{"id":2543,"date":"2020-01-04T19:31:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-04T19:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/?p=2543"},"modified":"2020-01-04T19:31:31","modified_gmt":"2020-01-04T19:31:31","slug":"whats-in-a-domain-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/04\/whats-in-a-domain-name\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s in a (domain) name?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even when the university of akron is closed for break, I still keep up with some of the email that comes into the webmaster@uakron.edu<\/a> account since not everyone that tries to contact us would realize we\u2019re closed.\u00a0 Most of this is pretty routine but the day after break started, we got a note from the Chinese Domain Registrar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A domain is a collection of internet addresses – like uakron.edu or yahoo.com – that are managed by a central governing body.\u00a0 So, if you type in www.uakron.edu<\/a> your browser knows where to go on the internet.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The note said that a company in China was trying to register uakron.cn, uakron.com.cn and several variations on that\u00a0 – along with the internet keyword of \u201cuakron\u201d. The registrar noted that UA existed and decided to check in with us to see if this was legit before setting it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since this wasn\u2019t close to being legit, I quickly responded with a polite but firm negation – and carboned our legal department.\u00a0 I included the dates we were going to be closed for break and a note that the lawyers would be back in touch with a more official response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then I waited and hoped it was enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this actually goes through, then anyone in China – particularly prospective students – that searched on \u201cuakron\u201d would end up at this company\u2019s site instead of at our site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we got back from break, I updated my boss and a co-worker that oversees the UA brand.\u00a0 One of the lawyers emailed me back and said that he would look into it. The next day, I got a note from the Chinese company that basically said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, the registrar said we should pick a different name, but we really want to use this one so we will anyway,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So, I replied to this as well – politely, but firmly – that \u201cno\u201d they were not authorized to do that.\u00a0 I carboned everyone on that note – including the Chinese Registrar guy (who\u2019s my hero at this point for trying to do the right thing).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now we wait again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m glad I was keeping an eye on things and I\u2019m hoping we can really get this stopped before it gets implemented – much easier than trying to undo it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think I need to update my business cards to add \u201cDefender of the Internet\u201d.\u00a0 Or at least, \u201cDesignated Internet Panic Response Coordinator\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even when the university of akron is closed for break, I still keep up with some of the email that comes into the webmaster@uakron.edu account since not everyone that tries to contact us would realize we\u2019re closed.\u00a0 Most of this is pretty routine but the day after break started, we got a note from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2544,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2543\/revisions\/2544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thunderofwade.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}