News

New transfer procedure for .EU domains

On 21th of November between 07.00-10.00 (timezone EET/EEST) it is not possible to register or transfer or trade EU domains. The old .EU domain transfer system will cease to be operational and only the new transfer procedure will be available. Domain renewal orders made during that time will stay on hold until the change has taken effect.

Main changes:

* Transfer transactions will only be successful if they are initiated by the insertion of a unique authorization code (EPP code).

* Authorization code can be ordered through domain management and „My domains“. To request the code click „EPP authorization code“ and it will be sent to registrants email address.

* Transfer and trade orders are initiated immediately after the invoice is paid and payment can be seen in our system. Upon activation of the new system, any transfers still pending will be handled according to the old procedure.

EURid has preserved the right to make random checks on initiated transfers. The transfer transaction is put in a queue that is managed by EURid staff and processed on five working days.

Zone updated its website

Until today Zone clients managed their domain registration and hosting services through two different websites, but from now on these functions are joined into one interface. We’ve also updated the whole website style (design).

The most important changes are following:

  • * domain and hosting services are managed through one webpage using link “My Zone”;
  • * all information about domain registration and hosting services are joined into one website;
  • * information about services is more specific and comprehensive than in previous website.

Both service management interfaces in “My Zone” were also visually updated, but all functionalities remained the same.

We hope that the new structure of Zone website makes usage of our services more flexible and simple. It certainly allows us to provide existing and upcoming services in the future more quicker and easier.

IPv6 Progress in Zone

By now, the majority of active Internet users are aware that in the coming years a new version of the internet protocol – IP version 6 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6) – will gain adoption next to the current IP version 4. Moving to a more modern technology is supposed to prevent a shortage of Internet addresses and also introduce many useful innovations.

Our technical team at Zone has also been implementing the new Internet protocol into our infrastructure. Part of the preliminary work for IPv6 was done January this year, during our network upgrades. During the rest of the year we have brought IPv6 support closer and closer to our clients. Some of our enthusiastic Dedicated Server and Housing clients have already put IPv6 subnets to use.

In October we will be update our platform further and all updated servers will gain a globally routed IPv6 address.

This upgrade impacts the our Webhosting and Smart Dedicated Server customers. After the update, any outgoing connections from servers, will support IPv6 in addition to IPv4 . If our server tries to establish a connection to a host and learns that the target has an IPv6 address, the first attempt to connect to the host will be made via IPv6.

We do not foresee IPv6 connectivity problems at Zone from our side. We have established complete global IPv6 routing tables in our routers and have secured connectivity for the 6th version of the IP protocol via two independent service providers – Linxtelecom and Cogent.

This update change may lead to problems only if you use an Internet application which is trying to communicate with a host that’s set up incorrectly. For example, if an attempt is made to connect to a host with an IPv6 address and in actuality the host has no IPv6 connectivity. In cases like these, there are three options for further action:

* contact the owner of the host and ask them to remove the faulty IPv6 DNS record;

* contact the owner of the host and ask them to create / restore IPv6 connectivity;

* modify your script so that it always connects to an IPv4 address.

For the time being we will not add IPv6 addresses to DNS zones used for incoming connections. Making several major changes at the same time could lead to confusion.

If you want to test Zone’s IPv6 connectivity and provide us feedback, you can do so by establishing a connection to host web.zone.ee using ping6 or traceroute6.

Zone reduces EE domain registration fee

As Estonian Internet Foundation cuts the EE domain registration fee by 1.2 €, Zone will respectively reduce the EE domain registration fee to consumers by 1.2 €.

EE domain registration through Zone will now cost 18.45 € (+ VAT 20%).

Zone now accepting pre-orders for ee-domains available as of April 6, 2011

As of today, Estonia’s largest domain registrant Zone.ee started to accept the pre-orders for ee-domains, which haven’t been re-registered during the Estonia’s top-level domain reform. There are approximately 38 000 domains that will become available.

