SimchaNIC Domain-Registration
http://www.simchanic.com/basic-howto.txt
Updated: September 8, 2001

1) Pre pay $12 per .com/.net/.org domain year.  If you are in the US,
the easiest method is http://www.paypal.com/ (see more information below).
Alternative payment methods include mailed checks, mailed cash,
mailed postal/bank money orders, and Western Union wire transfers.
Contact me if you need further information on any of these options.

PayPal signup/payment:
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=payment%40levindustries.com

I may receive a $5 bonus in my account if you signup using the above
link.  This bonus is not applied towards the purchase of domains for
two reasons:
	a) There are many steps you have to go thorough before I receive
	the bonus.  In fact, since PayPal increased their requirements to
	the current ones, I have not received a single bonus.
	b) These bonuses help[ed] keep the prices low.

See: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/referral-faq-outside
to read more about the referral program.

Existing PayPal users can send payments to:
payment@levindustries.com

2) I will setup an account for you at SimchaNIC if you are a new user,
otherwise I will credit your existing one.  Having a username and
password from SimchaNIC replaces the use of a credit card on the order
form - credits are subtracted from this account instead.  You should
only need one account from SimchaNIC (as it is only used for the intial
payment - no management at all), although you may require multiple
profiles at OpenSRS (more on that later).

3) Once you have an account at SimchaNIC you can check availability of
domains in realtime (versus a whois lookup which is not reliable) by
following the "Create" link at http://www.simchanic.com/ (this
does not require the presence of domain years in your account).  The
same process will also allow you to register or transfer the domain
name.

4) During this stage you also have the option of creating a new OpenSRS
profile or using an existing one.  These profiles can be used to manage
or register domains at any other OpenSRS resellers.  If different people
will own the domains, you should probably keep them in different
profiles (although you have the option of moving domains between
profiles at any time).  Note: if your first domain using a profile is a
transfer, you will not be able to use that profile until the transfer is
complete.

5) Next stage is the order form.  Self-explanatory, every field (except
for the domain name it self) can be changed immediately via the "Manage"
interface - much better than e-mail templates!

7) Once you confirm your order, $12 per each year of registration
is deducted from your account at SimchaNIC.  Also, you will receive two
separate confirmation e-mails - one from the script itself, and another
from OpenSRS.  A new domain is immediately registered, and will show up
in OpenSRS' whois database at http://www.opensrs.org/whois/, although
it will take a couple days to show up in the Registry whois at
http://www.nsiregistry.com/ and the root servers (when it becomes
resolvable).

Transfers must go through three separate stages before they are complete:
   a) Owner confirmation: An e-mail message containing instructions on how
      to authorize the transfer is sent to the Administrative contact for
      the domain.
   b) Next OpenSRS performs a manual sanity check on the domain transfer
      (as they are ultimately responsible if a domain is hijacked).  This
      is typically completed within 24 hours after the owner confirmation
      step.
   c) The transfer is now sent to the central registry for processing.  The
      losing registrar has three options: they can allow the transfer, deny
      the transfer, or do nothing.  Currently, NSI is now disregarding the
      ICANN agreement and requiring their own confirmation, as well.  This has
      substantially decreased the number of domains sucessfully transferred
      from NSI as their system is extremely "buggy."  If the registrar does
      nothing, the transfer is automatically approved after about seven days.
      Once the transfer has been approved, it normally takes effect at the
      next root server update (which theoretically occurs two times daily).

On reading this, it may appear that transfers take 3-4 days to occur - while
this is true in some cases, typically they are completed within 1-3 days.

8) To set the domain up at pair (thanks to Steven C. Gallafent): 

- Go to the pair 2000 ACC (https://acc.pair2000.com/) and log in.
- Click on "Domains" and then click the "Add New Domain" button.
- Choose "Generic Top-Level" at the "Registration Types" screen.
- Fill out the form with domain name, registration type (choose
  "Transfer"), directory mapping, and the email address you want the
  transfer notice to go to.

When you receive the transfer template from pair (sent thorough
e-mail when their servers are setup for your domain), copy the
nameserver information from the bottom of the template and paste it into
the namesever fields in the "Manage" interface for your domain
(http://www.simchanic.com/ --> Manage --> Manage Name
Servers).

It will take a day or two for the DNS information to propagate across the
internet.

E-mail me at hostmaster@simchanic.com if you have any questions.