news Afternic NS1/NS2 Lame Delegation Finally Resolved!

[Future Sensors]

I'm thrilled to announce the following.

After much persistent advocacy on this forum, it's a significant relief to finally confirm that Afternic has resolved the long-standing "lame delegation" issues affecting customer domains using NS1.afternic.com and NS2.afternic.com. Public DNS zone data shows that these NS1/NS2 servers alone are authoritative for over 3.5 million Seller domains. And Afternic’s complementary NS3/NS4 and NS5/NS6 clusters together handle several million more.

For years, these "preferred" NS1 & NS2 nameservers provided invalid or non-responsive Namefind.com NS records, a problem extensively documented and a source of considerable frustration for domain owners. This "lame delegation" meant that while domains appeared correctly configured on the registrar side, DNS resolvers often encountered delays or outright failures when attempting to query for NS records, leading to significantly longer lookup times, unreliable lander access, and a generally degraded user experience. Crucially, Afternic Sellers also encountered difficulties changing nameservers for certain ccTLDs, as their registries conducted strict DNS "pre-delegation" tests that failed due to the lame delegation issues at Afternic.

As of today, Afternic is now correctly serving valid NS records for millions of customer domains, meaning the long-standing workaround of using NS3/NS4 or NS5/NS6 is, in principle, no longer necessary.

 

[domainer8888]

How long has this been going on? Mid 2024?

 

[Future Sensors]

How long has this been going on? Mid 2024?

It's been an exceptionally long time, though I can't say exactly how long.

Before April 2023, the Afternic lander type was selected solely by configuring your domain with one of three nameserver pairs—ns1/ns2, ns3/ns4 or ns5/ns6—each pair delivering a different landing page. In April 2023 Afternic simplified this: all six nameservers now return the same A record and IP address for every possible Afternic lander. You configure the lander type in the Afternic Dashboard since then.

Unfortunately, the default pair, ns1/ns2—the set most Afternic sellers use, and the one Afternic’s own how-tos, blogs and forum threads promote—was misconfigured. While it served GoDaddy’s Namefind portfolio correctly, it had an incorrect config for over 3.5 million Afternic Seller domains. The other nameserver pairs, ns3/ns4 and ns5/ns6, remained properly configured and offered a workaround—but only if you knew about this.

That workaround is no longer necessary. Afternic has now fixed the ns1 & ns2 nameservers, eliminating the "lame delegation" issues.

 

[domainer8888]

It finally explains why there was a flash of a warning / error white page before the lander showed, I thought it was some kind of redirect. Amazing this got sorted out now.

 

[Future Sensors]

It finally explains why there was a flash of a warning / error white page before the lander showed, I thought it was some kind of redirect. Amazing this got sorted out now.

I don't think that is related

 

[Jannes]

Let's mark the occasion with some "lame celebration"

 

[Future Sensors]

solely

For completeness, you can still redirect domains to Afternic landers via HTTP redirects or similar methods. Technically, there's no need to delegate to Afternic's nameservers. However, under the current commission structure, using GoDaddy Aftermarket–supported nameservers reduces your Afternic fees, so the redirect-only approach may not make sense for everyone.

 

[Acroplex]

It's amazing we need to celebrate the fixing of errors, intentional or accidental, on a marketplace that charges an exuberant commission (30%) then claims that by using its DNS the commission is discounted to 20%.

 

[Future Sensors]

It's amazing we need to celebrate the fixing of errors, intentional or accidental, on a marketplace that charges an exuberant commission (30%) then claims that by using its DNS the commission is discounted to 20%.

Bro. It's the little things, right?

Perhaps next they can offer a "no lame delegation" premium tier for only 35%*.

*Only for Discount Domain Club Pro members.

 

[Acroplex]

Great idea! If GD were a restaurant it'd only offer a la carte dinners on a 20 page menu.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for your persistence on this @Future Sensors and it is good to see this finally resolved.

 

[Future Sensors]

BIND versions released in October 2025 included changes in how BIND processes referrals in delegations. BIND now only trusts glue records if, in the associated NS record, the target name (right side) is a subdomain of the owner name (left side). Glue associated with other names is ignored, and those names are iteratively resolved instead. This enhances the security posture of BIND, but some unintended side effects may also be encountered. Operators should be aware of the potential consequences.

https://kb.isc.org/docs/strict-glue