GoDaddy invades WoW Armory
by Adam Holisky 
Mar 2nd 2008 at 2:08PM
DNS entries for blizzard.com and worldofwarcraft.com point to cerf.net, while the DNS servers for wowarmory.com are currently pointing to domaincontrol.com. While some of you might be seeing wowarmory.com work correctly, others are not. The ISPs of people who are seeing it work have not had their DNS records updated yet, however within the next 48 hours they will see wowarmoy.com go down as well; unless Blizzard fixes this before then (I am sure they are already aware, or becoming aware of it).
Stay tuned to WoW Insider for the latest on this story.
Thanks to Matthew Rossi and his wife for contributing to the technical sleuthing in this post.
Updated 2:34 p.m. EST: You can access the armory using a sub-domain of worldofwarcraft.com by going to http://armory.worldofwarcraft.com/
Updated 3:03 p.m. EST: http://www.wowarmory.com/ is now working again. It looks like Blizzard really jumped on the issue and fixed it.
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matthew Rossi Mar 2nd 2008 2:31PM
Actually, it was just my wife. I don't know squat about Whois.
Charlie Taylor Mar 2nd 2008 2:34PM
This is a prime example of why cybersquatting (the act of snatching a domain-name before the company/person who obviously would want it could, and then charging exorbitant prices for it) should be outlawed. Wowarmory is a site that has been established for a very long time, and is the property of Vivendi. Whoever thought it was a brilliant idea to snatch the domain up before Vivendi could react is going to find a team of lawyers breathing down his neck VERY fast, and he is going to SERIOUSLY regret ever letting the idea creeping into his mind. Never mess with a company that recently turned a billion dollar profit.
Freehugz Mar 2nd 2008 2:50PM
pretty there's a 40 day period between when a domain name expires and when somebody who wasn't the original owner can buy it.
theRaptor Mar 2nd 2008 2:51PM
You know that domains don't have to expire right? This wasn't a trick as far as I can tell, someone at Blizzard just didn't pay the registrars fees for that domain. At best Blizzard will get the domain back and the squatter will get his money back.
My guess is that Blizzard let the domain lapse on purpose, maybe the amount of people getting to the armory through that domain didn't justify keeping it.
theremover Mar 2nd 2008 3:52PM
Never mess with someone who rightfully bought a domain name, only to find themselves bullied by a rich company. There's a lot of outrage and support out there these days for people getting squished by big companies in the legal department.
theremover Mar 2nd 2008 3:55PM
So-called 'cybersquatting' shouldn't be outlawed.
Most legit companies register their domain name for several years in advance and/or have infrastructures that don't let things expire. And when they don't, it's their own fault if they get screwed over.
adodickley Mar 3rd 2008 12:42PM
No one snatched the domain. lol geez.
Blizzard uses GoDaddy.com for the domain registrar, so when the DNS servers go down that redirect wowarmory.com to WoW's server, it doesn't know where you want to go, so it brings you to a godaddy parking page, like all the other domains registered by godaddy that don't have a working server.
For WowArmory.com :
Updated Date: 02-mar-2008
Creation Date: 02-mar-2007
Expiration Date: 02-mar-2010
There was no expiration or anything like that, just a downed server. Keep your pants on, you crazy tinfoil hatters :)
Aichon Mar 2nd 2008 2:40PM
It looks like armory.worldofwarcraft.com seems to still be working okay, if you all feel compelled to check your armory information in the next few days. I would assume that it wouldn't have problems with the DNS since it's a subdomain of worldofwarcraft.com, rather than its own domain.
Gogey Mar 2nd 2008 2:41PM
It didnt get snatched...People can still see it, it all depends on ISP. If your ISP has updated its DNS-thingamabobbercacheetc (Read the forum thread) then you can see it. If not, you just have to wait.
Gogey Mar 2nd 2008 2:46PM
Hold on, I'm a jackass. Ignore that comment, I read something backwards. The people who can see it have an ISP that didnt update their DNS recently at all, and the site will be parked. It just hasn't been renewed yet. Either blizz didnt choose the automatic renewal option, Godaddy screwed up, or they didn't do it manually. Its not actually available to buy for another 30 days.
Basy Mar 2nd 2008 2:43PM
If you need to access the Armory site right now before the problem is resolved here's the direct IP to it: http://80.239.186.20/
Ed Mar 2nd 2008 2:49PM
It's not cybersquatting this time - it just looks like someone at Blizzard has forgotten to renew the domain name - which is pretty bizarre.
Lunacye Mar 2nd 2008 2:54PM
Looks like it's back up.
Charlie Taylor Mar 2nd 2008 2:56PM
Ah, well. My point still stand IF it was cybersquatting. Ignore my ramblings in this case then. ^_^
Ed Mar 2nd 2008 3:19PM
Indeed, messing with the lawyers of a company that gets a billion dollar profit doesn't seem like a good idea to me either. :P
Eternalpayn Mar 2nd 2008 3:27PM
Still not working here. Why godaddy, of all crappy hosts?
Dan Mar 2nd 2008 5:04PM
Ya as of post 3:57 EST it still isn't working but the sub-domain link does.
TTFK Mar 2nd 2008 10:00PM
Now not working again.
Unundead Mar 2nd 2008 10:18PM
Here's a link to the 75 day domain name life cycle.
http://www.wsmdomains.com/help/lifecycle.html
As you can see there is now a long wait before a domain name can be stolen. Domain sniping is virtually dead.
Matdredalia Mar 2nd 2008 11:34PM
R O F L
I thought something was wrong with my PC when I clicked on my name on the forums and that page came up.
The really hilarious part was what all the links on the placeholder page were pointing to. Gold sellers? Character sellers?
Seriously, this is like, a horrible joke played on poor Blizzard.