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I opened a ticket like a week or so before it expired, and they quickly generated an invoice and the domain was renewed.
I did receive an email like a month in advance saying that the domain was about to expire but the link in the email that was supposed to show the invoice did not work, and no invoice was created. Seems like there is some sort of glitch in their system, I'm sure they'll work it out eventually.
I am unable to reach the incognet website to pay invoices, open tickets, etc. The 172.59.xxx.xx IPs are all blocked. I emailed [email protected] twice. I had to use a public wifi today just to reach the portal in order to perform a vps backup.
You can use Tor to connect. They even have an onion website.
http://incoghostm2dytlqdiaj3lmtn7x2l5gb76jhabb6ywbqhjfzcoqq6aad.onion I believe this is the one
My limited experience with them:
I wanted to get a VPS from them, but nobody responded to my inquiries. Two months later, I finally got a reply saying that they could provide one, but by then I no longer needed it, as I had already bought several VPSs elsewhere.
Later, I wanted to transfer a domain to them. However, their control panel does not allow you to become a customer by paying only for a domain transfer. You have to purchase a VPS or another product first. I contacted support about this and asked them to manually approve my panel registration. I later followed up on the request, but three months have passed and I still haven't received any response.
I was also told via PM that it's basically a one-man show, that he simply doesn't have enough time to handle everything, and that you shouldn't expect much in terms of customer service.
Yeah there's zero customer service, but it's not a ghost ship. He maintains it well and the service is solid.
That's very good. Sooner or later, I think I'll make it through all the obstacles and finally get a chance to try the service for myself.
I still prefer to judge things based on my own experience, since it often differs from other people's opinions or impressions, especially when those are mostly theoretical.
I'd definitely recommend it. Whenever there's an actual issue, it gets fixed fast and isn't ignored.
@forest Thanks for the tip. I'll check it out. I'm glad I found somewhere I could get Incognet help. I like the service, but getting answers has always been a struggle. This forum is helpful.
Hidden service is only for main website, not client portal afaik
True, but the portal is still accessible over Tor.
@forest I get your point, and I’m sure the service works well when nothing needs manual intervention.
But with domains, limited support can become a real problem. If someone wants to hurt you, they can just spam abuse reports to the registrar or registry, and unless IncogNET replies quickly and pushes back, the domain can end up locked or suspended.
That’s basically what happened to me. I already lost a big domain because registrars/NICs were not answered by MannDude in time, and now I’ve been stuck for 8+ months on another one. At this point, unless you’re a well-known LET member who can get attention here, it feels very hard to get anything escalated.
I’m not trying to attack MannDude personally, especially given his situation and the very good history of the service. He has clearly done a lot for privacy-oriented hosting and domains.
But in its current state, I can’t really recommend IncogNET for domains.
With domain disputes, the registrar/registry can absolutely be part of the problem as well, so I wouldn’t automatically put all of the blame on MannDude.
I’ve seen these situations drag on because there can be multiple parties involved reseller, registrar, registry/NIC, abuse departments, and sometimes legal/compliance teams. Each one can end up saying they’re waiting on someone else, especially when the domain has been locked due to an abuse report or legal dispute.
If the actual lock was placed at the registrar or registry level, the reseller may not even have the ability to remove it themselves. They can escalate and push for answers, obviously, and an 8+ month delay is pretty extreme, but it can still be difficult to tell from the outside which party is actually holding things up.
Unfortunately, once multiple companies are involved, there tends to be a lot of finger-pointing over who is responsible for taking the next step.
@ChrisMiller Yeah I agree, I’m not putting all the blame on IncogNET. The registrar/NIC side is clearly part of the mess too.
My point is more general: with domains, reseller support is not optional. If abuse reports hit the registrar or NIC, the reseller may not control the lock, but they are often the only one who can answer, escalate, or confirm who the customer is. As the end customer behind an intermediary, I can only do so much myself.
After 8+ months, it doesn’t feel like much has actually been tried beyond the minimum. I’m doing everything I can, but some steps simply require IncogNET.
Same thing happened before: one domain apparently only needed a reply to the NIC within about a week, and it didn’t happen. Now Internet.bs seems to need a simple confirmation that I’m the customer behind the privacy proxy.
So yeah, I get that multiple parties are involved, but the reseller still has a real role here.
I have no opinion on whether they're good for domains. I only use them for a VPS.
Thank you for sharing this. I also don’t understand how a domain registrar, reseller, intermediary, or similar service can operate without proper support.
I’ve already marked this service with a red flag (domains only but not VPS!) in my provider comparison table, so your input was very useful. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience!
@MannDude bump
@MannDude what is going on here?
The domain now appears cancelled on the IncogNET side too wtf. Honestly, this is insane.
All of this started from false abuse claims, and I already lost access to a domain I used for years because of the Internet.bs mess. Now I may not even be able to renew it before it expires and gets squatted?
