This was posted 2 years 8 months 3 days ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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.au Direct Domain Name Registration at auDA Cost Price of $8.67/Year for 1-5 Years (RRP $14.75/Yr) @ VentraIP

230

The next gold rush, the guy who owns my last name .com.au won't sell it for love nor money and paid a listing offering it for ~$60,000USD
For example ozbargain.au will be offered to scotty and if he doesn't buy it a squatter will buy it like ozbargains.com.au.
Protect your brand or name from cybersquatters.
It's shorter and those with .com.au domain names using it for email will probably not buy it.
Domains will be available to the public 21st September but if it's uncontested you can consider buying the .com.au, .net.au or .org.au to claim it early

If you are a cheapskate and are happy trying a much smaller site $14.25 recurring saving $0.5 a year: https://www.micron21.com/audirect

.au domain names will be offered to applied current com.au, net.au, org.au owners in 2 days 24/3
Who gets first dibs?

VentraIP selling .au domains to those with priority allocation starting 24th March.
REGISTRATION PRICE
RRP $14.75/yr
$8.67/yr
SAVE 40% for the 1st year

Why is it so cheap?

Use the official auDA Priority Status Tool to look up the priority allocation status for a .au direct domain name, as well as review the status for all applicable existing domain names against it. This will help you identify whom the registrant may need to contact and negotiate with to secure a contested .au direct domain name.

The tool will display matching names to the .au direct name with the following labels:
• Priority category 1: Domain names created on or before 4 Feb 2018
• Priority category 2: Domain names created after 4 Feb 2018 and before 24 Mar 2022

Along with one of the following status labels:
• Applied: The registrant has applied for priority status to register the exact match of the name in .au,
• Not applied: Registrant has not yet applied for priority status to register the exact match of the name in .au,
• Declined: Registrant has indicated they either do not wish to register the exact match of the name in the .au namespace or have withdrawn their priority status.

Why is the AuDA website down?
Increased rate of 530 / 1016 errors
Investigating - Cloudflare is aware of an increased rate of 530 / 1016 errors.

We are investigating this issue.
Mar 22, 05:51 UTC

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$50 cash in VIP Wallet for the referrer after referee signs up to a new hosting service and either a new domain name or transfer an existing domain name, and remains an active customer for at least 60 days

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closed Comments

  • For anyone following along. Registrations open at 1pm AEDT. Unfortunately there is some stuff that you need to keep in mind.

    There have been some changes to the .au direct launch. Due to issues implementing the .au direct TLD at the Afilias registry, people who purchase a .au direct domain name will not have their DNS record added to the .au zone until it is done manually by Afilias.

    Afilias will perform these actions once a day, Tuesday to Friday each week, which means you could have to wait a few days until your DNS records become active on the domain name.

    All registrations and updates to nameservers will occur on this schedule:

    Today 1:00PM AEDT > Tomorrow 4:00AM AEDT – Go live tomorrow 6:00AM AEDT
    Friday 4:00AM > Tuesday 4:00AM – Go live Tuesday 6:00AM AEDT

    Then the cycle will happen each day at the same times from Tuesday to Saturday, for the next 4-6 weeks.

    This means that you want to get your name server set immediately and make sure you've got the correct one set and do not change them and wait for a sync event to happen once domains have been added to the zone file they will start resolving.

    I'll keep this up-to-date throughout the day.

    Updates [1] [2] [3] [4]

    • Finally Ventra IPis posted a status update concerning this issue https://status.ventraip.com.au/event/1575

      Due to issues launching the new .au direct domain names, newly registered domain names will not resolve to your chosen site until the DNS for the domain is manually added to the registry by Afilias.

      Once you have registered your .au direct domain, you will be able to edit your Nameserver records through VIPControl; however, the DNS will not be synced to the registry until Afilias adds them manually. Once the DNS zone is manually added, your website will be able to resolve as normal.

