Netfleet – Netfleet Domain Blog

Bug Report

Netfleet — Thu, 10 Dec 2015 02:28:41 +0000

“Names appearing on the wrong day”

Recently Netfleet identified a bug in the system which was displaying a small pool of names for auction 24hrs early.

Ausregistry publishes its official drop list in UTC time, often with several days worth of data. Netfleet takes this list several times an hour and slices it up into daily auction lists. These lists are converted to AEST with auctions ending at 1pm or during day light saving AEDT with auctions ending at 2pm.

As a result names published from Ausregistry as dropping between 3am UTC on day X and 3am UTC on day Y will be published as the active auction list for day Y.

During the change for AEST to AEDT several variables need to be updated to reflect the change and appropriately shift the auction. It appears one of these variables had been missed during the change over or accidentally reverted during an update (we are still reviewing change control to identify which is the case but have applied checks to ensure this issue does not resurface in the future).

As a result of this incorrect variable names marked to be dropping between 3am UTC and 4am UTC where being incorrectly shown on the list. In many cases this was not an issue as the names where of little interest, However due to internal ranking of names some more prominent names where displayed incorrectly, with the result of auction on the incorrect day being a failure as a result of the name not dropping.

Netfleet is continuing to monitor this bug but believes the root cause has been identified and the bug resolved.

We apologies to any affected clients and thank those who brought this to our attention and assisted with resolution.

Any further questions can be directed to support@netfleet.com.au

Small Bug in our reporting

Netfleet — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 23:50:15 +0000

Yesterday 01/12/2015 we had a bug in the reporting run that showed all domains had been lost at auction.

However as many customers realised, via whois checks, we managed to secure 100% of the names we where pursuing yesterday for our clients.

We have corrected this issue and apologies to the affected customers, on conclusion of today’s auction our billing run will start again and properly report the wins to the clients who where in the position of highest bidder.

If any of the winning clients have further issues with the domains secured as a result of this bug please contact support@netfleet.com.au

Regards,

Netfleet Team

November News

Netfleet — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 05:07:15 +0000

November is an exciting time for Netfleet. Improvements are being made everywhere to help our clients secure the best domain names available.

Advancing our alerts functions

In the coming weeks Netfleet will be launching new advanced alerting functionality that will better help you target keywords and monitor for domain availability.

We have taken advantage of the latest keyword building techniques provided from Google’s summer of code project and implemented it into our email alerting. Once this feature is available you will be able to more precisly target domains that are relevant to you keep and eye on https://www.netfleet.com.au/alerts for when the option becomes available to tweek your alerting.

New faster domain snappers

Exitingly our newest snapping servers are in production we should see them grabbing names faster than ever before for our clients.

We have spent a lot of time and money working out how to shave a few extra micro seconds off the snapping speed in a hope it gives Netfleet customer the edge in domain acquisition. Several new servers have been deployed with the fastest possible speeds available these servers are showing a big performance boost on our old infrastructure hopefully this means more domains for our clients.

Big successes in backordering

We have recently seen an increase in the use of our back ordering system, and for good reason. Its an easy submit and forget way to secure the best name for your business just a few days ago the back ordering system was able to snap the domain DIY.com.au.

Submitting a backorder will set the netfleet system to watch for your nominated domains availability. If the domain becomes available rather than compete at auction for your name we remove the name from the public auction and only go after it for you.

Its an awesome way to secure the perfect domain DIY.com.au speeks for that. check out how simple it is now https://www.netfleet.com.au/backorders

Our customer forum results are in

As many of you are aware over the last month we ran a customer feature request forum. Thanks to all the customers who submitted ideas for amazing ways we can improve the Netfleet platform.

The results are in and over the next few weeks the development team at Netfleet will be scoping the requirements to implement a significant number of the ideas, based on customer voting.

This means between now and the end of the year we should see new features which include –

Zone management functions
Re-introduction of client auctions and client to client communications
Improvements to the parking pages
Even faster transfer process removing the red tape
Bid retraction window

The number of responses and the contributions were all really appreciated once these few changes are in place we hope to open the forum again so we can build the Netfleet that our clients want to use .

Netfleet Idea’s Forum

Netfleet — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:05:41 +0000

As promised Netfleet is looking for our clients to tell us what they want to see changed we have opened an idea’s forum up on tricider –

http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/37CqptjvsJJ

Please head over to this link and list any Ideas you have, vote on existing posted ideas or add an argument for or against a posted idea, We want to hear what our customers want and why so tell us now.

The tricider link will be active for 30days we will then review the feedback.

Customer Communication – October

Netfleet — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 04:24:39 +0000

As many of our customers would be aware there has recently been a significant amount of media attention surrounding an incident that occurred with Netfleets auction system.

A telemarketer in his first week with Netfleet inadvertently accessed limited data on existing bids in our daily expired domain auction. It appears that he used that information as a benchmark to influence a bid from a third party on a single domain.