This is not a fair way to handle a customer, especially over such a basic request for help.
Been resolved, I believe to your satisfaction.
For reference, the domain was never 'canceled' by us, it's just an internal label that would have prevented the system from generating invoices about it's renewal when the domain itself wasn't active with us. I feel like there would have been equal confusion and outrage should the domain issue not have been resolved with InternetBS and you received system generated invoices related to it's renewal. "Why are you billing me for a domain name I have no access to!?". It'd have been a fair concern but there is no status option in WHMCS that was appropriate for the situation at hand.
Anyhow, for reference and to the those reading along: This entire ordeal was a bit of a mess and required a lot of going back and forth with InternetBS.
InternetBS had a legal hold on the domain and would not release it to allow the customer to migrate it elsewhere. There was conflicting information presented to us and the customer directly about who can communicate to them about the domain. Doesn't help that I'm the only one with direct InternetBS access and doesn't help that they have no support, it's now just email based back-and-forth like 1999. So, @CubArchive 's domain was placed on hold, not by us (we don't even have access to such a function with InternetBS) but by the registry themselves. We had received complaints about the domain as well, but did not find them legitimate or worthy of action, so with that those complaining escalated to the next level.
We've got several thousands domains under our belt now, some with InternetBS, some with Namecheap, some within our own direct control via Centralnic where we're an accredited Registrar, Radix/Tucows (For PW, accreddited) and ST Registry. Domain issues like @CubArchive experienced are very few and far between, of course.
Anyhow, in the coming year we'll be slowly migrating domains to @NameCrane for the TLDs we are not accredited directly for (.com/net/org, etc, etc). We've already moved some of our own personal domains over to NameCrane as well.
This will replace our current reliance on Namecheap and InternetBS for such TLDs and I believe NameCrane will be more supportive and approachable should rare issues like this ever occur again.
I do accept the blame for any domain related support delays, 90% of domain related tasks fall back to me and it's a matter of training and granting required access to others so that they can resolve and review these matters too. InternetBS related support is sort of a nuisance because they communicate to me in my own personal company inbox, so that's not something I grant another staff access to, but it should have never taken so long.
Anyhow, big announcement time.
Recently, I had a sort of epiphany. I had a period of reflection and had to ask myself questions like what my goals were with IncogNET, why when looking back at old versions of our site, old notes from years ago, that the things I had wanted to do, wanted to offer, or wanted to achieve was left unchecked.
Often, it wasn't for lack of trying. I have a countless number of various undelivered projects and updates, things that worked (mostly) wellll in a dev environment but may not have scaled well. Features that were essentially just baked onto existing stacks or software, prone to breakage when the underlying software got updated, etc.
So, what did I want to do in 2020 when this all began? What was my motivation then, and how did it change over time?
In 2020, IncogNET (then, incog.host) was shared web-hosting with the option to opt-in to mirroring your content on Tor, I2P and Yggdrasil networks. This was done via a BuyVM Luxembourg VPS and a free DirectAdmin license. That's literally how we got our start, about $40/mo in costs. Then, the mirroring was essentially some bash scripts and DirectAdmin hooks and things often broke. It wasn't very popular and only a few people had opted in.
Overtime, we sort of just grew into a generic privacy/speech focused brand whose only real niche was a lax registration process (email only). We've had growing pains and hiccups, migrations and issues just most, but overtime the lust for innovation dwindled and the core focus was always just keeping things running. Every now and then I'd catch a second-wind of motivation and keep my head down, working hard on something new or unique to us and overtime I'd see it just sort of not be something that could realistically be implemented in a way I had hoped, be difficult to scale, or likely be an administrative burden of which I was already carrying too much....
Anyhow, I don't want to write a novel but I'm happy to announce that we're getting back to our roots.
The last two months or so I've been quietly working on what I can only describe as IncogNET 2.0. We're redoing everything, which for you may sound scary, but I believe you'll be happy with the changes.
The bigger changes:
Shared hosting
VPN
This is one of the things I'm most excited for. This has already been tested heavily and the features listed below all work.
Support
One thing I think most providers can agree on is that no matter if you post an announcement of planned maintenance, or acknowledgement of an ongoing issue, it always results in a rush of new tickets.
I also want to make support an area of focus with IncogNET 2.0 with publicly visible "Staff online now" / "Average response time", but also reduce the need for support by highlighting things like maintenance windows.
Now, a "Before you open a ticket" section is visible that shows: Network status, Announcements, Average Response Time, and Help Articles.
Admin side
I made a list of every annoyance, every issue, everything that just outright bugged me about WHMCS. What did I want? What did I not want? The admin side doesn't impact the end-user, and this is a closed platform that we will never release for others to use since it's purpose built for IncogNET, but I'll list some of the admin side features that will make life easier and managing things better.
Can I see it?
I'll just share a few screenshots. UI isn't settled nor the current priority. Screenshots taken from my test/demo account of working features. UI will most certainly change.