      Afilias will perform these actions once a day, Tuesday to Friday each week, which means you could have to wait a few days until your DNS records become active on the domain name.

      The issue will also include changing Nameserver records for .au direct domains from one Nameserver to another.

      We are pressuring auDA and Afilias to perform these manual actions daily to reduce the delay for our customers.

      We currently do not know when DNS will update automatically for .au direct domain names, although we have been informed that it could be at least a week before the fix is implemented.

      This issue will not affect existing .au domain names such as .com.au and .net.au; these will continue to work as expected.

      We very much apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. Unfortunately, these issues are outside of our control and will be affecting everyone who acquires a .au direct domain.

    • Everyone can find the latest information here in regards to these issues and I'll be keeping it up-to-date as new information gets added.

      • This issue is now resolved. Zone file syncing is now automated again. Name Server update should propagate immediately and not require a sync event to happen.

  • +3

    Seems like just another way for registrars to make more money, make another domain rather than allowing for 'snappy domain addresses'.

    • -2

      .au is shorter is great for email. Easier to remember for customers to type in.
      For example [email protected] is way better than [email protected]

      • +1

        Do we really need to bother with .au domains?

        • +1

          Yes if you own a business.
          For example ozbargains.com.au redirects to a page offering it for sale
          10% of people typing ozbargain.com.au will type the wrong thing and get there
          He could runs ads on it or even worse porn

          Pop superstar Madonna has won her case to evict a New York cybersquatter from the Internet address "madonna.com," which was initially a porn site, U.N. arbitrators said Monday.

          • @[Deactivated]: What do you think Google will think of them in terms of SEO?

            • +1

              @Crownanchor: They are relying on people typoing, not SEO so that doesn't apply
              SEO it would rank low and Google Chrome warns Ozbargains.com.au is impersonating Ozbargain

          • +4

            @[Deactivated]: Sorry Levity, you've just provided reasons NOT to have .au duplicate domains rather than your original intent to justify it.

            If ozbargain.au never existed, it wouldn't be a problem.

            Also most people aren't used to no .com in .com.au so will be forgotten or considered dodgy. Similar to how the .co TLD pretty much failed and no respectable company uses that for daily use.

            • +1

              @Hybroid: I'm not arguing it should exist.
              I'm arguing why you have to buy it as a business owning the original TLD

              dra.dell.com(Dell Remote Assist)
              https://dradell.com/ redirects to malware website scamming people who are trying to get remote assistance.
              If they spend $15 preemptively they could stop this happening

              • +1

                @[Deactivated]: Ergo @Petal666's original comment above is perfectly valid.

                Seems like just another way for registrars to make more money, make another domain rather than allowing for 'snappy domain addresses'.

                Yep, that's exactly what it is. It's not about "easier to remember for customers to type in."

                • @Hybroid: Yes I agree it is a extra tld that will make auDA more money. If you are a business with any revenue $8.67 is not much for peace of mind

            • @Hybroid: We've been quite programmed to use .com and .com.au through decades of use. Like other posts below/above have mentioned, sounds like registrars looking for more ways to milk that cow

              • +2

                @ryf: .co .io .to .me and other short 2 letter domain names have become quite mainstream
                I think only old non tech savvy people think .com.au/.com is required

          • @[Deactivated]:

            He could runs ads on it or even worse porn

            Worse??? I'm the words of the ginger furrer Please Explain?

      • +2

        Businesses better buy it just to future proof against people accidentally dropping the .com in emails. .au solves no real problems but introduced extra problems.

        • Thankyou for explaining it

        • It's literally a mafia racket. Buy this .au domain, it will protect your business. Same as paying protection fees.

    • what's really bad is it is a squatters paradise with the eligibility criteria

      • These types of people have been able to squat for many years successfully thanks to the monetisation policy. You'd also think they would be one of the industries most interested in having this happen. But they didn't see it that way.

