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A new online service offering consumers Web addresses in simulated top-level domains like .shop, .game and .xxx, is playing off of a growing consumer desire for new Internet "neighborhoods" and a general lack of understanding about how the Internet works, noted networking engineer Vinton Cerf said today.

"This is a cute trick," Cerf told Newsbytes in an interview. "It's almost like a sleight of hand." Cerf, the man who in 1973 devised the TCP/IP communications protocol that made the Internet possible, currently is chairman of the powerful Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

The "trick" to which Cerf referred is a service offered by Pasadena, Calif.-based New.net. That site claims to have created 20 "new top-level domains," in which Internet users can register Web addresses for $25 a pop.

Launched Monday amid a flurry of uncritical media attention, New.net provides a free software patch that allows people to access Internet addresses registered in the new domains. The company also has deals with several major Internet service providers (including EarthLink and Excite At Home) under which the ISPs are altering their internal addressing software to give their subscribers access to the New.net domains.

Left unclear in initial media accounts, however, is that what New.net offers aren't new top-level domains at all, but cleverly designed third-level domains dressed up to look like cousins of .com, .org and .net.

When a user buys a New.net address in .shop, for instance, the address they are really purchasing is registered globally with three suffixes (for instance www.address.shop.new.net) but appears in that user's browser address bar bearing only the .shop suffix (address.shop).

New.net creates the effect using cleverly designed software that - when installed either at the ISP level, or on a Web surfer's computer - automatically and invisibly appends the added .new.net suffixes to addresses registered in New.net's proprietary domains.

New.net officials call their domains "top-level" domains, because, to rank-and- file Internet users that is how they appear, New.net executive Steve Chadima said today.

But while clever, the notion behind the New.net software is hardly new, Cisco Systems Engineer Karl Auerbach said Monday, pointing out that other companies have used similar address-tweaking technology in order to register Internet addresses in non-English character sets like Chinese.

"It's not like (this is) new technology," Auerbach said.

While Auerbach contended that there is nothing wrong, per se, with dressing up second- and third-level domains to look like something they are not, he pointed out that addresses registered in New.net's third-level domains won't have the same transparent functionality of .com addresses.

"It's not going to work for e-mail," Auerbach said, pointing out that while New.net may have found a way to tweak the Internet browser protocol, there is no way for the firm to prevent messages sent to New.net addresses from being bounced back to unsuspecting senders.

For Internet users not using New.net-affiliated ISPs and not willing to download New.net's patch, the only way to reach a Web site registered by New.net will be by typing in the entire address – including the final suffix ".new.net."

Chadima conceded that the company has not yet developed a workable e-mail system, but said that they are working aggressively to create an e-mail patch. "E-mail is coming," Chadima said.

Beyond the element of confusion raised by the New.net system, Cerf warned of trouble if other companies get the idea of selling their own modified third-level domains.

ICANN President Mike Roberts echoed that concern, saying, "It's not clear that this doesn't create islands (in the addressing space) and a lot of people are going to be concerned about that."

But Chadima points out that New.net is in the process of patenting its software and has signed exclusive contracts with its ISP partners. Another company would face significant legal and practical difficulties in trying to follow New.net's blueprint, Chadima said.

Also, New.net's posted registry agreement contains extensive disclosures about the system's limitations, availability and potential conflicts with Internet addressing authorities, Chadima said.

ICANN has not yet taken an official stance regarding the New.net offering.

One thing that nobody seems to dispute is the cleverness of New.net's timing.

"It does feel like (New.net's creators have) taken advantage of and interest and a desire" for new Internet suffixes, Cerf said.

The New.net announcement came just days after ICANN officials announced that the creation of legitimate new domains would be delayed by several months.

"We couldn't have asked for a better present," Chadima said. "It takes too long on their normal schedule," and then ICANN "doesn't meet their normal schedule," he said.

Appointed by the US Government to manage the Internet's global addressing system, ICANN late last year approved the creation of seven new Internet domains. When introduced, those domains - .aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum .name and .pro - will be the first new global domains since the advent of .com, .net and .org, more than a decade ago.

ICANN is still trying to hash out contractual terms with the operators of the new Internet domains.

If ICANN ever gets around to approving a new round of top-level domains, New.net could run into a far more serious problem than any it currently faces, Chadima concedes. Should ICANN choose to approve a top-level domain already operated by New.net as a third-level domain, ISPs would probably be forced to uninstall the New.net software in order to resolve the true domains, Chadima said.

New.net executives are traveling to the ICANN meeting in Melbourne, Australia, this month and hope to find a way to work with the organization, Chadima said.

By David McGuire, Newsbytes
WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A.,
05 Mar 2001, 3:32 PM CST
Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com .