It might be that Symbolics.com is the oldest .com domain in the world, what with having been registered in 1985 – a year many of you were not even born – but at least it has been actively used since then.
Verisign is known for being in control of the .com and .net domains and for expanding their technological infrastructure constantly.
This is partially achieved by the regular increases of the registration price for .com and .net domains.
Despite the Verisign quality control, a batch of really old domains was recently allowed to go bad.
“We gave a lot of attention to the expansion of our domain vaults and despite our engineers being among the top in the world, the unthinkable happened”, said Matthias Stumpff, chief technology officer for Verisign.
The domain vaults are core segments of the Internet, where domains are submerged in liquid nitrogen so that they maintain their functionality despite aging. A backup failure to the power system isolated a sub-core containing old domains – some older than 19 years old.
“The end result was devastating, seeing these old, really ancient .com and .net domains rot before our very eyes. It was something that we cannot restore, unfortunately so our insurance claim fund kicked in. Since then, we ensured that a triple power backup is in place”, added Matthias Stumpff, visibly dejected.
Newer TLDs such as the upcoming .CO have built-in anti-aging microcode that allows them to retain their freshness for up to 100 times longer than the old guard of TLDs. It was definitely a hard lesson to be learned for the owners of the failed .com’s.
I have a few domains gathering dust but I keep them in the freezer š
SJK – smart idea. If my domains rot I’d be furious.
“If my domains rot Iād be furious.”
What can you do if your domains are rotten to begin with?
Just use the domain washer, Tric. It will clean your domains in the eyes of buyers.