  • +4

    AuDA is down, along with quite a few other websites, because AuDA broke DNSSEC for the .au TLD. Validating resolvers like Cloudflare will reject it.

    I guess they were more interested in selling subdomains than maintaining their infrastructure…

    I don't see why they risk confusion and scam opportunity by opening up *.au when there's limitless space at the root level. Could have gone with .straya instead

    • Its back up
      Conveniently the website was down Error 1016/503 and the receptionist has no internet 😮 and doesn't even know when registration starts :O

    • Yep that's because the techies who used to run it have been sidelined so the marketing & accountants can take charge to fund their mates & egos. Reminds me of ACS.

      • ACS used to provide Uni Faculty Clubs Students with free Concession membership but retracted it and now charge $72 to send you spam, that's probably true

        • Didn't they introduce a charge because hundreds or thousands of Whirlpoolers joined because of free software? I can't remember exaclty.

          • @Daabido: Haha, I must have missed the free software all I got was spam

      • +4

        … but the team of KPMG consultants spent 6 months and $8M to tell us we need to remove the technical staff and go to market for a whole muppet of MBAs, preferably international with no domain expertise. Only then could we reinvigorate the revenue landscape of the corporation in furtherance to maximal synergy.

        Do you really believe such a reputable consultancy would piss money away and give terrible advice?

        /s

        • Is this insider knowledge?
          Thanks for the lolz

        • Don't you worry— KPMG is out there, right now, finding the cheapest, casual workers (with the potential to go permanent!) they can buy!

          • @Geekomatic: Every big company hires contract workers including Facebook and the Australian government to do IT

  • +1

    Seems like Micron21 have a better deal for .au registrations, they're charging $8.67/yr (or the auDA cost price) ongoing rather than just for the first year: https://www.micron21.com/audirect

    • RRP is $14.25 I will add it as secondary link
      Imo Ventra has way better service not going to give that up for 50c

      • Their first year cost is the same as VentraIP, however recurring you're still only paying the auDA cost price of $8.67/yr rather than $14.75, a saving of $6.08, not 50c.

        Can't speak for the service of either company, but I believe Micron21 are pretty well regarded in the business/enterprise space.

        • +2

          After rereading I believe it means that the RRP is still $14.25
          Micron21's new price for .au direct, saving of 40% on RRP $14.25
          Purchase your .au direct with Micron21 now and only ever pay auDA's cost price for renewals with us.

  • +1

    Popcorn will be required for conflict resolution:

    Where no agreement is reached:

    • The .au direct domain name remains subject to a Priority Hold;
    • The name remains on Priority Hold until there is only one active application remaining;
    • LMAO
      Priority category 1 - Registered on or before 4 Feb 2018
      Domain Status
      auda.org.au Not applied
      auda.com.au Not applied
      auda.net.au Not applied

  • +3

    AuDA should be giving anyone with a .com.aU Domain the .aU for free. One has to have an ABN for the .com.aU and now they are just allowing anyone to take the .aU. It's a money making excercise as businesses will be forced to protect their existing .com.aU from Cyber Squatters. Bloody scam…….unless they by default incl the .aU with any .com.aU registrations.

    • +2

      .aU

      • Ha, yeah, just had to differentiate between the two so hard not to incl a few au's :-/

  • +3

    Meanwhile the .com.au domain I am otherwise entitled to is sat on by squatters, these rules mean they are automatically entitled to .au as well….

    • +1

      ^— This. It can be quite hard for some of my customers to get their ligitimate registered business in a .com.au or .org.au and I always question why they can give them a hard time about having a close relationship to the domain name, yet there are 100s or 1000s of domain names being squatted that have NOTHING to do with the entities holding them.

      I think instead of making more money flogging .au, AuDA should do a massive house cleaning on these scalpers! Now THAT I would be impressed with.

      • +1

        There is an appeal process to get a domain handed over but "leaving the page blank for 4 years" isn't a valid reason.

