No-IP reclaims control of domains seized by Microsoft

The end of No-IP customers’ troubles seems near, as Microsoft has relinquished control of the 23 domain names it seized control of on Monday with the blessing of a Nevada federal court.

Dan Durrer, owner and CEO of Vitalwerks, the company that runs the No-IP dynamic DNS service, has let users know that they were “very close to a resolution” of the problem, and are working as fast as they can to reestablish access to the millions of users that have been put out of service by Microsoft’s legal action.

No-IP marketing manager and spokeswoman Natalie Goguen confirmed on Wednesday that they managed to get control of 18 domains, and that they are waiting for the Public Interest Registry to put them in charge of the company’s .org domains again.

According to tweets posted by customers, legitimate hostnames are gradually starting to resolve again.

Although the security community praises Microsoft’s willingness to address the malware problem in general, they have been unpleasantly surprised by this latest heavy-handed approach that disrupted the workings of a legitimate company and affected millions of its legitimate users.

Microsoft has apologized for the disruption, blaming it on a technical error.