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Found at http://frank.pilone.name/what-telnic-can-do-to-improve
TelNic is the registry authority of the .TEL domains (such as fsp.tel, or pilone.tel). It is not a web site service, and there are some restrictions that apply to .TEL domains that don’t apply to other domains. This is a feature of the .TEL, and not at all any disadvantage. However, there are a few things that TelNIC can do to improve their services. These are suggestions based on my experience with their services, as I am an owner of a few .TEL domains.
Now, to understand why I am making these suggestions, one may have to know what is the .TEL, and what it does. If you are already familiar with .TEL, just skip this paragraph. First, a .TEL uses the Internet infrastructure, but does not provide many things that you would normally find on the Internet. You would not get web site services (at least in a traditional sense), you would not have FTP, SSH, WebDav, Email, or Jabber Services. In addition, you can not move your .TEL to a hosting service. TelNIC controls the hosting of all .TEL Domains, and therefore – everyone – no matter the registrar has the same experience after they acquire the domain. You would register a .TEL just like any other domain, and the only difference is the DNS control. Instead, when you go to a .TEL domain, you would find a simplistic layout that is WML, WAP, HTML-Mobile, and HTML-Desktop compliant. This is done as all of the details are located in DNS records, and when a page is requested, the server discovers the type of browser, and inserts the appropriate DNS entries in a template that provides an optimized experience for the device. A person would see the HTML version if he goes to the site with a PC (the HTML code is in a template), and a WML version if they go on a basic cell phone such as Motorola W370. This is all handled by the server code on the hosting machines which are again – TelNIC. All of the pages are the same look (with a couple of customizations), and the difference is the content based on the owner. Since this is all DNS record entry, updates are usually within a few moments.
So, now that we know what a .TEL is intended for (as a directory, and not a content web site), there are some things that could improve on the services that TelNIC can provide. And while I am sure there are technical issues in the works, the benefits would outweigh the efforts. As useful as this service is, I have found very little in the way of businesses taking an advantage of this system, and I feel that this could be easily addressed, and provide features that tailored to individuals and businesses alike.
Forwarding
One thing I think will be a benefit is forwarding of sub domains and domains to other locations. How this will affect me personally is that I could simply set up forwarding from http://frank.pilone.tel to http://fsp.tel A family .TEL site such as pilone.tel maybe accepted by the family, while allowing more detailed .TEL sites to be referenced. Since the vast majority of TelNIC relies on DNS, CNAME records might be used. Coding on the backend can set restrictions to prevent infinite loops (such as frank.pilone.tel redirecting to fsp.tel while fsp.tel redirects to frank.pilone.tel). One thought might be to only allow sub domains to redirect to .TEL domains. A primary domain could also be set where it would never be allowed to set as a CNAME redirect until another primary domain is chosen. One might say that it would make sense to allow CNAME only to the primary .TEL, but this will limit the functionality of the redirect.
Sub-Accounts
One of the reasons why I see big businesses not taking advantage of this is that it could lead to one department being dedicated to do all of the management of the .TEL. Large chains such as Wal-Mart, or Mc.Donald’s – this will simply be impossible. And at least to my knowledge, it doesn’t seem as if there is a way to allow people limited access to a sub domain, domain, or a group of sub-domains. One person, or a group of authorized people must have the credentials, and do all of the managing. The more people with the credentials, the bigger the security risk. If a business requires 1 person per 50 stores, this will mean that 168 people will be needed – each with the login credentials, and each managing the directory of 50 stores. This is a huge burden on the employees, and a severe security risk to the business as there are more than 150 that would have to be investigated if there was a major breach in the .TEL domain. This is simply unacceptable to most.
However, with a sub account – the manager can have credentials to log into their own store’s page, and their page only. If they are fired, or otherwise not given the responsibility, the web department or security department can simply change the password, and any security issues that the disgruntled employee may have is annulled. Even if the appropriate department was lazy about changing the credentials, only one section in many would be vandalized.
