Freenom on its way out for me!

[Genesis]

Think FouadChk is going to have a really good chuckle about this. :smile:

Last night when I was checking my e-mails for my Freenom account discovered four e-mails claiming the Websites I had with the domains were not working! That was just so totally and unbelievably false. OK, if they got one that was not working, then maybe it was an accident. But four at different hosts?

So what I then immediately did was to open tickets at Freenom and wrote one ticket each for the e-mails I had received, and they all received the identical response below - obviously they're being peppered with these kind of tickets and it is an automated response:

Spoiler

Erwin van der Laan || Staff
Dear Sir/Madam,

If you are following the Freenom terms and conditions/free domain content policy and if you have content on your domain, then it
is possible that your hosting was down at the time we checked.

Please double check that you are in compliance with our terms and conditions and that the content of your domain is available publicly.

Freenom terms and conditions:
http://www.freenom.com/en/termsandconditions.html

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,
Freenom Support


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for using Freenom. Did you know that Freenom offers all top level
domains at Cost Price? Yes! For the same price as we buy them for, allowing
you to get the lowest price in the market for ALL your domains.

Simply register your domains from My Freenom.

Thanks again!

Freenom Support
How would you rate this reply? Poor Excellent

This was my response to the automated ticket above, and I'm still waiting for a reply:

Spoiler

Unfortunately I think there is a problem with Freenom's checking system. The hosts I'm using have almost 100% up time.

I'm not the only one complaining about this. Check hosting discussion forums and you'll note countless examples of individuals who have the exact same experience. Their Website is up and running, yet Freenom claims otherwise.

How are you doing your checking, as if it is via script, someone on your technical side needs to check this carefully, as there have been at least four false positives on my side.

Regards

I had approximately 18 dot.tk domains at the time of receiving the e-mails. Have pruned them down to six and am working towards maybe four at most.

 

[Barnum4000]

They clearly have a problem with their system at the moment and it is causing severe problems so they have had to use an automated messages to handle the complaints or they have really bad customer support. These problems happen but it doesn't help when they confess about a problem or tell you a detailed reason to the problem.

Thank you for using Freenom. Did you know that Freenom offers all top level
domains at Cost Price? Yes! For the same price as we buy them for, allowing
you to get the lowest price in the market for ALL your domains.

I hate it how companies continue to advertise their service in an email after you have had a problem because it's like you what you have paid them isn't enough.

 

[Yozora]

Ugh, that's terrible! I wish there was a decent free alternative to freenom. Anyways, that's for the heads up!

 

[ogah]

freenom is very bad free domain provider.
they will suspend your domain if inactive or if have good traffic, so we have no choice

 

[GigaBot]

Noe I can tell that when you use something that is free, you can not expect much ... but there are many premium services that you can expect similar problems too...

Freenom works pretty decent, considering that they are free domain provider.

 

[Genesis]

Freenom works pretty decent, considering that they are free domain provider.

Agreed Misharnet. Last night reminded me again of how well it works. When I created a brand new free domain name with Freenom it worked instantly, like minutes after I had loaded the name servers. Don't know how long I'm going to last with them though, as when I was cleaning up all of my accounts last night noticed I'd received a further notice from Freenom about domains that had something supposedly wrong with them. Which is just not true. All of the domains are alive 24/7, and have active content on them. Has to be something wrong with the Freenom test script that is being used. Or maybe they're trying to get rid of those who are using the domains for free.

Anyway, if I get blacklisted for any reason - as they are threatening to be doing, I'm prepared. I now have more paid domains than I have free domains.

 

[GigaBot]

Anyway, if I get blacklisted for any reason - as they are threatening to be doing, I'm prepared. I now have more paid domains than I have free domains.

Well, as far as I know, you can not be black listed because of Freenom, only certain Domain extensions can be black listed or prohibited by many Hosting providers, because of too much spam or other abusing activities by many People who use them, like .CO.CC ... You shouldn't be worried about Freenom, only about a certain Domian extensions ...

 

[Genesis]

You shouldn't be worried about Freenom, only about a certain Domian extensions ...

That's great news then thanks Misharnet. :good:

 

[fouadChk]

Think FouadChk is going to have a really good chuckle about this. :smile:

It was a matter of time !...

Unless one had firsthand experience of their abuse it want be easily convinced of it as people would generally tend to blame the complaining guy for supposedly must have done something wrong that warranted Freenom's Crooks reaction

But here is the funny thing. Freenom's Crooks have been suspended by the ICANN last September (for some shady stuff of theirs) and as a consequence they have been forbidden to do any new domain registration for 3 months and instead of announcing that to their user in Bold fonts on their landing page they have kept in small fonts in a place where nobody would notice it. I didn't anyway (see here for more on this: Freenom Fail To Comply With ICANN Suspension.)

