[dns-operations] Uptick in number of domains losing delegation recently

[Todd Lyons]

We've had an increase in customers over the past month call in with
problems being unable to browse to their website (2 or 3 a week, it's
not like it's a huge number).  In almost all cases, they have a
GoDaddy or a Tucows domain which is currently registered, the
expiration date is still a ways off, and whois is delegated to the
correct DNS.  But when we do a dig +trace for that domain, the GTLD
servers don't return any NS glue.  We get the customer to call the
appropriate registrar and ask them to re-delegate the domain, they
make the phone call, and then things start working.  It does not fix
itself on its own (i.e. it's not an intermittent error that goes away
after some network issue resolves itself, for example).

Is this some new process that GoDaddy and Tucows are doing that messes
with delegation to the GTLD servers?  I have not noticed it with any
other registrars, but my experience is purely anecdotal.  It might
simply be a small percentage of the raw number of registrations per
registrar, not limited to any particular registrar.

Anybody else seeing this?

...Todd
-- 
The total budget at all receivers for solving senders' problems is $0.
 If you want them to accept your mail and manage it the way you want,
send it the way the spec says to. --John Levine