I have had a few domain names registered with Net4India since the past 4-5 years. All these years I never needed to contact the customer support team of the company as all the domains were not basically in use by me, they were just parked there.

I decided to use on the domains a few days ago and logged in to the Net4India Domain Control Panel. From the login page itself, the company showed how much fun they have not being a professional company. First, you cannot login with your "username". You need a CRN ID which is associated with your username. So I had to check my email to find my CRN ID and then login to the Control Panel.

Next up, the Control Panel design. It is so amateurishly made. The page refreshes very slowly everytime you click on a link (Change MX Records, ABT Records, etc) and comes to the same place as before, then it gives a javascript popup where you can make changes to your domain. That's not all. I tried changing the Name Servers of my domain and everytime I was given a Sever Database Error. After about 6-7 tries, the page finally loaded up very slowly and telling me that they would about a day to make the changes sent by me. Don't tell me they do take requests from their customers and then they make all the changes manually!

After that, CName Record changes. I could not find a link where I could add/edit CName Records. After digging the website for a few minutes I gave up and called the customer support call center. They took about 15-20 minutes to attend my call. The representative asked me to click on "Add Subdomain" to add my CName Record. I was like wow! Then he asked me "Are you setting up Google Apps?" I replied with a yes. So he then advised me "not go with Google Apps as they are unreliable and I should go with Net4India's Business Email Service". That was the most unethical business attitude I had seen by a company till now. I politely declined his offer and hung up. Then out of curiosity, I visited they Business Email Service and was flabbergasted by the price of the service. For 1 user account with 1 GB, they charge Rs. 2549 (approx. 57 USD)! I mean why wouldn't I pay Google 50 USD for 25 GB/user account + the other perks?

Anyway I proceeded to add a CName Record happily and guess what? After I clicked on Proceed, it gave a server error, yet again. So after a few tries I successfully added my first CName record. Now I went ahead to add another CName Record and what I saw then, completely blew my mind off. It was asking me for Rs. 500 (about 11 USD)! Where in the world does a domain company allow only one CName record change other that Net4India? And, why would I pay 11 USD/CName Record? The time was approximately 10:30 PM now so I tried calling their "24 Hours Customer Call Center" but in vain, got no response. So in fact, the 24 hour call center is just a publicity stunt. What surprised me was that when I tried calling their Sales line that time, somebody picked up. So they want to do sale, but after sales support - "Who cares once they pay us the money!".

Anyways, I had to send them an email for my problem. So I emailed this:

I am unable to add more than one CName entries for the ***.in domain. It is taking me to the Shopping Cart when I an trying to add more than one CName record. Kindly change the CName records as follows: 1. Enter the following as the CNAME value or alias: mail calendar docs sites 2. Set the CNAME destination to the following address: ghs.google.com

And this is the canned reply which I got next morning:

This is in reference to your query; we would like to inform you that the CNAME can be created from control panel. Below mentioned are the steps for the same:- Login to “net4.in" along with your crn id and password - click on Manage my Services - click on Domains - click on "Add Sub Domain" link - select Cname - page will automatically get refreshed - In the sub domain text box enter the alias name like www - In the right side Text box enter destination address like ghs.google.com - click on "Create Now" button, further it will take 4-8 hrs to reflect globally. For any further assistance do contact us, on 39891414 (from Landline), from Mobile phone dial city code as prefix

So I replied:

In reference to TT-20100317-183740. I am sorry to say that after following the steps you had instructed to, the goal cannot be reached. Only my first attempt of adding a CName record was accepted. All the other attempts are taking me to my shopping card and asking me to pay Rs. 500/per subdomain. I hope this time I will receive a sensible reply and not a Canned Response telling me to goto "add subdomain" and follow the same procedure. Kindly add the requested CNAME records in my previous record. Thank You.

