Vitalwerks and Microsoft Reach Settlement

  • July 9, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

On Monday, June 30, Microsoft filed a civil suit in a Nevada federal court to disrupt Bladabindi-Jenxcus, a pervasive family of malware that put millions of customers at risk.

Today, both Microsoft Corporation and Vitalwerks Internet Solutions, LLC announce they have reached a settlement in the matter of Microsoft Corporation  v. Mutairi, et al.

Microsoft has reviewed the evidence provided by Vitalwerks and enters into the settlement confident that Vitalwerks was not knowingly involved with the subdomains used to support malware.  Those spreading the malware abused Vitalwerks’ services.

Microsoft identified malware that had escaped Vitalwerks’ detection.  Upon notification and review of the evidence, Vitalwerks took immediate corrective action allowing Microsoft to identify victims of this malware.  The parties have agreed to permanently disable Vitalwerks subdomains used to control the malware.

In the process of redirecting traffic to its servers for malware detection, Microsoft acknowledges that a number of Vitalwerks customers were impacted by service outages as a result of a technical error. Microsoft regrets any inconvenience these customers may have experienced.

Update to Microsoft Takedown – Domains Fully Restored

  • July 3, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

We would like to give you an update on the Microsoft takedown and announce that ALL of the 23 domains that were seized by Microsoft on June 30 are now back in our control. Please realize that it may take up to 24 hours for the DNS to fully propagate, but everything should be fully functioning within the next day. One of the domains, noip.me, is taking longer to get back online, but it should be fully restored within the next day. Is your service back up? Please send us a tweet and let us know.

We are so sorry for the inconvenience that this takedown has caused our customers. Thank you so much for the support and for sticking with us through the entire process this week. More information surrounding this event will be released within the next few days, so stay tuned.

Again, THANK YOU.

 

A Message From Our CEO – Dan Durrer

  • July 2, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

A message from our CEO
As you certainly know by now, on Monday control of our most popular domain names were seized. As a result, millions of hostnames have gone dark and millions of our users have been put out of service.

We have been throwing everything we have at getting you back online with the least possible delay. For legal reasons, we have been restricted from reaching out to you, but we simply cannot stay quiet any longer. We are very close to a resolution and we will update you with more information as soon as we can.

We hear your overwhelming support on social media and would like you to know that we share your frustration. Thank you so much for your support! #FreeNoIP

Dan Durrer
Owner and CEO

Why is this happening?
You can also read our formal response on our blog to comment and share on Facebook and Twitter.

If you do not want to wait for the domains to come back online, you can use this solution to resolve the issues. You can create a new hostname on a domain that has not been seized by Microsoft. The following domains are free and working:

ddns.net
webhop.me
serveminecraft.net
ddnsking.com
onthewifi.com

To create a new hostname, login to your No-IP account and click on the Hosts/Redirects tab. Click “Add a Host”. Type in your hostname and choose one of the working domains.

Have any questions or comments? Please do not hesitate to open a Support Ticket or give us a call at 775.853.1883, but please understand that we are under heavy call/ticket volume and it may take more time than usual to get back to you.

Update to Microsoft Takedown

  • July 1, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

We want to update all our loyal customers about the service outages caused by the Microsoft takedown yesterday. No-IP and Microsoft have reached a settlement, and Microsoft will issue a statement acknowledging its errors. Earlier today, Microsoft filed papers in the Nevada case asking the judge to eliminate the injunction as to No-IP and return the hijacked domains to No-IP’s control. We expect that by tomorrow, No-IP’s operations will begin returning to normal. Other provisions of the settlement are confidential, but we can say that we are very pleased and consider ourselves fully vindicated.

There will be no changes in the operation of No-IP.

We were shocked that Microsoft did not contact No-IP to discuss its malware concerns prior to creating such havoc for innocent users. No-IP has a long history of proactively working with other companies when cases of alleged malicious activity have been reported to us. Unfortunately, Microsoft never contacted us or asked us to block any of these subdomains, even though we have an open line of communication with Microsoft corporate executives.

If you do not want to wait for the domains to come back online, you can use this solution to resolve the issues. You can create a new hostname on a domain that has not been seized by Microsoft. The following domains are free and working:

ddns.net
webhop.me
serveminecraft.net
ddnsking.com
onthewifi.com

To create a new hostname, login to your No-IP account and click on the Hosts/Redirects tab, click “Add a Host”. Type in your hostname and choose one of the working domains.

Because of this incident we have put a preventative measure in place that will allow hosts to failover to new domains, if a domain were ever to be seized from our control again.

Have any questions or comments? Please do not hesitate to open a Support Ticket or give us a call at 775.853.1883, but please understand that we are under heavy call/ticket volume and it may take more time than usual to get back to you

No-IP’s Formal Statement on Microsoft Takedown

  • June 30, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

We want to update all our loyal customers about the service outages that many of you are experiencing today. It is not a technical issue. This morning, Microsoft served a federal court order and seized 22 of our most commonly used domains because they claimed that some of the subdomains have been abused by creators of malware. We were very surprised by this. We have a long history of proactively working with other companies when cases of alleged malicious activity have been reported to us. Unfortunately, Microsoft never contacted us or asked us to block any subdomains, even though we have an open line of communication with Microsoft corporate executives.

