Yesterday evening, I read Michele Neylon’s article about the current issue with websites that once resided on subdomains of GB.com. According to Neylon’s post, there is an ongoing dispute involving Centralnic and the company operating the GB.com domain name, and as a result, all of the GB.com subdomains no longer resolve. Instead, they are forwarded to a message on the GB.com homepage:
“You may be here because you have been sold a domain or email service using the gb.com domain that has ceased to work.
You can restore that service swiftly by registering with GB.COM Ltd.
GB.COM Ltd will not provide a service that you have paid others for, unless they have an arrangement with GB.COM Ltd.
If you have already paid for future service and it has ceased then you should contact your supplier.
If you have any queries please send us an email and we will endeavour to answer your questions.
GB.COM Ltd.
You can sign up here or if you have an account you can login here. “
Not only does this mean that the website operators no longer have operational websites where they once existed, but it also means that emails that utilize the subdomain probably won’t work either. Clearly this could be  crippling  for a business that operated on one of these subdomains.
Centralnic has put out a statement about the current situation, and that can also be read on Neylon’s post.
From an outsider’s perspective, this issue appears to be some sort of internal dispute. At the present time, GB.com seems to be registered to steve@enovi.com, and enovi.com is registered to a person named Steve Dyer. According to ICANNWiki.com, Centralnic was co-founded by Steve Dyer.
Hopefully this situation is resolved soon since there are a whole lot of sites operating on the GB.com domain name. However, it’s a cautionary tale about what can happen to websites that operate on subdomains.
I feel bad for the people who lost their business here, but building a business on a subdomain is a really bad idea.
There is also a similar risk dealing in ccTLD of unstable countries.
Brad
Elliot, you have a typo in your title, it’s tale, not tail.
And I agree with Brad, that’s the risk businesses take for not having a fully qualified domain name.
I wonder where all the emails for .gb.com domains are going??
@ Samit
Thanks… As soon as I saw the first comment, I noticed my typo.
Or, perhaps the title was purposely written to include a clever ‘play on words’!?
Clearly, as revealed by the article, the “moral of the tale” is to use extreme caution with respect to a certain class of domain “tail” (…in this particular case, the .gb.com domain ‘tail’)!
🙂
Ahhh … If only I was 1 minute quicker (ahead of your posted typo recognition comment) … you could have instead flaunted your literary prowess! hehe Next time!
Cheers,
Steve
Cant believe my website and email have been taken down. Centralnic have let me down very badly and how could they sell me a subdomain when they don’t control the gb.com. I will never use them again and I am going to speak to my lawyer about this
CentralNic domains face demise under United States Law – 15 USC § 1125 – False designations of origin, false descriptions, and dilution forbidden.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1125
If your using a CentralNic false ccTLD, you might want to consider abandoning it, or be subject to Prosecution under US Law In Rem or In Personam yourself.
Regards, Graham.