As the auction system is a blind auction, this inferred knowledge gave an unfair advantage to the third party. This disadvantaged the existing high bidder. We have issued a formal apology to the existing high bidder and are currently in ongoing discussions.

We would like to stress that this is an isolated incident but nevertheless something we take very seriously. Auction data has been reviewed for the week since this particular staff member commenced and aside from this case no other anomalous bidding can be seen. An existing bid has never been used to influence a new bid from a prospective buyer before or since.

Apart from not being in the interests of the existing high bidder, it is clearly not in the interests of Netfleet as it means Netfleet nets less money for catching the domain and has a much greater accounts burden.

We have put in place a simple measure to prevent this from ever happening again, by removing all access to the auction database, as should have always been the case.

We sincerely regret the disadvantage that this caused our existing customer. We would also like to apologise to all Netfleet customers if this has caused any doubt in the integrity of the auction platform and would like to reassure all our valued customers that it was indeed a one-off incident.

As a result of this incident we acknowledge that many customers have re raised concerns of the integrity of the platform. Netfleet has taken the following immediate actions, in a hope that our customers immediate concerns will be removed

– The entity known as Publishing Australia has now been suspended from bidding on our auction platform.

– Netfleet telesales activities in their current form will cease and will be refocused

Additionally we are investigating options to both implement an independent auction scrutineer with the aim of reviewing future auction data should any auction come into question as well as the possibility to have an independent audit of randomly selected data from past auctions to ensure the integrity of the platform.

As a further action in the next few days Netfleet will open a forum for constructive suggestions from our clients with regard to improvements you would like to see in the whole of the Netfleet platform. We will send another communication soon with instructions on how to participate. This forum will be open for several weeks on conclusion we intend to extend an invitation to those clients to participate in a focus group regarding the suggestions put forward.

Once again Netfleet sincerely apologies to any clients affected by this incident we wish to assure our customers this is a single incident that has never before occurred and steps have been taken to insure it will not occur again.

On a more positive note, Initial scoping has been conducted on several new features we should see commence development soon. Including the re-inclusion of client domains in auctions, the ability to adjust bids, the addition of a buyer/seller communication system to help expedite sales, and a simplification of our customer portal.

September 2015 – NEWS

Netfleet — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:28:32 +0000

There’s been a lot happening lately in the .au domain name industry, with proposed policy changes causing heated debate, industry shifts and also internally new focus!

Australians likely to register directly under .au

You’ve probably heard the news – that it’s likely in the near future Australians will be able to register domain names directly under .au. (eg instead of domainname.com.au, they can use domainname.au). You can read more about the change here www.domainer.com.au/draft-recommendations-from-the-2015-names-policy-panel/

This is potentially a huge shift in the Australian namespace and there are strong opinions are forming both for and against.

Proponents of the change include the following arguments:

It opens up millions of new opportunities for would-be registrants. As there are over 3m registrations in com.au and net.au, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to acquire a short, meaningful domain for their venture
It’s been successful overseas (.uk and .nz have been released in recent years) as people take up the chance to use a shorter, arguably more memorable domain
Should individuals be allowed to register these domains (as opposed to restricting to ABN holders as is currently the case), it means bloggers, micro-businesses etc have a viable Australian option other than the much-derided id.au
It’s an Australian-focussed defence to the impact of the new gTLDs that have entered the market. Instead of businesses drifting over to .web, .xyz etc, this is an option for them to retain their Australian identity

Those in opposition make the following points:

It adds a level of confusion for Australians looking for businesses online. Do they look for the com.au, the net.au or the .au
Many businesses will feel forced into ‘defensive registrations’ to protect their brand. It will cost them money but the domain will never be actively used
Domainers and those with a legitimate investment in domain names may see the value of their portfolios eroded due to the sudden increase in supply
Some people feel there are plenty of viable options within com.au and net.au and that businesses just need to consider buying existing domains rather than only considering domains available for free registration. After all, if people only ever bought brand new houses, and 1/3rd of them were sitting empty, then no doubt there would be a sever housing shortage

If you are interested you can read more on the arguments for here http://tinyurl.com/p2tcl6z and to read some strong arguments against, visit the domaining forum DNtrade here http://tinyurl.com/pd6q7t7

Whatever your opinion you should have you say here – http://www.auda.org.au/policies/panels-and-committees/2015-names-policy-panel/ before 30th September.

Exciting Changes at Netfleet

We would like to introduce the new head of Netfleet – Jonathan Gleeson, welcome to the team. Jonathan has a history in the domains and webhosting industry in Australia having worked in various technology management capacities for both Netregistry and Melbourne IT.

