It feels like just a few weeks ago that the Internet rallied together against the SOPA and PIPA bills that were being debated in Congress. Those bills pale in comparison to the new bill that is making its way through the rounds, H.R. 3523 or CISPA (Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act). The new bill has failed to gain mainstream attention, but I don’t see that lasting very much longer.

What makes CISPA so much worse than SOPA and PIPA? Well, for starters, the vagueness of the bill is the scary part. The words in the bill are so very broad that it could make a 78-year-old grandma that isn’t even a user of the Internet shiver with fear.

The bill would encourage private companies to monitor cyber threat information that goes across their networks and then share that information with the government. The requirements for the government to request the information are very broad and that is the main issue with the bill.

The opening line of the bill, which can be read here, displays the vagueness and broad reach:

“To provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes.”

The “and for other purposes” really raises concerns. What are the other purposes?

This bill could mean that everything you type into your web browser would be monitored and sent off to the government. We are not against going after cyber threats, but the scope of this bill is so broad that it oversteps the freedom of the innocent.

What will the consequences of this bill? Companies acting as “big brother” may over monitor our online activity, making criminals out of all of us. What effect would this bill have on the Internet experience? Leave your comments below.

Check out Part 2 of this article here.

Maintenance outages happen, even when you think you have all of your ducks in a row, they still can happen. A 20 minute routine software update can quickly turn into a few hours of hell.

Last night, we upgraded to a new major software version on our network.  The process was supposed to update each of the switches on our network automatically, but for some reason it only updated 2 of them, leaving the others in a weird state.

During the outage, DNS requests were being resolved at our external sites and mail was spooled at our secondary location, so no information was lost.

At 4am,  the network stabilized and service was restored.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for being users of No-IP.

It seems like just yesterday that we announced 12 million No-IP users and here we are again, already at 13 MILLION! Thank you to everyone for your continued support and for choosing No-IP. We wouldn’t be where we are today if it wasn’t for our loyal users.

In honor of our 13 million milestones, we are offering 13% off of all new services AND renewals until April 7th, 2012! The coupon code is 13MILLION.

Enjoy and thanks again!

Do you have a domain name registered? Have you ever received an email or even snail mail from a domain registry group that states that your domain name is expiring and you need to renew it for $75 or some other atrociously high price? If you have, be sure to know that it is a scam.

How did they get my contact information?
When you register a domain, you need to provide the registrar with a valid name, mailing address and email address to provide to the WHOIS database, without this information you cannot register the domain. Shady domain registries troll the WHOIS records for domains that are soon to be expired and send a letter or email to the owner of the domain. It usually says something along the lines of “your domain is expiring soon, you must renew it before you lose it” What they don’t mention is that your domain is not registered with them and the transaction would actually be a domain transfer, not renewal and at a price that is most likely 5 times as much!

How can I avoid this?
You can avoid getting these type of request by purchasing Private Registration for your domain. Private Registration removes your address, email address and phone number and replaces it with our nondescript information.  Any spam sent to the email or physical address is filtered through, and the important stuff is forwarded on to you. Check out the example below of how your domain information would appear in the WHOIS database:

Without Private Registration:
Your Name
you@youremail.com
4567 Your Street Address
Your City, ST, 12345
Your Country
Your Phone #: 555.555.5555

With Private Registration:
Registration Privacy, No-IP.com
dynamicallygeneratedemail@privacy.no-ip.com(this address changes dynamically every 10 days, so by the time the email is added to a spam list, chances are high that it is already invalid and stale)
P.O. Box 19083
Reno, NV 89511
United States
775-853-1883

So, please do not fall victim to these domain registry groups. When you register your domain, consider adding Private Registration to keep your information private. Also, any renewal or expiration notifications from us about your domain will be from domains@no-ip or noreply@no-ip.com and we will NEVER contact you via snail mail.

If you have any questions about your domain registrations with No-IP, you can always contact our support department for help. Also, be sure to share this with your friends and family to save them from being scammed as well.

Plus, SAVE 25% on domain registrations today through March 31st with offer code MAR25. Register your domain now! (and be sure to add Private Registration to it!)

Congrats to our 10 winners! Please send your No-IP username to ngoguen-giveaway(at)no-ip(dot)com. Stay tuned for more fun giveaways! Also, check back to our blog weekly for helpful articles and tips!

