TP-LINK, a manufacturer of router hardware, has apparently forgotten to renew two of its domains.
The domain names tplinklogin.net and tplinkextender.net are used by TP-LINK router owners, to configure their hardware. They expired and are both parked, and available for sale.
These domains are printed in the TP-LINK manuals and even on the router’s guide sticker on the back.
Using a domain name to forward to a local network address for configuration purposes, such as 192.168.0.1 is a common practice among router manufacturers.
TP-LINK started replacing the tplinklogin.net domain with tplinkwifi.net, which is registered to the company. The matching .com is not.
While the lapsed domains are not causing any problems to TP-LINK router owners, they can most definitely be bought in the aftermarket and used in a phishing scheme or other abuse.
Moral of the story: when registering such domains for customer use, use the automatic renewal function at the Registrar of choice.
TP-LINK is a router manufacturer.