Sign in, with random information showcased.
Create an account:
Shared hosting dashboard:
This is what I've been focused mainly on the last week or so. Still a lot more testing to do.
Shared hosting alt-net mirroring:
Still need more testing but this is world's more convenient than our old method. Tor and Yggdrasil tested, works. I2P needs some more work.
VPN Dashboard (For a single POP):
From the VPN profile configuration page:
KB:
Find a domain:
Account settings:
Some areas are purposely not shown, like the client dashboard, etc.
All subject to change. This is to just give you a sort of rough idea of some of what we're working on.
Hrr drr clanker ai slop lol
It's sink or swim time. If you're not leveraging the technology available to innovate your business, that's your decision. Nothing is being rushed, nothing is being published without proper and thorough testing and auditing. Yes, AI was heavily used. At this point I cant think of anything more liberating and freeing than breaking out of the constraints, limitations and arbitrary limitations of licensed third party software and replacing it with something bespoke for us.
A couple years ago I would have agreed that this was a dangerous and stupid idea. I've come to terms with the capabilities of AI, both good and bad, and at this point feel like not utilizing it as a useful tool is to eventually lose to those who do recognize it for what it is.
I'll reiterate that things will be thoroughly tested before deployment with a periodically scheduled follow up for continued security.
@MannDude Great announcement!, but I noticed one critical feature is missing from the announcement: the $17.76 special plan. 😂
I've purposely not purchased or leased more hardware because pricing is high and it's allowed things to 'slow down' a bit internally so we can focus on other things. You may note that you can't buy any VPS right now with PayPal or with short cycles, I think the minimum is quarterly or 6 months. This is by design, helps keeps things more manageable at the time being. (Can still renew via PayPal and buy domains and stuff with PayPal, I just purposely wanted to slow down the orders of VPS for a while)
For BF we'll probably just do some domain promotions, probably some first year deals at below our cost for ST, PW, VG, GD, GL, etc.
@MannDude
This is all well and good, and it's nice to see someone spending months coding away and enjoying the process. But in the old system, it wasn't possible to transfer just a domain without purchasing hosting, even after providing all the required personal information. And support failed to respond to multiple inquiries about this issue over the course of three months.
So maybe it would have made more sense to simply hire one more support person instead of spending months coding late into the night while forgetting that you actually have customers?
really glad to see this man. i was really concerned that maybe you were tired of running incognet so i can't even express how happy i am to read this instead.
Yes
Great updates, congratulation on new things
will legacy virtualizor plans be discontinued or migrated at some point? I could make a ticket for this, but, it really doesn't impact me all that much. could also be user error when clicking enduser panel under the product
Will be discontinued / migrated eventually. We did like 60% or more of them already to virtfusion but stopped along the way.
General "IncogNET 2.0" updates
Been working a lot on the shared hosting setup.
Onion mirroring updates. Before, when you mirror to alt-networks like Tor, the system auto-generates your .onion address. Well, it still does, but now you have the option to also export that if you, say, wanted to upgrade to a VPS and move your .onion with you. You can also now import your own, assuming you have one or generated a vanity v3 .onion
One click installer updates. Can install the following software from the control panel:
CMS: Bludit, ClassicPress, Grav, Pico, Textpattern, WonderCMS, WordPress
Blogs: Chyrp Lite, FlatPress, HTMLy, Typecho, Dotclear
Wikis: DokuWiki
Forums & Q&A: MyBB, Question2Answer, Simple Machines Forum, phpBB
Feed readers: FreshRSS
Galleries & photos: Piwigo, Zenphoto
Tools: Kanboard, LinkStack, PrivateBin, Shaarli, YOURLS
Analytics: Matomo
Still doing a lot of random testing with the shared hosting. Will want some folks to try it out in the coming month or so. I plan on releasing the service in the US (Kansas City, replacing our Direct Admin hosting, and with Miami, Valley Forge, Liberty Lake and Vegas planned) and Europe (Amsterdam, replacing our DirectAdmin hosting, and Sofia, Bulgaria and likely Sweden) and.... Singapore!
My Private Inbox - The myth, the legend. Been talking about it for years. Released small non-scalable tests. Keeping some of the deets private for now but will be releasing this service in a minimum of 3 POPs: (Kansas City, USA - an undecided EU POP - Singapore)
IncogVPN - Anyone in a restrictive location or have access to areas with restrictive wifi / blocking want to test out the different connection methods? New beta setup is in Bulgaria and Amsterdam, but will be getting a Singapore beta setup this weekend or early next week. I can confirm all connection types work, but without trying to build a local great-firewall in the office to test effectiveness of evading blockages I can only guess that they'd work as intended. I'd rather know that they work (or don't) so things can be improved.
it would be cool to have more info around the plans with discontinuing to plan for something else, will you consider offering anything in replacement or simply plan for cancellation and move data elsewhere?