Some customers of Namecheap, a popular domain name registrar and web hosting provider, have reported that they are unable to access the company’s website from India. According to a status update posted by Namecheap on March 11, 20231, the issue is caused by some Indian ISPs blocking their website for unknown reasons. The company said that they do not have any issues on their side and that they are working on finding a solution.
Namecheap also confirmed the issue on Twitter, responding to a user who complained about getting an error 500 when trying to access their site. “Our site may be unavailable for clients in India. We do not have any issues on our side, however, our website is being blocked by some Indian ISPs,” Namecheap tweeted.
Hi! Our site may be unavailable for clients in India. We do not have any issues on our side, however, our website is being blocked by some Indian ISPs.
Our team is investigating it for possible solutions. We will update you here once it will be resolved.
1/2— Namecheap.com (@Namecheap) March 13, 2023
The reason behind the blocking is unclear, but it may be related to a court order issued by the Delhi High Court in February 2023, directing the IT Ministry to take action against some domain name registrars for not complying with IT rules3. The court order was based on a petition filed by a group of cybersquatting victims who alleged that some registrars were not responding to their take-down notices and were asking for US court orders instead of Indian ones4.
Namecheap is not the only registrar affected by the blocking. According to a report by Domain Name Wire, some other major registrars such as Dynadot and NameSilo have also been blocked by some Indian ISPs4. The report said that the blocking is part of a long-running dispute over cybersquatting and that Indian courts and victims are frustrated by the lack of cooperation from some registrars.
The blocking of Namecheap and other registrars has caused inconvenience and frustration for many customers who rely on their services for registering and managing their domain names and websites. Some customers have expressed their dissatisfaction on social media and online forums, asking for an explanation and a resolution from Namecheap and the ISPs.
Namecheap has not provided any further updates on the issue as of March 14, 2023. It is not clear when the issue will be resolved or whether it will escalate into a legal battle between Namecheap and the Indian authorities. Customers who are affected by the blocking are advised to contact Namecheap’s customer support or use alternative methods to access their website, such as VPNs or proxies.
