Internic in Net name blunder

Six UK companies lost connectivity functions for 48 hours when their email domain names were deleted without warning last week by US com registrar Internic.

Chris Clough, director of communications at Internic, said administering nearly one-and-a-half million domain names meant mistakes would happen, and he could not guarantee that other domain names would not get deleted even if they had been paid for.

?Domain name registration is like any periodical system, we go through and delete those subscriptions that have not been paid,? he said.

In April, BT?s bt.com address was one of a number of domain names deleted by Internic after a similar mix-up over administration. The firm later apologised and said it would revamp its administrative systems.

The Internet Service Providers Association said: ?There is a lot of focus on the Net, and if you are trying to create an efficient internet industry, things like this don?t help.?