Tell HN: Freenom (the operator of .tk, .ml, .ga, .cf, .gq TLDs) is falling apart

by peppermint_gum on 12/31/2022, 8:00 AM with 55 comments

1. whois.freenom.com is currently down.

2. Their nameservers are unreliable: https://www.reddit.com/r/freenom/comments/vl71se/freenom_ser...

3. Their client area often doesn't work. I can't login right now, and it seems I'm not the only one having issues: https://www.reddit.com/r/freenom/comments/zwh7o8/an_unexpect...

4. Their email address (info@freenom.com) bounces because it forwards to their CEO's gmail and their SMTP server doesn't have a PTR record set:

    This is the mail system at host smtp06.freenom.net.
    
    I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
    be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
    
    For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
    
    If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
    delete your own text from the attached returned message.

                       The mail system

    <[redacted]@gmail.com> (expanded from <info@freenom.com>): host
        gmail-smtp-in.l.google.com[142.250.141.26] said: 550-5.7.25 [216.75.58.148]
        The IP address sending this message does not have a 550-5.7.25 PTR record
        setup, or the corresponding forward DNS entry does not 550-5.7.25 point to
        the sending IP. As a policy, Gmail does not accept messages 550-5.7.25 from
        IPs with missing PTR records. Please visit 550-5.7.25
        https://support.google.com/mail/answer/81126#ip-practices for more 550
        5.7.25 information.

  • by godzillabrennus on 12/31/2022, 3:34 PM

    I remember when dot TK domains were free… I think they came with the caveat that ads got added to every website you hosted with one… that didn’t last long though.

    I had a four character TK domain back then.

  • by dangravell on 1/12/2023, 3:47 PM

    So it's now twelve days later and DNS problems appear to be ongoing. There's a Reddit thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/freenom/comments/109nr4z/is_freenom...

    I can log into the client area and submit a ticket, but no reply as expected (I noticed the previous owner of the service I operate had to wait half a month for a reply a previous time this happened).

    I have emailed the Gabon authorities (my interest is in a .ga domain) but don't really expect a reply.

    Anyone know a way where I can decisively show this is a Freenom problem? If I do a dig +trace it works for me, but might that depend on the DNS server I'm sending the request through?

  • by edent on 12/31/2022, 2:22 PM

    I'm relieved I'm not the only one experiencing problems!

    Last year, they didn't notify me that I had to renew a domain - once it expired, they offered to sell it to me for a ridiculous amount. I was able to email the CEO to get it reinstated.

    This year, the same happened again. But no response from anyone.

    I know I'm getting the service that I'm paying for...

  • by cenourinhapt on 12/31/2022, 11:57 AM

    I have been trying to contact them regarding the transfer of a .gq domain of a customer.

    Their platform is bugging and marking my order as automated: "We were unable to verify you as a human, please try again later."

    I sent a ticket and they replied two days later, saying that they "will not be able to effect this transfer". I asked the reason and didn't received yet another reply.

  • by harrego on 12/31/2022, 1:30 PM

    There was a time where Freenom was my go to for getting unique domains for parody webpages but it has since become too unreliable even for this purpose.

  • by YesThatTom2 on 12/31/2022, 11:28 AM

    They recently screwed up a transfer if a .to domain I own. They charged an extra $700 and then messed up the process.

    The domain was useless for 24 hours. Luckily it was only used for non-revenue services.

    I asked for a post Morten and to refund the $700 and after waiting weeks gave up on both.

    I figured it was just a fluke.

  • by voytec on 12/31/2022, 11:02 AM

    > email (...) bounces because it forwards to their CEO's gmail and their SMTP server doesn't have a PTR record set

    Also, this results in this person's address being leaked.

  • by hexagonwin on 12/31/2022, 7:29 PM

    I have a .ga domain on Freenom, under '12 Months Free'. I had been renewing it and using the domain for 3 years now. After initial register I switched the DNS settings to CloudFlare and is using dash.cloudflare.com DDNS settings to manipulate CNAME records. Now the domain is pretty important to me and I'm willing to pay money, but is there any good way to migrate my domain to a stable, trusty domain registar like Namecheap? I'm pretty scared of losing this domain name..

  • by psnehanshu on 12/31/2022, 11:28 AM

    .ml could have been a good contender for .ai

  • by KronisLV on 1/1/2023, 1:46 AM

    I actually used a .tk domain for a forum for some university friends when I was still busy with my studies.

    It worked well enough and was free, however I was asked for money to renew the supposedly free domain. That's when I decided that it's easier for me to just manage my domains with NameCheap or another solution where I already had some other paid domains (maybe to just put the forum under a subdomain of one of those).

    Apart from the .tk domains being free at the time, there was nothing else going for the platform in my eyes. Note that I did pay for a year for that particular domain because it was cheap, so the transition would be smoother - a redirect at the web server level, where is you open the site through the old domain, you're redirected to the new one.

  • by nylonstrung on 12/31/2022, 8:30 PM

    I believe they have been out of compliance with ICANN and it might result in their TLDs being handed to another registrar

  • by foepys on 12/31/2022, 12:19 PM

    It seems like that there have been problems for quite a while. There is a sticky thread in the linked subreddit titled "Workarounds for errors when registering new domains with freenom", created 2 years ago.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/freenom/comments/hixljd/workarounds...

  • by DoItToMe81 on 12/31/2022, 2:05 PM

    Freenom has been circling the drain since 2017. Every time I hear of them, it just gets worse.

  • by notpushkin on 1/1/2023, 4:34 AM

    I think the biggest Freenom domain I've seen lately is https://mastodon.ml/, a big Russian-speaking Mastodon instance. I'm not sure though if they still use Freenom for the registration – I'll go ping the admin.

  • by forgotpwd16 on 12/31/2022, 1:12 PM

    >Their client area often doesn't work. I can't login right now

    Email/password? Haven't had any luck with that 2-3y I've tried Freenom. Google sign-in works fine.

  • by teetertater on 12/31/2022, 9:43 AM

    I’m not surprised, their client area has been getting worse for years. It’s been nearly impossible to change DNS records through their web portal.

  • by sacrosanct on 12/31/2022, 5:59 PM

    Any way to acquire these ccTLDs (.tk .gq etc) domains without going through the quagmire that is Freenom? There has to be some service that bypasses this kind of gate-keeping. Surprised there's no dedicated NIC for these. http://nic.gq/ doesn't even resolve.

  • by quickthrower2 on 1/1/2023, 8:58 AM

    Note to future self: stick to .com

  • by peanut-walrus on 12/31/2022, 10:00 AM

    Good.

  • by cheri9 on 1/1/2023, 11:37 AM

    [dead]