Oct. 26, 2010 – Outtage

We experienced an equipment failure today that caused sites hosted in our Linux/Apache data center to be unavailable for a short time. At or about 9:55 am through 10:25 am these sites were down. Tech support were aware of this problem within approx. 3 minutes.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you for your patience and understanding.

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Oct. 7, 2010 – Source: OpenSRS

As you are aware, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is transitioning to a new Registry platform for .CA domains beginning on October 12, 2010. OpenSRS is ready to go, and we expect a successful transition to the new platform along with CIRA on October 12-13, 2010. Please be advised that during this time, .CA provisioning and management will be unavailable. Test Environment Updated Resellers with API integrations for .CA domains are encouraged to test them using the Horizon Test Environment which has been updated and is now connected to the new CIRA Registry Platform Test Bed. The Reseller Web Interface in the Horizon Test Environment has also been updated and now reflects what you will see after the Registry Transition takes place. Please familiarize yourself with the changes to how .CA domains are provisioned and managed.				Key Dates Oct. 12-13: .CA provisioning and management unavailable Oct. 13-22: Nightly maintenance windows Status Updates System Status Maintenance Window calendar Subscribe to System Status email updates Resources .CA Transition page Horizon Test Environment
Transition Timeline Here is the schedule of events for the transition as provided by CIRA:

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SEPT. 12, 2010:

On October 12, 2010, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) will launch a redesigned domain name registration system, the system that enables Registrars to communicate with the .CA registry database. All aspects of the system to register and maintain.CA domain names have been updated and simplified, including its technological processes to its policies and business practices.

Please note that these changes will not affect you in any noticeable way. Your domain name will not be affected, nor will it affect the operation of your website or email addresses. The biggest change that you will notice is that with the new system and policies, CIRA is effectively removed from many day-to-day transactions. Most transactions will be handled solely by your CIRA certified Registrars, and you will no longer need to confirm them with CIRA.

The new system and policies will result in changes to your Registrant Agreement for your .CA domain(s), effective October 12, 2010.

Your new Registrant Agreement can be viewed here cira.ca/assets/Documents/Legal/Registrants/registrantagreementv2.0.pdf.

More information about the new .CA domain name registration system is available
at cira.ca/ca-faq-10-12.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact CIRA’s Registry Services at 1-877-860-1411 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              1-877-860-1411      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

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CHANGES TO .CA (CIRA):

As you may or may not be aware, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), which operates the .ca registry, has undertaken a complete re-write of the registry platform. The intended result of this yearlong project was to modernize the registry platform and to bring things like domain lifecycle timelines and procedures in line with industry standards.

On October 12, 2010, CIRA intends to flip the switch and move from the existing platform over to the new platform. The current platform will be decommissioned at that time – there is no overlap or transition phase.

Along with the switch to this new registry platform, CIRA is also making some changes to how it manages domains and to some policies and procedures related to .ca domains and .ca domain registrants.

At a high level, some of the upcoming changes include:

• The domain lifecycle will be changed to bring it in line with industry standards and more like generic top-level domains (gTLDs). Changes include moving to a similar renewal grace period, redemption period, and the use of authorization codes for transfers. Additionally, domains will be renewed upon transfer.
• CIRA Registrant profiles and passwords will be eliminated and domains will be managed at the Registrar level, with no further confirmations required (currently Registrants have a separated CIRA profile to approve some management functions).
• Third- and fourth-level domains will no longer be available for registration. It will still be possible to manage and renew any existing third- and fourth-level domains.
• WHOIS privacy will be managed at the Registrar level (currently it is managed at the CIRA website).
• Registrar-to-registrar transfers will allowed only after the domain is registered for 60 days (currently 30 days).
• Resellers will be responsible for ensuring registrants agree to the terms and conditions of the CIRA Registrant Agreement, either through API, RWI or the CIRA website.

Thanks for your continued support and happy selling.

CLIENT TUTORIALS:

We are pleased to announce the addition of approx. 200 client support tutorials, videos or voice only, which you can view here and refer to over and over again. You can access them here – http://tutorials.ecanhosting.net

N.B.: eCANhosting.net is wholly owned and operated by DD&H SERVICES.