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

188 points by peppermint_gum ↗ HN
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.

56 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 127 ms ] thread
teetertater
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.
peanut-walrus
Good.
kamil3141
Why? Is there something inherently bad about free domains? I’m aware that they were used for scams and eventually some websites (like facebook) just blacklisted them but other TLD could be too.
midasuni
Something bad about misusing country codes, but I guess that’s an argument long lost.
tialaramex
What's wrong with using the ISO codes here?

The ccTLDs belong to the sovereign entity whose code it is, in many cases they let some for-profit outfit exploit this resource and keep some fraction of the resulting income.

If the sovereign entity doesn't like how it's run, that's on them to fix it. It's unfortunate if people somehow end up building something important using a name that's ultimately controlled by some tin pot dictatorship, but it's not like you don't know up front.

voytec
> Why? Is there something inherently bad about free domains?

Not the person you've asked but I've seen many legitimate websites using free eu.org[1] (sub)domains but I believe I've never seen a legit use of tk/ml/ga/gq TLDs. I may have seen the cf one used for some configuration tools though.

[1] https://nic.eu.org/

rippercushions
Tokelau, Mali, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic are all actual countries with legitimate users, although admittedly they're also quite small and poor.
true_religion
I can’t argue about the rest of them but Tokelau is a series of atolls in the pacific with a population of 1400. Additionally, even the official government website is hosted in New Zealand’s TLD.

https://www.tokelau.org.nz/

So yes, they are actual counties but we can’t use that information to pressure that there’s must be at least one legitimate user (e.g. the government).

Symbiote
There are plenty of local sites, search tokelau site:tk for examples. ISPs, mobile networks, visitor attractions etc.
mkl
Poor, yes, but mostly not that small. Mali is huge, 5 times bigger than the UK, and has a population of 21.5 million. Central African Republic is half that size, with 5 million people. Gabon is smaller, but still bigger than the UK, and has 2.3 million people. Equatorial Guinea is actually small, but still has 1.7 million people. Tokelau is tiny in both size and population, and isn't even an independent country.
chownie
While the landmasses are bigger than the UK for some of these countries, their population totals all summed still don't eclipse half the UK's population. They are quite small.
OJFord
> Gabon is smaller, but still bigger than the UK, and has 2.3 million people.

I doubt GP meant 'quite small' land area. In terms of population then, the UK is roughly 35 times the size of Gabon.

MayeulC
Well, a few of my friends have used these domains because they were free, but it seems like they kind of use bait-and-switch tactics, monitoring DNS traffic and asking "owners" to pay a hefty fee for the domain name once popularity crosses a certain threshold.

Webmasters also have little control on records and other parameters that are standard at other registrars.

catach
tcl.tk is my favorite usage, here.
MallocVoidstar
I've never used Freenom because I've repeatedly seen warnings (for years) that if your 'free' domain starts getting noticeable traffic they will suddenly decide you need to pay them for it and shut down DNS resolution until you do.
dan15
Yeah, that's pretty common. If you get a large amount of traffic, they take the domain from you and try to sell it back to you as as "premium" domain at a hugely inflated price.

You don't have any rights to free domains. Freenom are the 'official' owner of the domain and can do whatever they want with it.

punkspider
I believe the issue is with Freenom. They offer very bad service and you shouldn't use their services for important projects because sometimes you may lose your domain even if you paid for it.
voytec
> 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.

YesThatTom2
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.

causi
What site? In my experience almost every .to website is worth bookmarking. Blocking javascript on as well, but worth bookmarking.
Nextgrid
File a chargeback for the money.
sp332
That's a good way to just get your account suspended.
411111111111111
Does it matter at that point? Surely anyone would migrate to a new domain name after that.
psnehanshu
.ml could have been a good contender for .ai
cenourinhapt
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.

granshaw
Shame that Jimmy.gq isn’t being used - if you get it you get it :)
forgotpwd16
>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.

harrego
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.
DoItToMe81
Freenom has been circling the drain since 2017. Every time I hear of them, it just gets worse.
edent
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...

punkspider
Last year, one of my paid domains (.ml) showed up as being free in Freenom dashboard, even though I had 3 months to go. I needed it, and since I know support is unresponsive, I paid for it for another year, because I wanted to avoid any kind of downtime.