Families will benefit as well. Instead of sending a long complex URL to a family member that will manage everyone’s individual pages, the family will have a unique login, and access to their page. A new business model that can promote .TEL services can be found. Imagine Linked In having LinkedIn.tel, and offering their members a page that could go on the resumes, and always updateable. This then means that the people having access to one page may see the benefit of having their own domain. Now, suddenly – .TEL becomes more popular.
To make this happen will be a massive undertaking, and might even require a separate database. And there are security issues in concern. For example, I don’t give anyone my UID for logging into my .TEL services. However, if I had to give someone something like frank-pilone+johndoe as John Doe’s login for his sub account, then that could be a security risk. So, an account ID might be needed. It could be a set of numbers such as 48927407436 as an account, therefore 48927407436-johndoe could be used, or an easier identity that must match the primary domain (such as fsp-johndoe). This will prevent possible fraudulent activity as it has to be based on one of the domains. Of course, if the primary domain is disabled (such as lack of registration), this will cause an issue. Another option is domain-UID. Therefore, for frank.pilone.tel – might be pilone-frank. This will of course mean multiple logins as I personally may have pilone-frank, telmy-fsp, others. The owner of the domain will have to be willing to activate sub accounts. Personal domains such as fsp.tel don’t necessarily require sub accounts.
Better Import Options
Go to a .TEL address, and you have two options for using that data. One is printing which is not very environmentally friendly, and may not always be available, and not phone friendly, and .VCF (VCard) which isn’t available on all platforms. With PCs, not all email clients support, and there is no native support on the Android OS which has surpassed iOS. There should be other options as well. What of QR codes? How about a way to provide that information to Google Contacts? I am sure there are other things that can be done as well, but these two legacy, and not fully supported options won’t cut it.
Better Email Options
Currently, you would need to make an adjustment to the MX mail record to use your .TEL address with email. However, what about people who don’t have a hosting service? Here’s a thought. Offer actual email services, or at least the option to forward email without doing MX mail record modification which less technically savvy people maybe afraid of doing. You might even be able to offer this as an additional charge option. This will mean that customers maybe able to acquire a matching email without having to get a hosting company that would support multiple domains (not all do). If nothing else, at least forwarding option (as free) would allow to provide a matching email, and they could use the email account from their ISP.
Better Social Network Options
Social Networks are what the kids are into these days. Personally, I use the social networks as a means to find me when they don’t know how to use search engines. However, currently, you would add a web site, and enter the Social Network address in full, and if there is an icon in the system, it is displayed with the link. Maybe another option will be to offer inserting a UID for supported social networks, and therefore – just add the UID, and a compliant image. WML or when pictures aren’t available – the name of the social network is provided. There should also be more icons than Twitter, or Facebook. There are also other social networks, and I am not just thinking of the 10 people left on MySpace.
Cleaner Templates
While this may not be a big deal, and maybe it is just me as a former web site developer, but the HTML code in the pages (especially desktop) is filled with so much white space, and in this day of age where many ISPs are placing bandwidth caps on all forms of data, this white space is a nuisance at best, and a financial attack at worse. Let’s look at AT&T (US). 2GB + $10 per GB. In other words, if you hit 2.01GB, you are charged $10 for that extra 1MB of data. If the page is compacted, it could cut the page in half, and a simple str_replace to remove all new lines, and two spaces in the code will do wonders without harming the HTML code. A computer will read the same if all of the code was compacted or if there were 30 lines in between each piece of HTML coding. block. Remember TelNIC, you want to target mobile phone users as well – un-tidy code is bad.
Conclusion
So, this is what I think could be improved on the .TEL services. I am sure I could think of other things, but this should keep the developers at TelNIC busy, and vastly improve services. And TelNIC, if you are reading this – you’re welcome.
Frank Pilone has been a user of .TEL addresses for a couple of years, and own a number of them with at least four intending on keeping on a permanent basis (as of 2011-05-17).
