for Armenia and Micronesia, are frequently used for online radio stations, and who among us has not listened to internet radio?

I know I enjoy the benefits of seeing the name of an artist while playing, having a personalized playlist at work, or even just having a higher quality of sound than the old analogue radio. They were so 20th century

More and more radio stations are being created on the web and letting amateurs be heard all over the world. Radio is not just for the big guys anymore.

Here is the list of these extensions, with A rates shown (excl. VAT) and the link to the information page of each:

.AM from €54 ($78, £49) per year
.FM from €54 ($78, £49) per year

If you would like to comment on this, please visit the GandiBar!

6 new domain name extensions at Gandi: .GS .HT .SB .TL .MU .CX

Ryan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0100

Our previous domain name discovery tour took us over the world's oceans, and introduced you to 5 new extensions managed by Gandi.

Here is another journey, where you can discover 6 new extensions that you can manage at your favorite domain name registrar. And since we went by sail last time, today's tour will be by plane.

Our trip begins in an archipelago without an airport, where less than 200 people live (mainly researchers), and where the temperature is frequently below zero. The archipelago of South Georgia is less than 1,000 nautical miles off the coast of Antarctica and from here we leave the .GS (South Georgia) archipelago and set a Northerly course towards warmer latitudes.

After traveling more than 5,000 nautical miles, and after flying over nearly all of South America, we come to the tropical climate of the Caribbean Sea, where we will land on the tumultuous Haiti home of the .HT (Haiti).

After sipping on a Piña Colada, a plate of local Shrimp, and then sunbathing for a few hours on one of the magnificent local beaches, we board the plane again. After refueling and taking off, we change course by 260 degrees for a loooooooong flight of nearly 8,000 nautical miles that will take us across the pacific ocean, the international date line, and the Tropic of Cancer. We will land on runway 24 of the Solomon Islands, home of the .SB.

A brief historic visit of this island that has played such a large role during the the Pacific War, and we take off again, this time for a shorter flight of only 2,000 nautical miles, due West, to a country where it best to have the authorization pass into its airspace, as internal conflict has given more voice to arms than diplomats. Welcome to East Timor and the .TL!

We continue 1,000 nautical miles west along our route, and there we see the o' so very small but charming .CX with the festive name (Christmas Islands). The beaches there are magnificent, the scenery is enchanting, and the local cuisine is rich is flavor (and spices ;)). Relaxed, and full of wonderful memories of our stay, we board out flight and head out to our last destination.

With our course set West-South-West to 255, we can sit back and enjoy the 3,000 nautical mile flight over the Indian Ocean. There, an island suddenly appears on the blue horizon, welcoming and bathed in sunlight.

Having the authorization to land on runway 32 we arrive at Mauritius home of the .MU!!

After a long journey far above the waves, we find ourselves on the most diverse island on the Indian Ocean. Halfway between Africa and Asia, colonized by the Europeans, here is a charming melting pot of people, language, and culture...

Our plane is in the Hangar, and so we will profit from our presence on this island paradise to wait for the new batch of extensions. We hope that you have had a pleasant flight, and we wish you a wonderful stay! See you again soon on Air Gandi!

Here is the list of extensions, with A rates shown (excl. VAT) and the link to the information page of each:

.GS: €30 ($40, £25) per year
.HT: €64 ($90, £55) per year
.SB: €44 ($60, £8.30) per year
.TL: €26 ($35, £18) per year
.MU: €42 ($58, £36) per year
.CX: €26 ($35, £18) per year

If you would like to comment on this article, please visit the GandiBar!

Domain name transfer price reductions only at Gandi!

Ryan — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:20:00 +0200

Recently Gandi expanded its domain name offering by boosting the number of extensions we provide. This doesn't just help us reach more customers internationally , but allows existing customers to centralise their domain name portfolio in one place, particularly those that have some of these less common extensions.

The idea is to expand our offering so that all of our customers (current and future) can opt to transfer all of their domains to us if they are satisfied with our way of managing them.