        Obviously this is nothing more than a money grab, they're expecting every .com.au holder to buy .au simply to protect it - double their revenue, no value added and more confusion for end users. A good corporate citizen would just redirect .au to .com.au —— no confusion and everyone gains from simplification.

        • +1

          There is an appeal process to get a domain handed over but "leaving the page blank for 4 years" isn't a valid reason.

          Yeah technically the general reporting system is not intended for stuff like this you have to go to the paid appealed processed and those are 2 to $5000 depending on what type of panel you're looking to review your case.

    • DingoBlue: the somewhat hopeful news for you is the squatters might not choose to exercise their rights and the domain might go into the general pool in .au.

      The domain name squatting industry was heavily against this as it dilution their portfolio and means more money they have to spend on their large squatting portfolios.

      Ramrunner: auDA did try but it was too late as the domain name squatters were the ones that triggered the governance review so they ended up fighting that as well.

      However a little good news is they did crack down a little bit and we're able to tighten the monetisation policy. But that only protects restricted name spaces in writing now.

  • +1

    So frustrating the one I want is just a redirect to a hotel booking site and it has nothing to do with accom or tourism. Not sure they'll claim by Sept but it just means I can't.

    • Book it in case they don't. Having said that, I am not sure I would want a .au if the .com.au is already taken. I say the same thing if a .com is already taken as I always like to have both to save confusion (if a business at least).

      • I'm sure the .com.au would get notified if I try to claim .au
        I wonder if it's worth leaving it for 6 months in case they are not monitoring their redirects for .au conversion

        • If you don't own a domain name in either category one or two for the string you can't register into the six months is up anyway and at that time it will be returned to the general pool and anyone can get it.

          • @Kyle-K: Yeah I tried registering the .org.au but they have that tightly wrapped up for charities. Ahh well

  • so what happens to your fee if your application is unsuccessful?

    if there is an unresolved conflict it says you need to reapply each year?

    • so what happens to your fee if your application is unsuccessful?

      Essentially it's forfeited or converted to 1st year registration.

      But it's a little bit more complicated than that. Depending on what category you fall into you should really think about it as a block as it'll make your second question a little clearer.

      if there is an unresolved conflict it says you need to reapply each year?

      Yeah because if you don't pay your essentially withdrawing your application and the other party in the Contention Set or other parties will either be awarded the domain or continue to block and fight it out.

      It's going to depend on where your domain name falls on the https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool on what you actually should do.

      • -1

        Wow, so instead of selling a domain for $x/yr, they're selling the hold on it to multiple people at $x/yr. That person deserves a promotion!

    • I asked VentraIP today and they said the fee will be refunded if the application is unsuccessful.

  • Today's the day!

    Does anyone know if the other candidate registrants of a .au domain get notified if someone applies? i.e. say there's two priority category 1 candidates, if one applies for the .au domain does the other get notified? If that's the case, should we be waiting until the very last day to apply to give them the least time to respond? Or if they don't get notified, I guess it doesn't matter? We'd still have to wait until 20 Sept to see if they do anyways.

    • So according to VentraIP the other candidates don't get notified when you apply for a potentially contested .au domain. The only way they would know is by either applying themselves (or have already applied) or by using that priority status tool.

      • Yep that's correct.

    • Starts at 1pm today.

  • Its 1PM

    • +1

      Meltdown has occurred.

      • Sure has. Cant access VentraIP to register, but at least Synergy Wholesale is working well.

  • +2

    Also the deal is better than what is posted. Its a 40% saving for upto 5 years if you purchase additional years in the original registration. Its not limited to just the first year.

  • +1

    https://status.ventraip.com.au/event/1575

    Due to issues launching the new .au direct domain names, newly registered domain names will not resolve to your chosen site until the DNS for the domain is manually added to the registry by Afilias.

