Is email deliverability impossible with a .name email address?

updated 2 Comments

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I have a dot name domain. .name is an odd TLD: they originally only offered third level domains, eg first.last.name, so that more people could get their own name. They also included the first@last.name email address with each domain registration. They later opened up to normal second level registrations, eg last.name, but only for domains that didn’t have existing third level registrations. I got mine before that, so I’m stuck with it.

I’ve used first@last.name as my primary email address for 18 years or so. However, I don’t own last.name itself, so I have to depend on my domain registrar (and Verisign, the .name Registry Operator) to forward incoming email to me. More importantly, email deliverability for outgoing email has degraded so much that it’s almost unusable. Only Verisign owns last.name’s DNS, and they evidently have no interest in operating SPF, DKIM, DMARC, or SMTP for it. Registrars themselves can’t, since they don’t have control over last.name’s DNS.

Gmail users, for example, see the ugly warning above on my emails.

Am I stuck? Do I need to bite the bullet, give up on this email address I’ve used forever, and switch to a “normal” domain with DNS I can control? Am I missing anything?

2 thoughts on “Is email deliverability impossible with a .name email address?”

  2. Ryan Barrett

    Sadly, Michael Hampton may be right. All evidence seems to confirm that .name email addresses from third level domain registrations are broken and unusable for outbound email.

    I emailed with ICANN and Verisign, and they basically confirmed this. ICANN said:

    If you would like to use a third level or second level .name domain for email, or upgrade your registration from third level to second level domain, you would need to contact the Registry Operator .NAME domain names.

    Verisign said:

    The .NAME email forwarding service is only for inbound emails, where they are simply passed on the forwarding address. Your outbound emails are not passing through our servers at any time. We do not add SPF/DMARCs to last.name because we do not provide e-mail services to send e-mail, only the e-mail forwarding.
    …
    We don’t provide any other service in regards to email or DNS with .name domain names, 2nd or 3rd level. You will need to contact a DNS hosting provider for assistance on any DNS hosting.

    I replied:

    Thanks for the information, Phil. I understand that you only do .name DNS for forwarding inbound email, not sending outbound. Again, though, you’re the only party that could do that DNS, which makes .name email addresses a pretty incomplete and broken product right now. If that’s the way it is, then I understand. Thanks again.

    Sigh. Disappointing.

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