TelNic is the registry authority of the .TEL domains (such as fsp.tel, or pilone.tel). It is not a web site service, and there are some restrictions that apply to .TEL domains that don’t apply to other domains. This is a feature of the .TEL, and not at all any disadvantage. However, there are a few things that TelNIC can do to improve their services. These are suggestions based on my experience with their services, as I am an owner of a few .TEL domains.
Now, to understand why I am making these suggestions, one may have to know what is the .TEL, and what it does. If you are already familiar with .TEL, just skip this paragraph. First, a .TEL uses the Internet infrastructure, but does not provide many things that you would normally find on the Internet. You would not get web site services (at least in a traditional sense), you would not have FTP, SSH, WebDav, Email, or Jabber Services. In addition, you can not move your .TEL to a hosting service. TelNIC controls the hosting of all .TEL Domains, and therefore – everyone – no matter the registrar has the same experience after they acquire the domain. You would register a .TEL just like any other domain, and the only difference is the DNS control. Instead, when you go to a .TEL domain, you would find a simplistic layout that is WML, WAP, HTML-Mobile, and HTML-Desktop compliant. This is done as all of the details are located in DNS records, and when a page is requested, the server discovers the type of browser, and inserts the appropriate DNS entries in a template that provides an optimized experience for the device. A person would see the HTML version if he goes to the site with a PC (the HTML code is in a template), and a WML version if they go on a basic cell phone such as Motorola W370. This is all handled by the server code on the hosting machines which are again – TelNIC. All of the pages are the same look (with a couple of customizations), and the difference is the content based on the owner. Since this is all DNS record entry, updates are usually within a few moments.
So, now that we know what a .TEL is intended for (as a directory, and not a content web site), there are some things that could improve on the services that TelNIC can provide. And while I am sure there are technical issues in the works, the benefits would outweigh the efforts. As useful as this service is, I have found very little in the way of businesses taking an advantage of this system, and I feel that this could be easily addressed, and provide features that tailored to individuals and businesses alike.
Forwarding
One thing I think will be a benefit is forwarding of sub domains and domains to other locations. How this will affect me personally is that I could simply set up forwarding from http://frank.pilone.tel to http://fsp.tel A family .TEL site such as pilone.tel maybe accepted by the family, while allowing more detailed .TEL sites to be referenced. Since the vast majority of TelNIC relies on DNS, CNAME records might be used. Coding on the backend can set restrictions to prevent infinite loops (such as frank.pilone.tel redirecting to fsp.tel while fsp.tel redirects to frank.pilone.tel). One thought might be to only allow sub domains to redirect to .TEL domains. A primary domain could also be set where it would never be allowed to set as a CNAME redirect until another primary domain is chosen. One might say that it would make sense to allow CNAME only to the primary .TEL, but this will limit the functionality of the redirect.
Sub-Accounts
One of the reasons why I see big businesses not taking advantage of this is that it could lead to one department being dedicated to do all of the management of the .TEL. Large chains such as Wal-Mart, or Mc.Donald’s – this will simply be impossible. And at least to my knowledge, it doesn’t seem as if there is a way to allow people limited access to a sub domain, domain, or a group of sub-domains. One person, or a group of authorized people must have the credentials, and do all of the managing. The more people with the credentials, the bigger the security risk. If a business requires 1 person per 50 stores, this will mean that 168 people will be needed – each with the login credentials, and each managing the directory of 50 stores. This is a huge burden on the employees, and a severe security risk to the business as there are more than 150 that would have to be investigated if there was a major breach in the .TEL domain. This is simply unacceptable to most.
However, with a sub account – the manager can have credentials to log into their own store’s page, and their page only. If they are fired, or otherwise not given the responsibility, the web department or security department can simply change the password, and any security issues that the disgruntled employee may have is annulled. Even if the appropriate department was lazy about changing the credentials, only one section in many would be vandalized.