PS: The suspension concerned generic (and not country-code) domain name registrations.

 

[Genesis]

But here is the funny thing. Freenom's Crooks have been suspended by the ICANN last September (for some shady stuff of theirs) and as a consequence they have been forbidden to do any new domain registration for 3 months and instead of announcing that to their user in Bold fonts on their landing page they have kept in small fonts in a place where nobody would notice it. I didn't anyway (see here for more on this: Freenom Fail To Comply With ICANN Suspension.)

PS: The suspension concerned generic (and not country-code) domain name registrations.

Poetic justice indeed! Must say however wherever I post in forums Freenom's really got a BAD reputation. Got to be someone very arrogant not to take note of that and improve the relationship.

 

[MorganB]

Think FouadChk is going to have a really good chuckle about this. :smile:

Last night when I was checking my e-mails for my Freenom account discovered four e-mails claiming the Websites I had with the domains were not working! That was just so totally and unbelievably false. OK, if they got one that was not working, then maybe it was an accident. But four at different hosts?

So what I then immediately did was to open tickets at Freenom and wrote one ticket each for the e-mails I had received, and they all received the identical response below - obviously they're being peppered with these kind of tickets and it is an automated response:

Spoiler

Erwin van der Laan || Staff
Dear Sir/Madam,

If you are following the Freenom terms and conditions/free domain content policy and if you have content on your domain, then it
is possible that your hosting was down at the time we checked.

Please double check that you are in compliance with our terms and conditions and that the content of your domain is available publicly.

Freenom terms and conditions:
http://www.freenom.com/en/termsandconditions.html

I hope this helps!

Kind regards,
Freenom Support


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for using Freenom. Did you know that Freenom offers all top level
domains at Cost Price? Yes! For the same price as we buy them for, allowing
you to get the lowest price in the market for ALL your domains.

Simply register your domains from My Freenom.

Thanks again!

Freenom Support
How would you rate this reply? Poor Excellent

This was my response to the automated ticket above, and I'm still waiting for a reply:

Spoiler

Unfortunately I think there is a problem with Freenom's checking system. The hosts I'm using have almost 100% up time.

I'm not the only one complaining about this. Check hosting discussion forums and you'll note countless examples of individuals who have the exact same experience. Their Website is up and running, yet Freenom claims otherwise.

How are you doing your checking, as if it is via script, someone on your technical side needs to check this carefully, as there have been at least four false positives on my side.

Regards

I had approximately 18 dot.tk domains at the time of receiving the e-mails. Have pruned them down to six and am working towards maybe four at most.

I don't know if i'm allowed to post something like this, but this threat can be removed if it needs to be.

Websites Used to check for Blacklisted Websites:

1. MxToolBox
2. UltraTools
3. Blacklist Alert
4. Maine Hosting Solutions

Freenom has problems, mostly blacklisted and mail problems from Freenom's website.

• Freenom Problems List - From MxToolBox
• Freenom Blacklist Check - From MxToolBox

Check spoiler:

Spoiler

Once on the website above, click on any of these boxes and more information will appear:

EDIT: I wouldn't trust Freenom, I would stay away from it

 

[Genesis]

EDIT: I wouldn't trust Freenom, I would stay away from it

I'd agree with you for serious Websites - like ones one publishes for real. I tend to use Freenom domains for disposable sites when I test things. And as much as I don't want to do this, I've got to give the devil its due here. To get a free domain up and running with Freenom is a matter of seconds to minutes - the DNS in most cases propagates in a matter of minutes. The Freenom Website is unbelievably fast and operates smoothly, better than my favourite domain registrar (for now) Namecheap. I think if one recycles the Freenom domain names regularly, and use them as temporary and disposable, then that would be like chanelling directly into Freenom's own wavelength of using people like me to add value to their domains. As soon as the domain is receiving traffic, they want it back to sell it.

The moment I get even slightly serious about a Website though, I go for either dot.com/dot.net/dot/org.

 

[Yozora]

Wow, I didn't know about Freenom's ICANN issues! That's serious... It's amazing stuff like that isn't more well-known.

 

[tanaquil]

With such low pricing on paid domains, I really don't see why someone would choose to go with a domain provider that has problems... Take GoDaddy for example, they provide domains for as low as 5$/year (depending on the extension)

 

[Figlet]

I recently was unable to register new domains at Freenom. I haven't tried since, but I've always had a good experience with their customer support. They usually get back to me quickly, and if not, within 24 hours. I opened a ticket about it and haven't received an email back, yet, but I probably have email notifications turned off. I usually opt out of notifications. Personal choice of mine. I'll try again soon if I have the time. A lot going on lately between being laid off and looking for more work.