We have been in contact with Microsoft today. They claim that their intent is to only filter out the known bad hostnames in each seized domain, while continuing to allow the good hostnames to resolve. However, this is not happening. Apparently, the Microsoft infrastructure is not able to handle the billions of queries from our customers. Millions of innocent users are experiencing outages to their services because of Microsoft’s attempt to remediate hostnames associated with a few bad actors.

Had Microsoft contacted us, we could and would have taken immediate action. Microsoft now claims that it just wants to get us to clean up our act, but its draconian actions have affected millions of innocent Internet users.

Vitalwerks and No­-IP have a very strict abuse policy. Our abuse team is constantly working to keep the No-­IP system domains free of spam and malicious activity. We use sophisticated filters and we scan our network daily for signs of malicious activity. Even with such precautions, our free dynamic DNS service does occasionally fall prey to cyber scammers, spammers, and malware distributors. But this heavy-handed action by Microsoft benefits no one. We will do our best to resolve this problem quickly.

The list of domains that were affected by this takedown are the following:
3utilities.com
bounceme.net
hopto.org
myftp.biz
myftp.org
myvnc.com
noip.me
no-ip.biz
no-ip.info
no-ip.org
redirectme.net
servebeer.com
serveblog.net
servecounterstrike.com
serveftp.com
servegame.com
servehalflife.com
servehttp.com
servemp3.com
servepics.com
servequake.com
sytes.net
zapto.org

About No­-IP
For over 14 years, No­-IP has been offering the best and most affordable Dynamic and Managed DNS solutions. Our robust Anycast Network with points of presence in 18 different world­class facilities across the globe guarantees our 100% Uptime, because let’s face it, there are no upsides to downtime. No­IP is the preferred choice for users on the Internet for dynamic DNS compared to smaller, less reliable alternatives. Our DNS Experts will ensure that your website is fast, reliable and always available.

Contact
Natalie Goguen
Marketing Manager
5905 South Virginia Street, Suite 200
Reno, NV 89502
press@no-ip.com

Support requests will not be answered via email. Please open a support ticket if you need assistance.

###

 

The Top 5 Signs You Should Invest In DNS

  • June 19, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

DNS is an integral component of your overall website strategy. So why should you invest? Individuals and enterprises alike spend valuable resources creating and promoting their brands and forget about managing perhaps the most important aspect of it – their domain name.

These are the Top 5 Signs you should invest in a managed DNS solution.

1. You have ever said, “Our website is up, but you can’t get to it.”

2. You rely on your website for revenue generation. Less downtime= more money in your pocket. Even a few minutes of downtime can end up costing you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

3. Your website only has one Managed DNS provider, or you rely on your hosting providers DNS.

4. You don’t have a budget to manage your DNS in-house, or the desire to worry about it.

5. If you want your website to be fast. With our 100+ points of presence across the globe on our Anycast network, your users will be connected to the server that is located closest to them. This makes connecting and loading webpages on your site faster.

So, why not invest today? Sign up for Managed DNS now.

 

No-IP Dynamic DNS Now Integrated Into Buffalo Routers

  • June 5, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

No-IP is very proud to announce our integration into Buffalo routers.

Starting with model WZR-1750DHP Buffalo users will be able to download updated firmware from the Buffalo website:
www.buffalotech.com/support-and-downloads/downloads
Buffalo has not announced the rollout schedule, but the plan is to include No-IP in all of their products beginning this summer.

“Working with Buffalo on the integration was an excellent experience. The speed with which they were able to move through the integration process was quite impressive and they were very responsive to our feedback and suggestions.”

An integrated Dynamic DNS solution is a value add for consumers. Dynamic DNS enables customers to access their computer remotely, run a server, or even monitor a webcam while away from their business or home. Dynamic DNS gives you the advantages of a static IP address even if your IP is dynamic. With No-IP, you create an easy to remember hostname. This hostname is what you type into your browser to connect to your devices remotely.
More Information
Learn more about No-IP integrated dynamic DNS for routers and other devices. Check out the Buffalo WZR-1750DHP router. Learn more about No-IP dynamic DNS or managed DNS services. Also, download our OEM Partners White Paper to learn more.

About No-IP
For over 14 years, No-IP has been offering the best and most affordable Dynamic and Managed DNS solutions. Our robust Anycast Network with points of presence in 18 different world class facilities across the globe guarantees our 100% Uptime, because let’s face it, there are no upsides to downtime. No-IP is the preferred choice for users on the Internet for dynamic DNS compared to smaller, less reliable alternatives. Our DNS Experts will ensure that your website is fast, reliable and always available, guaranteed.

