Asheville News

Buncombe County web site disappears; did someone snag the domain buncombecounty.org?

Jason Sandford October 29, 2009

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

I’m getting reports that the web site for Buncombe County – www.buncombecounty.org – has gone blank. Some people who go to the site now just get an ad for register.com. (See screen capture above.) I’m still getting the regular web site, but the change just may not have cycled through to my server. Below, see a screen capture of what the county web site is supposed to look like.

So for some people who go to www.buncombecounty.org, there’s none of the normal information there that you’d expect to find. There’s no way to get election information days before local elections. There’s no way to get updated information from the county health department. Etc.

I’m not an expert on domain name registation, but could the county have missed a deadline for renewing its domain name? Maybe they are looking for another domain registration company – for example namecheap offer free whois protection. What’s going on?

Big thanks to loyal reader Mike for alerting Ashvegas readers to this.

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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8 Comments

Gary James October 30, 2009

Yes. This happened to me on Wednesday, Oct 27th. I was trying to do some research on property and other guvmunt stuff and this is what I discovered. I figured it was hacked or something. Not a good thing….

Reply
Umbarger October 30, 2009

If you look at the whois entry posted earlier:

Last Updated On:29-Oct-2009 14:12:29 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR)

Here is the DIG info that their registrar is propagating:

;<<>> DiG 9.3.4-P1 <<>> -tany @DNS01.GPN.REGISTER.COM buncombecounty.org
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 54123
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 3, AUTHORITY: 5, ADDITIONAL: 5

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;buncombecounty.org. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN A 69.64.147.243
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN MX 10 p.nsm.ctmail.com.
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN SOA dns1.name-services.com. info.name-services.com. 2002050701 10001 1801 604801 181

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN NS dns1.name-services.com.
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN NS dns2.name-services.com.
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN NS dns3.name-services.com.
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN NS dns4.name-services.com.
buncombecounty.org. 3600 IN NS dns5.name-services.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
dns1.name-services.com. 3600 IN A 98.124.192.1
dns2.name-services.com. 3600 IN A 98.124.197.1
dns3.name-services.com. 3600 IN A 98.124.193.1
dns4.name-services.com. 3600 IN A 69.64.145.225
dns5.name-services.com. 3600 IN A 98.124.196.1

;; Query time: 260 msec
;; SERVER: 98.124.192.1#53(98.124.192.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Oct 30 10:59:07 2009
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 337

and here is the dig info that their own nameserver is attempting to propagate

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4-P1 <<>> -tany @ns1.buncombe.nc.us buncombecounty.org
; (1 server found)
;; global options: printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 23632
;; flags: qr aa rd; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 9, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 7

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;buncombecounty.org. IN ANY

;; ANSWER SECTION:
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN NS ns3.buncombe.nc.us.
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN NS ns1.buncombe.nc.us.
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN NS ns2.buncombe.nc.us.
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN MX 10 mx1.buncombecounty.org.
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN MX 10 mx2.buncombecounty.org.
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 64.147.210.103
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 68.118.31.107
buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 199.90.58.131
buncombecounty.org. 774909488 IN SOA ns1.buncombe.nc.us. hostmaster.buncombecounty.org. 2009102101 28800 7200 604800 10

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns1.buncombe.nc.us. 10 IN A 199.90.58.2
ns2.buncombe.nc.us. 10 IN A 68.118.31.98
ns3.buncombe.nc.us. 10 IN A 64.147.209.78
mx1.buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 64.147.210.98
mx1.buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 68.118.31.101
mx2.buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 68.118.31.100
mx2.buncombecounty.org. 10 IN A 64.147.210.104

There are a couple of different reasons that this could happen, but the most logical (and most likely in my mind) is that the county forgot to renew their domain registration.

Who wants to be first to go buy it? haha!

Reply
Mike October 30, 2009

Looks like maybe a combo: the domain expired Tuesday, the county renewed sometime between then and this morning (the Whois shows the last update this morning at 10:12 (14:12 UTC)), but the DNS wasn’t fully propogated, because at about 4:30 I couldn’t access it in Mars Hill, even though Ash could get it in Asheville.

Reply
anon October 30, 2009

Escoses-

those are all under the ‘umbrella’ of buncombecounty.org…. they don’t work if the highest level of the domain registration don’t work.

Reply
Escoses October 29, 2009

It’s not just buncombecounty.org, GIS, Register of Deeds and the Tax Office are all inaccessible also. There are probably more but those are the ones I tried. I spoke with the Register of Deeds Office this morning and they were “aware of the problem” and working on it!

Reply
eemilla October 29, 2009

It worked for me at work around 5:30, but now it’s gone. Urgh!

Reply
JBo October 29, 2009

According to WhoIs.net – the URL Domain info is as follows:

Domain ID:D4348995-LROR
Domain Name:BUNCOMBECOUNTY.ORG
Created On:28-Oct-1997 05:00:00 UTC
Last Updated On:29-Oct-2009 14:12:29 UTC
Expiration Date:27-Oct-2019 04:00:00 UTC

Sponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:RENEWPERIOD
Status:AUTORENEWPERIOD
Registrant ID:097637295bb16623
Registrant Name:Domain Registrar
Registrant Organization:Registercom
Registrant Street1:59 Woodfin Place
Registrant Street2:Suite 200
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Asheville
Registrant State/Province:NC
Registrant Postal Code:28801
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.8282506800
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[email protected]

Admin ID:3520255a3eb4b034
Admin Name:Jeremy Twiggs
Admin Organization:Buncombe County
Admin Street1:59 Woodfin Place
Admin Street2:Suite 200
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Asheville
Admin State/Province:NC
Admin Postal Code:28801
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.8282506899
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:[email protected]

Tech ID:4485462a26e28403
Tech Name:Bryan Dillingham
Tech Organization:Buncombe County
Tech Street1:59 Woodfin Place
Tech Street2:Suite 200
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Asheville
Tech State/Province:NC
Tech Postal Code:28801
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.8282506807
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:[email protected]

Name Server:NS2.BUNCOMBE.NC.US
Name Server:NS3.BUNCOMBE.NC.US

So according to this they shouldn’t need to renew it until 2019 – I reckon someone will be on the phone with tech support meantime.

Reply
JBo October 29, 2009

Oooooh, I’m sure someone’s face is turning red. I’d hate to be the person in IT who let this happen.

Reply