] Brett Caird wrote:
] > 
] > Had a conversation with one of our customers who holds a .com.au domain
] > today and he was blissfully unaware of the renewal date for his domain
] ...

Peter Gerrand wrote:

] FYI, this week Melbourne IT has carried out a mass mail-out via
] Australia Post of reminder notices to the Managing Directors of all
] organisations listed against those com.au domain names that have not yet
] been renewed. 
] 
] Excepted from this mail-out are all those domain names for which
] Participating ISPs, other ISPs and aggregators, or the end users
] themselves have initiated the renewal process with Melbourne IT on their
] behalf. 

I wonder, has any progress been made on an automated way for domain name
holders, PISPs etc to query Melbourne IT and find out the renewal date
for a domain?  It was suggested to me that this would be done in early Feb.

It would be nice if there was a form on www.MelbourneIT.com.au where
you submit a domain name and the web server tells you the renewal date
for the domain.  Presumably Melbourne IT maintains a database containing
this information (and perhaps a billing contact or PISP name).

Otherwise Melbourne IT should expect a lot of phone calls from customers
wanting to check to make sure their PISP has successfully renewed their
domain, or from ISPs wanting to check which customers have renewed, or
just customers wanting to check that their paperwork has been processed.

Of course, this doesn't reduce the need for Melbourne IT to contact
domain name holders -- it only affects people who know what is going on
and want to check their status and would prefer to use an automated
method rather than increasing Melbourne IT's phone handling load.
__________________________________________________________________________
David Keegel <djk&#167;cyber.com.au>  http://www.cyber.com.au/  +61 3 9642-5997
Cybersource P/L: Unix Systems Administration and TCP/IP network management