Support answered after a few days and they corrected the issue. However I didn't notice that now my renewal date was now set to 3 months earlier than when I first paid for the domain.

Because of this, along with the fact that I didn't get a renewal notification email this year, and along with the fact that Freenom doesn't seem to have a grace period, my domain expired.

I went in my dashboard, paid the invoice, but the domain still isn't mine. I tried to buy it again, but I got an error.

I contacted support but couldn't wait for them, so I used another account to buy it (for free), and it seemed to work.

After a day or two I got this email from support, warning me against buying the domain with a different account, because I run the risk of getting banned.

  From time to time, we have to limit free domain registrations and put in place blocks.
  These blocks can be imposed for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to):
  - the country from which registrations originate;
  - the domain names themselves;
  - the IP addresses from which registrations originate;
  - the device from which registrations originate;
  - the use of measures (such as proxies and VPNs) to hide your true location from us;
  - a history of bad registrations in the account from which registrations originate.

  You are currently blocked from registering any additional free domains.

  For reasons of security, we cannot go into the precise reasons for this block. We also cannot make any predictions on when you will be allowed to register new free domains.

  Please come back in a few days and try to register a domain again. If our systems still do not allow you to register new domains, you'll need to wait longer.

  Please do NOT register additional accounts or use any other accounts that you may already have, as this will lead to these accounts being banned, possibly indefinitely.

  Kind regards,

  Freenom Support
Fortunately I don't have a website running on that domain, but I do have a secondary email address for non-critical accounts. This is dumb, I know. I got hooked because it was free, and then I thought it's better to pay ~$10 for a renewal, than have to spend a few days changing emails on many of my accounts.

After that email I did just that; I went through most of my accounts and changed emails. I've learned my lesson and I hope to have some foresight in the future.

godzillabrennus
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.

ls15
Killed by SSL?
sxg
downloadmoreram.tk was a classic around 2004
aequitas
I remember them standing at a hacker event where you would get a free “tosti” (ham and cheese sandwich) with every (also free) registered .tk domain. They had a booth to register domains on the spot.

Edit: actually it was the other way around. A free .tk domain with a free tosti https://www.flickr.com/photos/macfriendly/3834697501/in/pool...

ragebol
Would this event be in the Netherlands? A tosti is Dutch for what's called a croque monsieur basically anywhere else.
trarmp
> tosti is Dutch for what's called a croque monsieur

Just to be a bit pedantic here, but a tosti is probably a lot simpler. It’s a grilled cheese (technically a melt) sandwich, pressed in a (sometimes specialized) tosti-grill.

A croque monsieur typically also has ham, bechamel, and is prepared in a pan.

cafeinux
Just to be a bit more pedantic, I don't think we eat the same croque monsieurs. What you described as a tosti is known to me as a croque monsieur (but with ham), and what you described as a croque monsieur is known to me as a wonderful idea I have never heard of before.
sacrosanct
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.
sshine
> Surprised there's no dedicated NIC for these. http://nic.gq/ doesn't even resolve.

Sounds to me Freenom is the NIC, and the reason they're not present on nic.gq, etc., is that they're not very professional, and that their lack of pressionality is correlated with them falling apart right now.

dan15
That's right. The 'official' NIC URL for .tk is http://www.dot.tk/, but this is ran by Freenom. Similarly, the official URL for .gq is http://www.dominio.gq, which initially looks different, but it has a "powered by Freenom" logo at the bottom right.
hexagonwin
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..
nylonstrung
I believe they have been out of compliance with ICANN and it might result in their TLDs being handed to another registrar
duskwuff
ICANN doesn't have jurisdiction over ccTLDs.
KronisLV
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.

notpushkin
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.
dan15
Freenom own the TLD so you don't really have a choice. Every other registrar that offers the TLD is just going via Freenom anyways, and any major issues that affect Freenom will affect the entire TLD.
notpushkin
If Freenom the registry starts having problems then yeah. Right now it's only Freenom the registrar I think (they're required to operate as separate entities I believe, although that might not help given the level they're integrated into each other).
dangravell
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?