After a few hours, I get a reply. But, the same canned response which was sent to me earlier:

This is in reference to your query; we would like to inform you that the CNAME can be created from control panel. Below mentioned are the steps for the same:- Login to “net4.in" along with your crn id and password - click on Manage my Services - click on Domains - click on "Add Sub Domain" link - select Cname - page will automatically get refreshed - In the sub domain text box enter the alias name like www - In the right side Text box enter destination address like ghs.google.com - click on "Create Now" button, further it will take 4-8 hrs to reflect globally. For any further assistance do contact us, on 39891414 (from Landline), from Mobile phone dial city code as prefix

I mean how unprofessional can the company be. They do not even read the full support tickets.

So I sent a reply again:

In reference to TT-20100317-183740 and TT-20100317-192659. What sort of a professional business model does your company have to provide just one CNAME record for domain-only customers? Doesn't that sound silly that one can have only one CNAME record for his domain? I would like a much more sensible reply back this time.

And, got this reply:

This is in reference to your query; we would like to update you that there is only one CNAME/Subdomain free with domain only pack. Incase you required another CNAME/ Subdomain that we would request you to make the payment for the same. For any further assistance do contact us, on 39891414 (from Landline), from Mobile phone dial city code as prefix.

After that I called the Call Center again to ask what was going on and the representative who attended my call was very rude in telling me that as I was "just" a domain-only customer, they cannot allow me to have more than 1 CName record per domain.

Oh by the way, I don't understand this, they allow the "domain-only" customers to change the Name Servers of their domains but do not allow more than one CName records. So I changed the default NS to Dreamhost (Use Promo Code NPAT51 and get Flat $50 OFF!) with which I host my domains and then activated a DNS only hosting there. Vola! Now I can set as many DNS records as I want to. So basically, Net4India just lost a customer with this attitude as I am definitely not going to renew my domains with them anymore.

Just in case you are planning to buy domains with them and if you do not believe my review, do a Google search and see for yourself what sort of a reputation do they have. Oh and don't go by their attractive "Just Rs. 199 for .in Domains" offer. They will charge you Rs. 199 for just 1 year. If you buy it for more than a year you pay the overpriced Rs. 499/year (before multiple-year discount). So they are just pulling you for a one time sale. And you know by now about their after-sales support. Oh, seems like I am not the only Net4India unhappy customer here.

Its gives me immense pleasure to announce the launch of HCK.IN to my dear readers.

HCK.IN will soon be offering exciting ethical hacking tools and security services. Our first service is the HCK.IN Forums. HCK.IN Forums is a forum for everything related to security - from softwares, to scripting languages, to hardwares; oh and did we forget, gaming consoles even.

We are very close to releasing the next service to the public, so visit the HCK.IN Forums and signup to get an exclusive sneak-peak of our upcoming service - only for our registered forum users! :)

Here is a great video created by the guys at Whirled Interactive. It captures a few important events of the year 2009. The interesting part, if you notice in the video, is that there was not a single positive thing that happened in the year 2009! Nice.

Anyways here goes the video.



It's an amazing video in terms of creativity but only if somebody could make a video on how to really use Google Wave easily!

I had ordered a Dell Studio 1555 because they are the only company in India that I know of who offer customizations on orders. I received the product on the 14th of November, 2009.

I was very happy with the order and delivery process. They were very nice and fast. On my first run I noticed a dead pixel on the WLED screen. So I mailed the support team asking for an explanation as I found the dead pixel on the first run of my brand new laptop. Alas, I got no reply.

The problem did not finish here. After a few days I noticed that the charger adapter would make sparkling sounds once the laptop's battery finished charging and then it would become so hot that one could make a hot cup of soup on it. So, on the 4th of December I called the Dell Support as the last time I did not get a reply through email. They were ready to replace the battery adapter but were not ready to replace my WLED screen(now that explains why they didn't reply to my previous email) as they claimed that 1 dead pixel is not covered under warranty and that it is a factory standard to have 1 dead pixel. Alright wait a minute here, I have been a Compaq, HP, and Acer, Sony, Samsung and LG customer for many years now and have never ever seen a single dead pixel even after using them for long periods. Apparently, Dell laptops have Samsung's WLED screens.

