Rutland is no longer the master of its own domain – on the web, that is.
The city government didn’t renew its lease on the web domain rutlandcity.com when it expired last week, and a Panamanian cybersquatter picked it up, the Rutland Herald reports.
“We never received any written or electronic invoice telling us the domain was about to expire,” said Mayor Christopher Louras. “Without having a date circled on a calendar, we’d have no idea the site was about to turn into a pumpkin.”
The city seems to be letting go of its Panamanian pumpkin, rutlandcity.com, and shifting to a new domain at rutlandcity.org, but officials didn’t make the switch in time to avoid problems.
The Herald reported Tuesday that the sudden loss of the domain name snarled part of the city’s email system.
The loss of the domain is causing come logistical headaches for city employees. Currently, employees with email addresses ending in “@rutlandcity.com” are able to send and receive email with each other. They can also send emails to addresses outside the system, but are unable to receive emails from outside senders.