Families will benefit as well. Instead of sending a long complex URL to a family member that will manage everyone’s individual pages, the family will have a unique login, and access to their page. A new business model that can promote .TEL services can be found. Imagine Linked In having LinkedIn.tel, and offering their members a page that could go on the resumes, and always updateable. This then means that the people having access to one page may see the benefit of having their own domain. Now, suddenly – .TEL becomes more popular.
To make this happen will be a massive undertaking, and might even require a separate database. And there are security issues in concern. For example, I don’t give anyone my UID for logging into my .TEL services. However, if I had to give someone something like frank-pilone+johndoe as John Doe’s login for his sub account, then that could be a security risk. So, an account ID might be needed. It could be a set of numbers such as 48927407436 as an account, therefore 48927407436-johndoe could be used, or an easier identity that must match the primary domain (such as fsp-johndoe). This will prevent possible fraudulent activity as it has to be based on one of the domains. Of course, if the primary domain is disabled (such as lack of registration), this will cause an issue. Another option is domain-UID. Therefore, for frank.pilone.tel – might be pilone-frank. This will of course mean multiple logins as I personally may have pilone-frank, telmy-fsp, others. The owner of the domain will have to be willing to activate sub accounts. Personal domains such as fsp.tel don’t necessarily require sub accounts.
Better Import Options
Go to a .TEL address, and you have two options for using that data. One is printing which is not very environmentally friendly, and may not always be available, and not phone friendly, and .VCF (VCard) which isn’t available on all platforms. With PCs, not all email clients support, and there is no native support on the Android OS which has surpassed iOS. There should be other options as well. What of QR codes? How about a way to provide that information to Google Contacts? I am sure there are other things that can be done as well, but these two legacy, and not fully supported options won’t cut it.
Better Email Options
Currently, you would need to make an adjustment to the MX mail record to use your .TEL address with email. However, what about people who don’t have a hosting service? Here’s a thought. Offer actual email services, or at least the option to forward email without doing MX mail record modification which less technically savvy people maybe afraid of doing. You might even be able to offer this as an additional charge option. This will mean that customers maybe able to acquire a matching email without having to get a hosting company that would support multiple domains (not all do). If nothing else, at least forwarding option (as free) would allow to provide a matching email, and they could use the email account from their ISP.
Better Social Network Options
Social Networks are what the kids are into these days. Personally, I use the social networks as a means to find me when they don’t know how to use search engines. However, currently, you would add a web site, and enter the Social Network address in full, and if there is an icon in the system, it is displayed with the link. Maybe another option will be to offer inserting a UID for supported social networks, and therefore – just add the UID, and a compliant image. WML or when pictures aren’t available – the name of the social network is provided. There should also be more icons than Twitter, or Facebook. There are also other social networks, and I am not just thinking of the 10 people left on MySpace.
Cleaner Templates
While this may not be a big deal, and maybe it is just me as a former web site developer, but the HTML code in the pages (especially desktop) is filled with so much white space, and in this day of age where many ISPs are placing bandwidth caps on all forms of data, this white space is a nuisance at best, and a financial attack at worse. Let’s look at AT&T (US). 2GB + $10 per GB. In other words, if you hit 2.01GB, you are charged $10 for that extra 1MB of data. If the page is compacted, it could cut the page in half, and a simple str_replace to remove all new lines, and two spaces in the code will do wonders without harming the HTML code. A computer will read the same if all of the code was compacted or if there were 30 lines in between each piece of HTML coding. block. Remember TelNIC, you want to target mobile phone users as well – un-tidy code is bad.
Conclusion
So, this is what I think could be improved on the .TEL services. I am sure I could think of other things, but this should keep the developers at TelNIC busy, and vastly improve services. And TelNIC, if you are reading this – you’re welcome.
Frank Pilone has been a user of .TEL addresses for a couple of years, and own a number of them with at least four intending on keeping on a permanent basis (as of 2011-05-17).