Coming back to the topic, the customer care representative explained that I needed to have at least 6-7 dead pixels on my screen to get a replacement. Hearing this I reminded them of one more incident. My uncle has bought the same Dell model a couple of months before me and he too had a dead pixel on his laptop's screen in the first run. For his case too, Dell was not ready to replace his laptop or even the screen for the first attempt from him. When he asked for a money back, they said they cannot do that as the 30 day money back period was over. Kindly keep in mind that it was the Dell guys who took more than 30 days to solve his problem. After he sent a long email to Dell USA's top executives(don't ask me how we got their emails) explaining about their service, a few people from Dell started calling him and offering a full product replacement. Look at the sudden change in their attitude. My uncle realized that for a high-end product which cost him near about USD 2,000 Dell created so much issue solving a small problem that too in the first month using the product, what would they do after the warranty gets expired, so he asked for a money back and went on to buy a HP laptop again as we have been a customer of HP for a long long time.

After hearing this the representative I was talking to, did not have anything to say and asked me to be on hold while he spoke to his senior. After a long hold, he agreed to send me replacement of both the power adapter and the WLED screen.

The replacement arrived on the 8th of December and a technician came to my office to replace the WLED and the power adapter. So the real story begins here!

The engineer who came was a newbie sort of a guy, he was damn slow at his work and at every step on opening my laptop, was figuring out what to do next. Anyway, I just sat there staring at what he was trying to do and he replaced the WLED after about 45 minutes or so. When he handed me the laptop to check it out, I noticed that He had not fixed the WLED cover and my keyboard properly. So I had to point it out all to him and he was looking a bit surprised on how he missed fixing those properly.

After the technician went I noticed that he had left lose a small portion of the WLED cover which I hadn't noticed before. So I called the Dell customer care helpline and they said that they would send yet another replacement to fix the problem. I had made them aware of their technicians professionalism and had requested them not to send the same technician the next time.

It had been 5 days now and I hadn't heard from anybody regarding the new replacement which was supposed to come in 2 days as said by them. On 12th December I received a call from Dell that they were short of supplies so they were not able to send a replacement. He said that the replacement would be shipped soon and that I would get it on the 14th positively. On 14th I got a call from them that they yet again had a problem with the supplies so I would get it on the 16th.

Today, 16th December, I finally get the replacement but guess what? Even after me requesting not to send the same technician who had come before, they sent the same technician. Anyway, that was not a big issue. The time the technician had come was 10:30 am.

Now the technician started opening my laptop and while replacing the old WLED panel with the new one, the technician pressed the screw on one side of the WLED so hard that the screw got hollow in the middle and got stuck. Great! Now the technician was trying to take the screw out with a scissor-plas. I was so surprised at this, I called the Dell customer care right then. I explained the whole story to them about what had happened till now and the representative asked me to hand the call over to the technician at my place. The representative had asked the technician his name and his employee id and then asked what his problem was. The technician was now literally shaking and sweating. He could explain the problem properly so I had to explain the problem to the representative. After hearing me, the representative asked me not to sign the service paper if I was not satisfied with the outcome.

While I was talking to the Dell representative, I saw that the technician was literally trying to pull of the WLED panel out by his hand. I am pretty sure he broke something inside while doing that. I asked the almost crying technician to put back the old components of my laptop and go as I would not be signing the service sheet. He asked me give him just a few more minutes so that he could solve the problem. I said OK. While yet again trying to fix the problem, he broke the inside plastic part of the display cover. Now I was tearing my hair apart. He then tried hiding the broken piece from me and called by some senior guy. Somebody came after about half and hour, and they were discussing what had happened. After some time, the senior technician fixed the problem is just under 15 minutes with the old components of my laptop. He did not use the new replacement parts which they had bought.