This is why today, Gandi is offering you lower transfer prices for a large number of extensions (though the exact discount depends on the registry, see below):

.COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ, .NAME, and .US domains at €5.50 ($7.50 or £5.00) excl. VAT, with a year added to the expiration date,
.FR, .RE, .BE, and .EU at 5.50€ ($7.50 or £5.00) excl. VAT with the year added to the transfer date (e.g. the new expiry date is set to be 1 year from the transfer date)
.CH and .LI domain transfers are free (this is already the case, but not many people may know it

Contrary to what the majority of people think, transferring a domain name from one registrar to another will not result in any service interruption and will maintain all your DNS settings. What you need to remember however, is that you will need an authorization code (AKA EPP code, or auth code) in order to transfer your domain (with the exception of .BE and .EU domains, as you will be contacted by the registry), and this code must be provided to you by the registrar that you are transferring away from.

And while we've got your attention, we thought we'd remind you about the guessing-game contest we're having about "when will the one-millionth domain name be registered at Gandi?". This promotion will run up to the time of this actual domain registration (which of course we don't even know). In case you're interested, you can enter by trying to guess the exact date and time that the 1 millionth domain will be registered. The person that is the closest to this date will win a dream vacation of your choice!

Do you want to join the contest? It's free, and it is here!

As always, if you want to transfer your domains to Gandi, its over here!

And if you would like to comment on this entry, please visit the GandiBar!

.IT domains, version 2.0!

Ryan — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:00:00 +0200

Following in the footsteps of the .fr registry, the Italian registry in charge of .it domains has revolutionized its operations by upgrading from an asynchronous mode to a synchronous mode (EPP).

What does this mean for you? Those of you that have already had a taste of .it domains (and our poor customer service department) know what I'm talking about. This new mode means the following improvements:

There are no longer any complicated faxes in Italian that need to be sent. This has been replaced by a slightly different sales contract that we have included in our new contract.
Likewise, for a transfer, if the loosing registrar operates under EPP, you will no longer need to fax forms, but rather, supply an auth code just like .com or .net domains, for example.
The zonecheck is still used however.

As a reminder, .IT domains are open to everyone that is living in the European Union, ad you must still indicate your VAT if you are a company or a personal ID number if you are a person, during the registration process.

Backup, increase in disk size and lower rates!

Ryan — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:58:00 +0200

Since our hosting service has been released, you have been requesting it, and here it is!

For starters, we have built a dedicated backup infrastructure that runs separately from our servers and other data disks. This has led to a new type of data disk: the backup disk. Ok, so we probably could have found a more flashy name for it, but at least it's clear

The amount of disk space included in every share has risen from 5GB to 8GB
This is the first bit of good news: to help you create your backup disk, we have increased the disk quota that is included in each server share from 5GB to 8GB! This does not change much for customers that only have one share (as we give you an extra 3GB for the operating system), but beginning with the second share, you now have an additional 3GB of disk to take advantage of. This means that for a customer with 16 shares on his or her server, the hosting account will be credited with (15x3) 45GB of additional disk quota! Of course you still have the ability to purchase additional disk quota, though now I am getting ahead of myself with the second bit of good news

Lower rates for additional disk space
To make things simple and to avoid over-complicating your quota management with yet another quota to monitor, the quota used for backup disks is the same quota as what is used for other disks.

Therefore, we have decided to lower the price of disk quota, in order to establish a nice balance. The new rates are therefore €0.18/$0.25/£0.16 excl. VAT/month/ under A rates, down from €0.20/$0.28/£0.18 excluding VAT/GB per month: this is a 10% reduction in price. You also have the option of purchasing annual disk quota at an even lower price: €0.15/$0.21/£0.14 excl. VAT/GB/month versus €0.20 excluding VAT/GB per month: this is a 25% reduction!!

How to create a backup disk
Simply log into your disk creation interface and choose the type, "backup". Once the disk has been created, go to your server's information page and specifically the "backup" section, in order to attach it to your server.

How to activate and configure your Gandi backup robot?
We'll start by addressing Gandi AI customers.

Once your backup server has been created and attached to your server, go to the "backup" section at the bottom of your server management page, and then click on "Create a backup disk" to access the page where you can enter the name of the backup, the path to the directories where you want to store your backups, and indicate a directory on your backup disk (ex. /mybackup01). All that remains is to submit this page to start the process.

