Friday, July 22, 2005

Tariq Is Da Man!

I've been a little unhappy with Network Solutions lately. If you're not familar with them, they are the company that I use to register my domain names. If you're not sure what that means, well, you know when you go to a Web site or a blog or something, you either click on a link or type something like http://www.basilsblog.com/ in the address bar of your browser? Well, that's actually a URL. That's shorthand for Universal Resource Locator. Think of a Web page address. That's a URL.

Now, before some geek starts up saying, "Actually, it's a URI (Universal Resource Identifier)" ... and, yes, I know some of you that are thinking of saying that ... well, yes, it is a URI. But a URL is a type of URI. All URLs are URIs. But not all URIs are URLs. So, it's a URL. So there.

Anyway, I was talking about my domain name. And "basilsblog.net" is the domain name I own. And I use a "registrar" called Network Solutions to register it and have that name point to this little blog.

Only there was a problem. Details are in this post from Thursday. But to sum the problem, if folks typed "www.basilsblog.net" they got here, but if they left off the "www" part and only typed "basilsblog.net" they didn't.

But it's been fixed now. Thanks to Tariq.

Now, in fairness, after I wrote that post Thursday, I spoke with a lady at Network Solutions named Beth. She seemed to understand the problem and said she knew how to fix it. And she'd call me back within the hour.

An hour after she promised to call, I still hadn't heard from her. So, being the impatient SOB that I am, I called Network Solutions again. I found out that she was in training.

Now, that's not as bad as it sounds. You see, one time, at the Evil Corporation where I work, I was told to take a particular class covering a part of the area in which I worked. Turns out that because the area was so new, there wasn't any such class. So, it was requested that the training department create such a class. And the trainers contacted me about the information that needed to be taught. Being the subject matter expert, I provided the information I could. Once they had all that information, they put together a class and I was scheduled to attend.

Yes, I was scheduled as a student in the very class that taught the information that I provided! Such is the corporate world.

I don't know for sure, but I was not surprised that the person working my issue ... and seemed knowledgable ... was in training.

Anyway, with her out of the picture, I ended up being connected with a guy named Tariq.

Tariq understood what I wanted, but said there was a problem. You see, I could have "basilsblog.net" point to the site (which is actually "basil.blogs.com") and I could have "basilsblog.net" point there too, but TypePad (the host that actually owns "basil.blogs.com") wouldn't recognize "basilsblog.net" (without the "www"). So, I had to have "basilsblog.net" forward to "basilsblog.net" ... except that Network Solutions couldn't do that.

Turns out that Network Solutions can forward "basilsblog.net" to "basil.blogs.com" which isn't the same thing as pointing to "basil.blogs.com". Think of "pointing to" as an alternate name. Think of "forwarding to" as sending it to a different name. You ever had call forwarding on your phone? You ever had a second number on the same phone? If so, you understand the concept.

Anyway, while Network Solutions could point "basilsblog.net" (without the "www") to "basil.blogs.com" TypePad wouldn't accept it. But they could forward "basilsblog.net" to "basil.blogs.com" with no problem.

Except that I didn't want you to see "basil.blogs.com" in the address bar. I want you to see "basilsblog.net" there. But, I had that covered.

There's a piece of JavaScript I was already using that, if you reach "basil.blogs.com", sent you to "basilsblog.net" instead.

And Tariq, being more geeky (since he actually works in Tech Support, not general Customer Service at Network Solutions) decided to look at my code and saw that JavaScript. He understood that what I was asking would work and would resolve my issue.

So he made the proper changes and the issue is resolved.

Yes, this is all a bunch of silly stuff, but that's the way I am. And Tariq understood what I wanted and helped find a way to make it happen.

We need more support people like Tariq.

4 comments:

  1. Network Solutions is *way* overpriced. Pretty much any other option these days is more economical.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't mind paying a premium if I get premium service. This incident did not provide me premium service. But, having previously mentioned how unhappy they made me, I thought it was appropriate to tell of the work that Beth and Tariq did that made things work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So ... they finally put in the CNAME ("alias"; for . to resolve to the same as www) in their DNS?

    /TJ

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