    Once you have registered your .au direct domain, you will be able to edit your Nameserver records through VIPControl; however, the DNS will not be synced to the registry until Afilias adds them manually. Once the DNS zone is manually added, your website will be able to resolve as normal.

    Afilias will perform these actions once a day, Tuesday to Friday each week, which means you could have to wait a few days until your DNS records become active on the domain name.

    The issue will also include changing Nameserver records for .au direct domains from one Nameserver to another.

    We are pressuring auDA and Afilias to perform these manual actions daily to reduce the delay for our customers.

    We currently do not know when DNS will update automatically for .au direct domain names, although we have been informed that it could be at least a week before the fix is implemented.

    This issue will not affect existing .au domain names such as .com.au and .net.au; these will continue to work as expected.

    We very much apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you. Unfortunately, these issues are outside of our control and will be affecting everyone who acquires a .au direct domain.

  • Has anyone got a new (not existing) .au domain? When I try, it says the priority guys have until the 20th September to apply for the .au version, and I can't even apply for it now.

    So on the flip side, I guess I don't have to protect my existing .com.au domains until 20th September either?

    • Both points are correct. The domain you're trying might already have a .com.au, .net.au, .org.au, or .id.au version?

      If your domain is uncontested you are correct. If it is contested, I'd get my application in ASAP.

      • Does it really matter when you get your application in, during the six-month priority registration period? From what I can tell, there's no benefit to applying immediately, vs applying on the last day of the six-month period - in fact, the later you apply the more value you get from your $8.67 application/registration fee.

        Unless I'm mistaken? Happy to be corrected.

        In my view, this really does feel like a scam. Is anyone really asking for this new TLD? Like many others have said, it's just a pure revenue-raising exercise. Quite annoying.

        • To be honest it comes down to strategy and where you fall in the category one and two. But yes you're correct doing it last minute could be a benefit doing it early could also be a benefit depends on where you fall.

          In my view, this really does feel like a scam. Is anyone really asking for this new TLD? Like many others have said, it's just a pure revenue-raising exercise. Quite annoying.

          Me because it gives more opportunities unlike the other name spaces this one's unrestricted and the minimum requirement is it just being an Australian resident.

          I personally put nine domain names in direct .au yesterday that didn't exist in the.au name space at all.

          Long-term the only valuable part of the extension is going to be the bit on the end the .au part the namespace is going to get significantly larger in the next few years with a second round of new gTLDs opening up.

          And when you live in that world which we saw to do already it's going to come down to the bit at the end.

    • Check your status here https://www.auda.org.au/tools/priority-status-tool which category do you fall in and where did the other applicants fall as well.

  • FYI, the discount applies to ALL years you pay up front. So the higher renewal price only kicks in later. That is: pay for 5 years up front.

    • Do you get the option here to choose 5 years?

      • you do, and I did. That's why I said it :)

        • Sorry, I tried before asking and didn't see any option to change to 5 years. Have now gone back and found it on first page via a drop down prior to adding to basket. Tks.

          • +1

            @Borg: Unfortunately it's not that clear but essentially you can't do five years in certain circumstances.

            If it's a new uncontested registration or a registration where you have priority and have done the correct steps you can do five years.

            However if the domain name is going to remain in a contention set because there's another 1 or 2 category applicant you're only applying for priority status on the domain you own those can only be done for 1 year.

            • @Kyle-K: Good explanation thanks. For me, I own all my .com.au Domains for many years so won't have contention issues should I chose to purchase. It will be fun and games for anyone who ends up in contention with others when the time arises. A nice mess.

  • The Personal Identity Verification system of VentraIP is not working. All the three methods of verification (1. driver's licence; 2. Medicare card; 3. passport) do not work. Therefore contest application cannot be submitted because the identity verification has to pass first.

    • Worked fine for me when I did it (with drivers licence)

  • Have anyone got their Micron21 order processed and actually got the domain working?

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