I was finally relieved that I could get back to work. The time now was approx 1:45pm. Basically Dell cost me almost 5 hours of time and money which I would have rather used doing my business if I had another company's laptop.

When I was checking my laptop this time, I noticed that the display panel's cover was still a bit lose but I didn't say anything as I did not want to go onto yet another adventure. And when I closed the screen and picked it up vertically I noticed that the display panel was now a bit loose - the display panel would try to open itself a bit when picked up vertically. I pointed that out to the technicians and they said that was not a new problem and that happened with every laptop available in the market. NO! It doesn't happen with any of the laptops I have used yet and it did not happen with this laptop before these guys came today. Anyway I was happy that my laptop was now atleast in a working state so I did not tell them anything.

The whole story in a few lines: I get a dead pixel on the first run of my new Dell Studio laptop. I complain about it through email. Get no reply. The power adapter has a problem after a few days. I call Dell to replace that, they agree but not for the display panel. They claim dead pixel counts under 5-6 are not covered under warranty and are according to the factory standards. I tell them my uncle's experience with his Dell laptop which is returned back eventually tired of Dell. They agree to replace my WLED panel too. A technician comes but does not do the job properly and leaves the panel loose. I call and complain to Dell about it and they send another replacement taking a week. The same engineer comes and this time he stuck a screw while replacing the panel and breaks a plastic part which is inside of the panel cover. He calls for another technician who comes and fixes the problem with the old panel and does not use the replacement part which had arrived. They leave the display panel loose this and claim it is normal. They leave after about 5 hours of wasting my valuable time. The problem is solved (oops, I am lying )

Now Dell, I must say you guys do a great job providing customized solutions to your customers and I find your products a great value for money, BUT. After I spend a hell lot of cash from my pockets to buy your laptop, you provide me with a very bad customer support. Is that a good sign?

I was about to place a bulk order of desktop computers and laptops to Dell for my new office but I don't think so I would go with you guys now. I would rather go with HP or even somebody else with whom I have had very good experiences in the past with not a single problem, and an adventure like this.

Just trying to open your eyes.

To my friends out there, for now, do not buy Dell. For now. Its just an advise. All up to you. But here I am, one unhappy customer.

Signing off.

A not-so-proud customer of Dell.

One customer lost, a hundred customers lost.

Anybody who wants to discuss about this can contact me here.

Apparently the kid's mother canceled his World Of Warcraft account his brother plants a camera in his room just before he completely goes crack. You should see what follows!

It's a LOL¹⁰ video. :P

GoDaddy recommends against purchasing .tv domain names. The island is sinking!

Playing for Change is a multimedia movement created to inspire, connect, and bring peace to the world through music. The idea for this project arose from a common belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. No matter whether people come from different geographic, political, economic, spiritual or ideological backgrounds, music has the universal power to transcend and unite us as one human race.

Their first production "Stand by Me" bridges the physical distance between the many musicians and cultures of this planet.

As Gizmodo says, "If this video doesn't bring a tear to your eyes and makes you smile for the rest of the day, you are a cold hearted b**tard. Watch it from beginning to end—you won't regret it."



Four years ago while walking down the street in Santa Monica, CA the voice of Roger Ridley singing “Stand By me” was heard from a block away. His voice, soul and passion set us on a course around the world to add other musicians to his performance. This song transformed Playing For Change from a small group of individuals to a global movement for peace and understanding. This track features over 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world. They may have never met in person, but in this case, the music does the talking.

Which platform would you choose for your personal blog where you would just share a few links, vids etc?

Vote here: http://twtpoll.com/jlgrhj

I came across this amazing video on YouTube and could not resist sharing it here.

The Escape key has made it out of the keyboard, and started the big journey of his life.



via Flickr.

Probably the most weird gift request I have ever heard of.

Will the kid have his birthday wish come true?

Google Logo = Birthday Gift?