For users of our expert servers, following the creation and attaching of your disk, you must the install the 'gsync' package, which is available in the Gandi 'repositories' (apt-get install gsync with Debian/Ubuntu for example). Once this has been installed, you can either take care of the configuration yourself, or use our little configuration tool, which you can find on the bottom of you server management page, in the backup section.

How does our backup robot work?
'GSync' is a light agent that constantly monitors changed to the directories that you want to archive. You will therefore have a continually updated backup on an external disk. Then, depending on your configuration, it will keep a copy of past versions. By default, it keeps a recent copy in the current directory, and a number of versions that are three hours old, one day old, and one month old.

Using our robot is not mandatory: you can choose to use another one if you want. The robot's code is published under GPL license, and so you can also decide to improve it and submit your changes to our technical team.

But enough talk! I will let you play with your new toy!

Please feel free to get back to us with your questions and comments, which I am sure will be quick to come :D

If you would like to comment on this ticket, please visit the GandiBar.

30% off .TV domains!

Ryan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:33:00 +0200

We are accredited for .AM and .FM, and these extensions will be on sale by the end of the year. However you can already benefit from your own domain in .TV with a 30% off new registrations, or for only €18.20 excl. VAT per year under A rates.

The promo does not apply to creations after the first year, renewals, or transfers, which already benefit from a low price at Gandi.

The .TV extension is open to all.

For more information, please visit the .TV information page at https://www.gandi.net/domaine/tv/info
.TV rates can be seen here: https://www.gandi.net/domaine/prix/detail/tv/

5 new extensions at Gandi: .BZ .HN .MN .SC .VC

Ryan — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:22:00 +0200

We have just added 5 new "exotic" extensions to the list available at Gandi. If you want to step onboard the magical Gandi cruise ship, I will be pleased to give you a tour!
Our voyage starts in this vibrant and very lively Central America... Yes, .HN (Honduras) domains, like our friends in the region, could have a very fiery and passionate temperament Or just be normal, it's up to you

A bit farther up, we discover the lesser-known .BZ (Belize), with its sandbanks and the famous "Great Blue Hole". From there, we head East, across the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, and stop at .VC (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).

And since you are beginning to be entranced by the warm winds, and the crystal clear waters, we will continue our trip South East, across the Atlantic, around the Cape of Good Hope, and up along the coast of Madagascar to drop anchor in the .SC (Seychelles), a truly magical location...

Finally, we will head North-North East, and 7,000 kilometres further, after having passed through the coastal waters of .IN and .CN, we will leave our cruse ship and travel inland, to the very Asian and very ancient .MN (Mongolia) land of Genghis Khan.

We hope that this little journey has whetted your appetite for exoticism! Here is a list of these new extensions, which are open for registration to all, as well as a link to their information page, a bit more technical, as well as the prices that go with them (all rates stated excluding VAT)

.HN: €44 per year, under A rates
.BZ: €18 per year, under A rates
.VC: €24 per year, under A rates
.SC: €60 per year, under A rates
.MN: €32 per year, under A rates

If you would like to comment on this, please visit the GandiBar!

Promotion on .IM domains extended

Ryan — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:30:00 +0200

Did you know that .IM, other than representing the Isle of Man (UK), is an extension that has gained celebrity through instant message services such as MSN, Yahoo, Gtalk etc...?

To help you have your owner IM domain to make your instant messaging experience cooler, and more personal, we are pleased to announce that we are now able to offer you a domain for €3.50 excl. VAT as opposed to the current €18 excl. VAT!

From now until ~~September 30th 2009~~ October 10th 2009 (the registry has just extended the promotion), you can take advantage of this sale at Gandi!

First come, first served...

Gandi AI 1.2 - update available

Ryan — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:48:00 +0200

A new version of Gandi AI, labeled 1.2, is currently available via the server module management page of your account. This version corrects many bugs and imperfections that were present in version 1.1. It also significantly improves the performance of Apache due to the replacement of the mpm-itk module by a per-user module.

We are also going to take advantage of this upgrade to implement two additional modules:

PunBB, an efficient open-source forum that is solid, light, and written in PHP
Magento, a (the?) open-source platform that allows you to create an online store. Many add-ons are available on the MagentoConnect platform, such as the possibility of customizing the design of your store, changing the language of your interface, or to activate the payment platform of your preference. Also note that Magento needs 2 to 3 shares to run correctly.