„These are neglected domains, which is now expired and are therefore taken away from their current users and become available for new users to register. The main objective of the top-level domain reform was to make available all the unused resources,” explained Zone Media’s development manager Ardi Jürgens.

During the 6th of April, the ee-domain registry Estonian Internet Foundation will erase from the registry all these ee-domains, that haven’t been re-registered. According to Jürgens, many of these domains will be registered immediately to the new owners, since the release of many domains is anxiously awaited for a long time.

Everybody can apply for available domain names and they will be registered on a “first come, first served ” bases. This means, that the first registrant, whose application for the available domain will reach to the top-level domain register, will be the new owner of the domain,” Jürgens says.

Zone started to accept the pre-orders today in order to allow internet users sufficient time for choosing their preffered domain names and filling out applications.

Pre-orders for the available ee-domains can be submitted via website https://www.zone.eu/et/telli?eebackorder=1&lang=en. The list of available domains is in our blog: https://blog.zone.ee/eepos/6-aprillil-2011-vabanevate-ee-domeenide-aktuaalne-nimekiri.

All not re-registered ee-domains inactivated

Today, Estonian Internet Foundation inactivated ee-domains, which were not re-registered during the transition period of the domain reform. As a result, the domain related websites and e-mail addresses are no longer available.

For Zone customers, who haven’t re-registered their domain, the website files and e-mail accounts will be stored on Zone servers. The ee-domain should be re-registered as soon as possible to get them accessible again. This can be done here www.zone.ee/en/ee-domeen.

There is still two months left to re-register your domain – on April the 5th all the domains that has not been re-registered will be deleted from the EIS register, and they become free for anyone to register on the “first-come, first-served” basis.

If the customer does not wish to extend their ee-domain re-registration or use the alternative options, then on April the 5th Zone will unilaterally stop the server service contract.

For more information about your ee-domain re-registration, see on the above mentioned website or call to our customer support +372 688 6886.

Zone celebrates its 11th birthday

Today, 11 years ago, Zone Media started its operation and is now one of the leading Internet infrastructure and supporting services providers of Estonia.

„11 years have passed by quickly, because the IT sector is evolving fast and the needs of our customers grow every day, so we need to keep abreast with the time and even be a little in front,“ says company’s managing director Martti Varik. „Ending year has brought us one of the biggest challenges in the company’s history, as the Estonian domain reform led us to create many specific technological solutions, and it also added new functions to our staff.“

The domain reform started in 5th July this year and more than 11000 customers have registered their domain in Zone by the new rules. „We have handled the challenge well, because Zone has carried out nearly half of the domain registrations made in Estonia,“ Varik adds. “This positive result doesn’t let us to rest on laurels, because the majority of the domains’ registered before the reform is still not renewed. This means daily work with our customer base to help them all re-register their domains before 5th January next year“.

„In addition to the domain reform, this year is very important for us for one more reason. We launched a new ZoneID user system, which demanded lot of development and testing. It’s just the beginning of a long process and next year we hope to merge next developments to it,“ tells Varik about the future plans.

Zone Media also joined European Union’s EU registrars programme “Code of Conduct“(COC) and Fair Pricing Agreement this year. The company employs 19 people and its main services are web hosting, rent of virtual servers and dedicated hosting, domain registration, outsourcing for telecommunication companies and many of the services aimed for private customers.

Zone.ee has signed the Fair Pricing Agreement

Zone.ee has signed the Fair Pricing Agreement. Signing this agreement means that when euro replaces the kroon as Estonias currency, Zone.ee will not raise its prices without a cause. The symbol of the pact can be found in the footer of our homepages. The purpose of the agreement is to prevent unreasonable increase in the price of goods and services during the adoption of the euro. Signing this agreement helps members assure the public that adopting the euro will not bring an automatic increase in prices. The agreement will support a smooth transition from the kroon to the euro.