This change in leadership will see a keen focus remain on the aftermarket space, However with new leadership comes new ideas and new life for Netfleet. We hope to add a new range of products and services over the next 12 months. Including things like an increased customer service capacity, new auction opportunities for client owned domains, a refresh of the website to enable new registration and domain portfolio management and lots more. We are sure many of you have already noticed the changes to our checkout process.

Important Changes to our Auction format

Netfleet — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 01:29:52 +0000

We have been experimenting with different auction formats over the past few weeks in order to find the best solution format for selling domain names. On 21st October we will trial first price sealed bid auctions. In short, we will not show any prices on our auction platform, with all bids being fixed offers (being the price you enter [plus the buyers premium] will be the price paid – there will not be a proxy bidding system), and at the end of auction the highest offer wins. We will also be setting BIN prices on a selection of domain names. These will be set before that day’s auction starts, similar to eBay’s ‘Buy it Now or Best Offer’ option, giving everyone an equal chance at buying the domain for the BIN price.

If two offers for the same price are made by different clients, the first client to make that offer will be elected the winner. The same goes for whoever hits the BIN price first.

What this means is you will no longer need to monitor the bidding all day – you simply enter the price you are prepared to pay for the domain name, and walk away to get on with your business. When the auction closes at 2pm, you will see if you placed the highest offer, or hit the BIN price first. This also completely negates snipe bidding, which has been a common complaint and frustration for many of our clients.

We will publish that days prices from 2pm-3pm on our usual auction page, however once the new auction starts, we will only publish sales over $1,000. We think that publishing prices less than $1,000 may have a negative effect on the domain market, and as many of our clients have stated hurts potential resale opportunities. Our daily email will go out to all as usual, but include every domain sale for that day, so you will always have a record.

So, again these changes will come in to effect on 21st October when the auction reopens at 3pm (Sydney time), we hope you enjoy our latest trial of format.

Retirement of Aftermarket Auction

Netfleet — Tue, 24 Sep 2013 01:16:40 +0000

We have decided to retire our current Aftermarket Auction format after 12 months of hit and miss results and to focus our attention once again on the For Sale/Domain Catalogue option.

The format failed to achieve the objectives I set for it in October 2012. Even though it performed well on volume it never gained much traction in achieving prices comparable to the Offer / Counter offer process in the Domain Catalogue. We tried our best to increase the number of eyes seeing the auctions by merging them with the popular expired domain auctions but they still failed to gain significant traction.

I will be contacting sellers with current listings to discuss their options moving forwards after cancelling their listings. I will also assist any current buyers with bids on existing listings to make an offer to purchase from the seller before cancelling the listing.

We did notice a large volume of smaller sales so I will be re-introducing the “bargain basement” category to the For Sale / Domain Catalogue which will include any domains with a buy now price of < $101 for anyone looking to make a quick sale.

September Sale at Netfleet

Netfleet — Mon, 26 Aug 2013 07:51:36 +0000

Spring has sprung and we are celebrating the new season with two special offers – use them together to achieve maximum bang for your buck!

Both offers are available for all domain name auction sales from Sunday 1st September to Monday 30th September (inclusive).

$10 First Bidders discount

It’s back! Get in first and bid on any Domain Name at auction and you will receive a $10.00 first bidders discount.

That means that every single name purchased in the auction is $0 reserve and $0 minimum bid.

Approx. 1000 domain names expire in Australia every single day – with approx 7000 domain names available in the Netfleet auction every week and 30,000 available in the Netfleet auction every month – there are incredible opportunities literally waiting to be snapped up!

19.95 Buyers Premium

The Buyers Premium including 2 years registration of your domain name has been SLASHED.

For the month of September, you won’t pay $49.95 for your buyers premium – you will pay a measly $19.95!

It’s as easy as 1,2,3

The sale is on every domain name auction purchase for the month of September, no tricky promo codes to remember, no messy details to enter. Simply;
1. Log in to your Netfleet account
2. Bid in the auction on any name of your choice – if you are the first bidder, you will receive the first bidder’s discount of $10.00 – automatically!
3. If you are the winning bidder, check your email to see if the name has been successfully caught on your behalf and enjoy the discounted $19.95 Buyers Premium on your final invoice.

Revised Pricing at Netfleet

Netfleet — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 08:02:10 +0000

Change of Registrant

Netfleet has consistently offered the very lowest prices on their Change of Registrant (COR) service. Benefits of the Netfleet COR compared to other registrars are;

1. Completely paperless
2. Takes only minutes to initiate and complete
3. Step by Step guided email instructions

Our Change of Registrant process includes 2 years of domain name registration and will increase to $49.95 (including GST) in early October. The pricing is now in line with Netfleet’s 2 yr domain registration charge.

Renewals

Netfleet renewals, while still amongst the very lowest in the industry, will increase to $22.95 (including GST) in early October.

Netfleet’s renewal process is;

1. Paperless
2. Initiated at the click of a button
3. Can be automated if requested through your account console