 

[Genesis]

I recently was unable to register new domains at Freenom. I haven't tried since, but I've always had a good experience with their customer support. They usually get back to me quickly, and if not, within 24 hours. I opened a ticket about it and haven't received an email back, yet, but I probably have email notifications turned off. I usually opt out of notifications. Personal choice of mine. I'll try again soon if I have the time. A lot going on lately between being laid off and looking for more work.

Do you use them for free or paid domains? I had some issues with a few free domains when they wrote to me and said they were not working. Which was not true. Not only were they working, but they're spread over different servers with different hosts, so the odds that all would be down at the same time at servers with 99% plus up time are almost impossible. Anyway, I opened a ticket for each domain, got an automatic reply - like the exact same one to each of the four tickets I opened, and never heard from them since then - like a couple of months now.

If you're using them for paid domains, I'd love for you to share your experiences, as I've never had a paid domain with them before, but am just thinking, maybe it would not be such a bad idea, since their automated domain service and DNS wise propagation are excellent. With my last use of a free domain the DNS propagation was almost instant, like in a flash. So yes, maybe if one bough a domain from them, those silly e-mails of them about my domains not working and not complying with their rules, may be less or stop. Maybe not - I think all of that is on automatic too. Like they send scripts out to check on the domains, and those scripts aren't working as they should and are counter productive for their image.

 

[fouadChk]

With such low pricing on paid domains, I really don't see why someone would choose to go with a domain provider that has problems... Take GoDaddy for example, they provide domains for as low as 5$/year (depending on the extension)

May be because there are people who don't want to have any financial transaction online, not even for a nominal 1 cent. So, for them, any 'free' (I prefer to qualify it as non-cash transaction) alternative is always welcome.

####################

I recently was unable to register new domains at Freenom. I haven't tried since, but I've always had a good experience with their customer support.

Most probably you will fail again. If you fail once that would mean you've been put on that famous list of theirs. But feel free to tells us if you end up registering it.

 

[Semseng]

Think FouadChk is going to have a really good chuckle about this. :smile:

It was a matter of time !...

Unless one had firsthand experience of their abuse it want be easily convinced of it as people would generally tend to blame the complaining guy for supposedly must have done something wrong that warranted Freenom's Crooks reaction

But here is the funny thing. Freenom's Crooks have been suspended by the ICANN last September (for some shady stuff of theirs) and as a consequence they have been forbidden to do any new domain registration for 3 months and instead of announcing that to their user in Bold fonts on their landing page they have kept in small fonts in a place where nobody would notice it. I didn't anyway (see here for more on this: Freenom Fail To Comply With ICANN Suspension.)

PS: The suspension concerned generic (and not country-code) domain name registrations.

That sounds worrying. I have several domains registered with dot.tk that I have never had any issues with, and since Freenom has recently taken dot.tk over, I may be in a bit of worry. As far as Freenom is concerned, I did register a .ga domain (Malaysian TLD, I guess) but after some time it got taken down without any notice. I have lost all the files I had on a FTP server (not sure now was the folder on remote server removed) and in the end, the domain is available... for purchase. Yeah, thank you Freenom

 

[fouadChk]

That sounds worrying. I have several domains registered with dot.tk that I have never had any issues with, and since Freenom has recently taken dot.tk over, I may be in a bit of worry.

The outsourcing of dot.tk domain registration to Freenom's Crooks occurred during 2014's summer. It's not a take-over (dot.tk is still the property of the Tokelau island) but just an outsourcing of the domain registration process and the undelying overhead to a third-party/middle-man.

As far as Freenom is concerned, I did register a .ga domain (Malaysian TLD, I guess) but after some time it got taken down without any notice. I have lost all the files I had on a FTP server (not sure now was the folder on remote server removed) and in the end, the domain is available... for purchase. Yeah, thank you Freenom

dot.ga is the Gabon (Africa) country-code TLD

As far as Freenom is concerned, I did register a .ga domain (Malaysian TLD, I guess) but after some time it got taken down without any notice. I have lost all the files I had on a FTP server (not sure now was the folder on remote server removed) and in the end, the domain is available... for purchase. Yeah, thank you Freenom

Typical practice from Freenom's Crooks... They will end up ruining the reputation of the countries who entrusted them with their TLDs instead of promoting/building it.

 

[FabioLux]

I use the freedom to have a good time and never had any problems. I think they have a great demand and often end up experiencing some technical problems, but should be all temporary.