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.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-02-2008 @ 2:31PM
Matthew Rossi said...
Actually, it was just my wife. I don't know squat about Whois.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:34PM
Charlie Taylor said...
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.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:50PM
Freehugz said...
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.
3-02-2008 @ 2:51PM
theRaptor said...
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.
3-02-2008 @ 3:52PM
theremover said...
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.
3-02-2008 @ 3:55PM
theremover said...
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.
3-03-2008 @ 12:42PM
adodickley said...
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 :)
3-02-2008 @ 2:40PM
Aichon said...
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.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:41PM
Gogey said...
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.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:46PM
Gogey said...
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.
3-02-2008 @ 2:43PM
Basy said...
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/
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3-02-2008 @ 2:49PM
Ed said...
It's not cybersquatting this time - it just looks like someone at Blizzard has forgotten to renew the domain name - which is pretty bizarre.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:54PM
Lunacye said...
Looks like it's back up.
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3-02-2008 @ 2:56PM
Charlie Taylor said...
Ah, well. My point still stand IF it was cybersquatting. Ignore my ramblings in this case then. ^_^
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3-02-2008 @ 3:19PM
Ed said...
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
3-02-2008 @ 3:27PM
Eternalpayn said...
Still not working here. Why godaddy, of all crappy hosts?
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3-02-2008 @ 5:04PM
Dan said...
Ya as of post 3:57 EST it still isn't working but the sub-domain link does.
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3-02-2008 @ 10:00PM
TTFK said...
Now not working again.
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3-02-2008 @ 10:18PM
Unundead said...
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.
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3-02-2008 @ 11:34PM
Matdredalia said...
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.
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