The 10 winners are:

1. Josh Sigstad “No-IP works great for free domain redirection!”
2. Benedict Acosta “Simple service with unlimited possibilities… That’s what No-IP can provide.”
3. Mikael Eriksson “Been using No-IP for many years, I’ve yet to have a single problem with it. Works Awesome!”
4. Jesse S “No-IP is awesome! I can access my entire computer from anywhere in the world at any time, hassle free.”
5. Rajat “The services provided by No-IP are just too good.”
6. Nico Verhelst “Absolutely the best! I’ve been using it every day and never had any problems!”
7. Paul Stephens “I love the simplicity of the services that No-IP offers. My website is always available & I have backup mail redundancy….. Simply Awesome. Thanks No-IP.”
8. Sal “The fastest and easiest service. Ever.”
9. James  “No-IP is fast and no hassle.”
10. David Z “Very useful and easy to use! Thanks!”

Microsoft recently released a statement that there has been a major security exploit found in varying versions of the Remote Desktop Protocol.  This exploit allows attackers to remotely implement code execution.

Excerpt from the Microsoft release:

“The more severe of these vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if an attacker sends a sequence of specially crafted RDP packets to an affected system.”

Since Remote Desktop isn’t automatically enabled, you are not at risk if you do not use Remote Desktop. However, if you do use Remote Desktop, you should download the necessary patches immediately to mitigate your risk.  If you have automatic update enabled, the update will automatically download and install. If you do not, take a few minutes to update now. Check out these instructions on updating your software.

Thanks for being a fan of No-IP on Facebook! We really appreciate your continued support and feedback! To win, simply leave a review of No-IP in the comments.

We will be giving away No-IP Gear including,  t-shirts, No-IP Enhanced, free domain registrations and a bunch of sweet No-IP stickers randomly. We will announce the 10 winners here, on our blog, Wednesday morning.

Enjoy and Viel Glück! (Good Luck!)

So, you have finally decided to register your very own domain. Maybe you are starting your own company, or you just want a place on the web to call your own. Follow these tips for choosing the right domain!

1. Easy to Remember. With an easy to remember domain, your customers, friends, blog readers, etc will be able to easily reach your site without much thought. For individuals, a great place to start is simply your very own name.

2. If your domain is already taken, don’t fret! You can always register other TLDs instead of the .com version… and if you really had your heart set on a .com, think of other creative names. Don’t limit yourself, the options are endless.

3. Keep it short and sweet. Domains have the ability to have up to 63 characters, but that does not mean you should. Shorter domains are easier to type and remember.

4. Be different. Don’t choice a domain that has the possibility of having a copyright infringement. (i.e. www.taco-bell.com) Check out

5. Say your domain out loud and see how it sounds. If your domain rolls off the tongue and is easily understood, you have a winner. Your domain will be the main focus of marketing and sales, so this is major. If you can’t easily pronounce it and you have yourself and others saying “what did you say? or “how do you spell that?” then choose another.

6. And last but not least, beware of the domains that read like the following:
www.amigonefuneralhome.com
www.Actionpaintballsac.com
www.childrenslaughter.com
Leave your questions and comments below! As always, share this on Facebook and Twitter!

Did you know that we are now the World’s Largest Free Dynamic DNS Provider? We are proud to say that we have been offering reliable, free dynamic DNS since 1999. Our Free Dynamic DNS  includes not just 1, but 3 entirely FREE hostnames, no commitment required. Our free hostnames even come with a bunch of cool domains to choose from like zapto.org, servebeer.com and many more! We hate to toot our own horn, but BEEP – BEEP.

What can you do with those 3 free hostnames though?

1. Love to play videogames? Play with easily with your friends by setting up your own video game server.

2. Have a pet, or someone at your home while you are at work or away? Setup a web camera and easily monitor your home remotely via the web. With DNS you will be able to point your dynamic IP address (one that changes and is not static) to an easy to remember URL to reach your camera.

3. Run your own FTP or email server from your home even if your Internet Service Provider (ISP) blocks port 80.

4. Access your computer remotely. Need to access your computer from work or while you are away? Access your computer even if your dynamic IP address has changed recently.

So, instead of spending tons of money a year on a static IP address, or paying for a bunch of extra features you don’t need with the other guys, why not just sign up for a free dynamic DNS account with No-IP? Sign Up today! Need more hostnames than 3 or would you like DNS on your very own domain? Check out our Enhanced DNS or our Plus DNS services as well!