Contact
Natalie Goguen
Marketing Manager
5905 South Virginia Street, Suite 200
Reno, NV 89502
Office: (775)853-1883
ngoguen@no-ip.com

 

What makes No-IP’s Free Dynamic DNS different?

  • May 29, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

We have found ourselves with many new customers since the announcement that DynDNS would be discontinuing their free dynamic DNS service. Because of this, we would like to take a few moments to talk about what makes No-IP and our services different from our competitors.

First, let’s start at the beginning…

No-IP was founded in 1999 in a college dorm room in California. Flash forward 15 years and we are still growing with over 18 million users worldwide, earning No-IP the title as the world’s largest free dynamic DNS provider. Not only is No-IP touted as the world’s largest free Dynamic DNS provider, but also as the best and most reliable Dynamic DNS provider. The reviews of our company speak for themselves, our customers are our brand advocates; from forums to social media and blog posts, our customers love us and we love our customers!

We are a small company with a large presence. We have recently grown our employee base to 14 full-time employees, with 2 part-time employees in the mix too. We all work hard to give our customers the best user experience that we can. Because we are such a small and tight knit company, we are able to have an awesome company philosophy; work hard, play hard. We enjoy taking breaks to go out to lunch with the entire team and go on company outings with family and friends. Oh and we like to do things like this too… One of our developers got turfed.

 

But enough about us and back to our awesome dynamic DNS service. It has changed very little over the past 15 years. Most changes have been to the benefit of our customers, including adding new domain choices, more features and hardware to back our extensive network. We are always innovating and improving our services. This includes our most recent release of new versions of both our Windows and Mac Dynamic Update Clients, so our service works on the latest operating systems. We have also expanded into International Payments, making it easier for customers in other countries to checkout in a currency familiar to them. We even accept Bitcoin, how bout them apples?

Although we are mostly known for our dynamic DNS service, we also offer a robust managed DNS service. We are proud of our ever-growing DNS network and the websites it supports. Over the past year, we have added 7 points of presence (POPs) to our extensive Anycast network, bringing our total POPs to 18 with more scheduled to come online in the near future. More server locations mean your website will be up, no matter what part of the world you, your customers, or readers are connecting from.

So, are you making the right choice by choosing No-IP? YES and for that, we thank you for choosing us.

Love our services? Send us some love on Twitter! We reply to most tweets and love to hear from our customers! @NoIPcom

FCC Battle Could Change the Internet As We Know It

  • May 9, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·
net neutralityYou have probably heard the discussions surrounding the end of Net Neutrality and the Internet as we know it.

What is Net Neutrality? Net Neutrality, according to Wikipedia, is defined as “the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.”

This allows all users on the Internet the ability to find and search for all content that they wish (as long as it’s legal).

So, what does the proposed end of Net Neutrality mean?
Internet Service Providers are arguing that in order for them to grow and expand access to the Internet, they should be able to charge more to certain content providers. Particularly ones that are a heavy burden on their networks, i.e. Netflix, Hulu, etc. This means that there would be a fast lane, slow lane and maybe even a no lane. If a site wants their content to get to users, it would have to be in the fast lane, meaning they would have to pay extra for it to get into the fast lane, or risk it being filtered out in the slow lane, or even the no lane.

Consider how ridiculous it would be if other markets operated the way the FCC is proposing. Take water for instance, you pay the water company a certain amount of money for water. Once you pay and it’s in your house, you can do with it what you wish. The water company doesn’t get to decide that instead of building more water processing plants, it will lowers the water pressure in your house, and then makes you pay for an upgraded service to get full water pressure.

Would that make any sense? Water don’t work this way, and neither should the Internet.

This type of censorship by ISPs wouldn’t help them expand access to the Internet, it would greatly reduce it. In reality, the ISP’s will just gain the power to favor certain content and limit other content. This means that even though they will be building bigger and better infrastructure for the Internet, only some sites will benefit from it. An Internet that treats data equally is what we need always and forever.

Want it broken down in a very easy way to understand? Check out this video…

At No-IP, we have always been a strong advocate for an open and free Internet. We feel that putting an end to Net Neutrality would hurt consumers and Internet innovation. We are against the End of Net Neutrality.

What can you do to help the fight?

1. Sign this White House Petition before May 15th to make it clear that you will not accept Fast Lanes, Slow Lanes and No lanes.

2. Watch the FCC’s proposed rules that will be aired to the public on May 15th to see if they will consider the “reclassification”.  Reclassification of ISPs as “telecommunications services,” would be one way to preserve the open internet that we have all loved and enjoyed for the last 20 years. Without reclassification, the FCC can no longer protect the us against the ISPs who seek to restructure and ruin the Internet that we have grown to love.

You can also check out this very interesting post about allowing the Internet to “demo” the slow lane to see what it would really be like.

We Are Now Accepting International Payments!

  • May 8, 2014·
  • by Natalie Goguen·

We are excited to announce that our millions of International customers now have a way to pay in their local currency!

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