Set up your server at http://www.gandi.net/hosting

Your first share 100% refundable!

Ryan — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:17:00 +0200

To help you test our hosting service without any risk, your first hosting share is 100% refundable!
No, there is no fine print that says something like the offer is only available for the next two days, 4 hours and 24 seconds, and if you have an IP address that ends in 256 and only if you have Hungarian nationality on your mothers' side and Finnish on your fathers...

No, you will be quite simply fully refunded for your first hosting share when you test our hosting service.
Yes, yes, whether you are SATISFIED OR NOT!

So, beginning today, you now benefit from a classic satisfied or money back guarantee if you release your share before its first payment due date. But as we are Gandi, and since we like to do what is right for our customers, we will also add a satisfied AND money back guarantee!

This means that if/when you keep your shares and renew them, the first share will cost you €0.00 incl. VAT

Ah! This offer is of course only valid once per customer (same name, same address)

If you would like to comment on this, please visit the Gandibar!

Promotion on .be domains

Ryan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:01:00 +0200

As many of you probably already know, Gandi has customers in 192 different countries.
We have historically sold the most domain in the French-speaking market, though looking closely we see that our Belgian neighbors are under-represented...Ça alors !

And since the Registry of our dear neighbors is having a nice promo, we hereby declare September as ".BE month"!

We will sell .be domains at 2 euros excl. VAT (2.39 euros incl. VAT) for creations and transfers (which includes a free year renewal) in all the rate scales.

So, our Belgian friends and friends of Belgians (you do not need to be Belgian to have a .BE), welcome to Gandi!

A .EU for 0.10 Euros ?!

Ryan — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0200

Here is a little fall surprise for our European customers: As a result of our Sale on EU domains, we have "won" a certain number of domains at the registry, EURid. To help you benefit from this occasion, we are dropping the price of .EU domains to 0.10 euros excluding VAT, for the next 4,000 .EU domains, until August 31st at 23:59 CET!!

These domains can only be created for one year, and paid for by credit card, prepaid account, or PayPal.

So you no longer have any excuse to not have your own .EU domain (well, unless you don't live in the EU zone... ;))

New Kernel Version for Gandi Hosting

Leland Vandervort — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:07:00 +0200

Following the discovery of a critical security flaw in the Linux kernel applicable to all kernel version, we have made a patched version available of the 2.6.18-xenU kernel used by the virtual machines on our hosting platform. In order to make use of this new version, you will need to restart your server, which you can do simply with the linux command "reboot". We will thus allow you to make arrangements to effect this reboot according to your own scheduling requirements.

{1} : http://blog.cr0.org/2009/08/linux-null-pointer-dereference-due-to.html

It's time for an AERO!

Leland Vandervort — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:51:00 +0200

And no, we're not talking about the chocolate bar! But, we can think of no better way to begin an item that will strike only at the hearts of those with their heads in the clouds?

The .AERO domains are now available at Gandi. BUT ! ... yes, there is a big "BUT"...

This extension is only open to those with a direct connection to the aviation industry. This being said, it nevertheless includes a large number, and you are invited to look for your social/professional category in this looooooong list.

If you're lucky and priviledged enough to be included in the list, you only need make a simple request to the registry through this online form in order to obtain an authorisation code and a password which will allow you to register your domain.

Ahh.. nope, we're not kidding with the verification process this time.

But why has gandi become a registrar for such a "niche" extension, I hear you ask? Firstly, because it exists, of course, and has done for seven years. Also, because it's something which affects us at Gandi (we have four private pilots in the team! ).

Full details of the pricing and length of registration can be found here !

GandiBlogs updated

Ryan — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:02:00 +0200

As you surely know, GandiBlog is based on the DotClear blog engine. During our recent maintenance operation on the platform, we benefited from the opportunity to shine it up a little. In short, we have upgraded from version 2.0.2 to 2.1.5.

This upgrade does not contain any major overhauls, though you will nonetheless see subcategories, which many of you have been requesting. Also, among the changes are a new video media (vimeo.com), the support of Flash 10, many new video options, as well as a plethora of minor corrections...

You are now armed with the latest blogging technology...have fun!