All posts by 2020media

2020Media is a leading UK web host offering Linux and Windows website hosting. The company specialises in WordPress, Joomla and Drupal support.
Domain Names

New top level domains

ICANN is introducing a range of new top level domains (think .com, .net, .org) which will be open to anyone who cares to think of one. So far suggestions have varied from geo-domains like .paris, .london and .nyc, to topics like .eco, .food and .music.

whoWhen these new domains come along, will they be useful? The argument often given is that you replace the three meaningless characters to the right of the dot, namely com or net,  with characters that actually provide guidance to the user about what will be found at the web site using that TLD (think .music, .london).

The gTLD process is bogged down at the moment, but ICANN have announced that country code domains (like .cn, .ru) will be translated into their own native character sets. This has been on the cards for a long time and its great to see it should soon be a reality.

Opinion

Peering into the future

.uk registrar conference
.uk registrar conference

2020Media took part in the 2009 Nominet registrar conference today. The event was held at Lords cricket ground (some kind of sports theme going on as last year it was a Wembley stadium). Amongst the many debates that took place, the most interesting speaker was Bill Thompson, a leading technology writer, who spoke of the need to continually change, in order to keep up with the way the internet evolves.

Although 2020Media is very well established in internet terms and is now 10 years old, we never forget how we gained our place in the UK internet marketplace and continually try to improve and involve the services that we offer. A good place to check out the latest products is at our Offers page.

Domain Names

Are you European (yet)?

With the Lisbon Treaty about to be ratified, is it time you looked at getting your name or company brand in .eu? The .eu domain was launched in 2006 and is now an established domain extension. Here in the UK there are about 300,000 .eu domains registered which means there’s still plenty of choice, unlike .co.uk and .com.

Your European Identity
Your European Identity

Other interesting statistics include that the domain has an 81% renewal rate, which indicates its established nature, and 75% of .eu domains have an active website or email.

Even if you don’t look to expand into Europe in the near future, it’s worth looking at registering your name or brand now, as the registry is still growing so choice is falling.

Technical

Tales from the Helldesk

Not sure if this qualifies as urban legend or not:

A phone call was received from a customer wanting to know why they were unable to log in to the computer system – The nice old lady was asked if she could go to the server to check it and nice as pie she said “oh no, we’ve been flooded, it’s under 3ft of water”

From TheRegister

Domain Names

ICANN Independence Day

Today is a historic day in the evolution of the Internet. On 30 September 2009, the JPA (Joint Project Agreement) between ICANN, the Internet governing body, and the United States Government expired. Many commentators believed the US Government would not allow the agreement which maintained their ultimate control to simply lapse, but it appears in all the ways that matter that it has.

ICANN is a multi-stakeholder organisation in which anyone can have a say. 2020Media regularly attend ICANN meetings, and compared to say, Nominet, the bottom-up approach is refreshing and stimulating.

The announcement by ICANN today includes an Affirmation of Commitment which we believe is ICANN’s way of promising to ‘be good’ in the future. In it ICANN promises to do periodic reviews of their accountability and transparency – but crucially these will report to the GAC, an ICANN constituency body representing all governments, not just the US government.

Vint Cerf
Vint Cerf

Vint Cerf commented: “[The agreement] fulfils a long-standing objective of the original formation of Icann: to create an organisation that can serve the world’s interest in a robust, reliable and interoperable internet.”