www.gov.mu has been used as a web portal by the Government of Mauritius for the last 15 years. On 1 December, there was a "FOR SALE" sign on the former web portal.
The web page also contained the following message: "formerly the official Government of Mauritius portal and mail platform for the last 15 years, has not been renewed and is now being auctioned for sale. This domain averages between 500,000 - 1,100,000 queries daily."
The Whois record for the gov.mu domain name is as follows:
Domain Name: gov.mu
Domain ID: 63579-CoCCA
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2014-11-04T03:59:21.694Z
Creation Date: 2005-08-23T14:00:00.000Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2025-08-22T20:00:00.000Z
Sponsoring Registrar: Mauritius Domains
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:
Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientRenewProhibited
Domain Status: serverUpdateProhibited
Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited
Domain Status: serverRenewProhibited
Domain Status: ok
Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited
Registrant Name: Internet Direct Ltd.
Registrant Organization:
Registrant Street: 48 Remy Ollier Street
Registrant City: Port-Louis
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:
Registrant Country: MU
Registrant Phone: +230.2168888
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Email: admin@nic.mu
Admin Name: Internet Direct Ltd.
Admin Organization:
Admin Street: 48 Remy Ollier Street
Admin City: Port-Louis
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:
Admin Country: MU
Admin Phone: +230.2168888
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Email: admin@nic.mu
Name Server: ns0.gov.mu
Name Server: ns1.gov.mu
Name Server: ns2.gov.mu
Name Server: ns3.gov.mu
DNSSEC: unsigned
Additional Section
Sponsoring Registrar URL:
Sponsoring Registrar Address: Mauritius
Sponsoring Registrar Country: MU
Sponsoring Registrar Phone:
Sponsoring Registrar Fax:
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Contact: Mauritius Domains
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Email:
Last update of WHOIS database: 2014-12-01T13:08:58.629Z
The DNS records for www.gov.mu are as follows:
;; - HEADER - opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 60097
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 4, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.gov.mu. IN A
;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 96.45.83.75
www.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 96.45.82.127
www.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 96.45.82.237
www.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 96.45.83.167
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns0.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.94.148.2
ns1.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.124.2
ns2.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.126.2
ns3.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.125.2
;; Query time: 228 msec
;; SERVER: 208.80.124.2#53(208.80.124.2)
;; WHEN: Mon Dec 1 05:15:45 2014
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 228
The DNS records for mail.gov.mu are as follows:
;; - HEADER - opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 34663
;; flags: qr aa; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 6
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;mail.gov.mu. IN MX
;; ANSWER SECTION:
mail.gov.mu. 1800 IN MX 10 mxmail.gov.mu.
mail.gov.mu. 1800 IN MX 20 mxmail1.gov.mu.
;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns2.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns1.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns3.gov.mu.
gov.mu. 86400 IN NS ns0.gov.mu.
;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
mxmail.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 192.185.4.150
mxmail1.gov.mu. 1800 IN A 192.185.4.150
ns0.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.94.148.2
ns1.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.124.2
ns2.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.126.2
ns3.gov.mu. 2592000 IN A 208.80.125.2
;; Query time: 228 msec
;; SERVER: 208.80.124.2#53(208.80.124.2)
;; WHEN: Mon Dec 1 05:19:37 2014
;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 244
There is an email service for mail.gov.mu:
Trying 192.185.4.150...
Connected to mxmail.gov.mu
Escape character is '^]'.
220-gator4138.hostgator.com ESMTP Exim 4.82 #2 Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:48:43 -0600
220-We do not authorize the use of this system to transport unsolicited,
220 and/or bulk e-mail.
lottery.gov.mu is the web site of the Government Lotteries. The web site displayed the same web page as www.gov.mu
mra.gov.mu was the former web site of the Mauritius Revenue Authority until 2011.
According to a news article there was a redirection to the www.mra.mu until 2013. There is also a "FOR SALE" sign on the mra.gov.mu web site.
Although there has been an announcement about the migration of the Government web portal to www.govmu.org, there are organisations such as the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the MTPA Tourism Office which still link to gov.mu web sites as a source of information.
The gazoline.mu domain name is listed as expired since 19 November 2012.
Domain Name: gazoline.mu
Domain ID: 664978-CoCCA
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2014-02-17T06:21:28.995Z
Creation Date: 2011-11-29T20:17:20.591Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2012-11-29T20:18:26.987Z
Sponsoring Registrar: Register.mu
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:
Domain Status: ok
Name Server: ns1.foxhost.ca
Name Server: ns2.foxhost.ca
DNSSEC: unsigned
Additional Section
Sponsoring Registrar URL: http://www.register.mu
Sponsoring Registrar Address: Port Louis Mauritius
Sponsoring Registrar Country: MU
Sponsoring Registrar Phone:
Sponsoring Registrar Fax: +242.5305
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Contact: register.mu support
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Email: support@register.mu
Last update of WHOIS database: 2014-12-01T16:02:07.400Z
The jiva.mu domain name is listed as expired since 31 August 2013.
Domain Name: jiva.mu
Domain ID: 455377-CoCCA
WHOIS Server:
Referral URL:
Updated Date: 2013-03-19T07:36:34.050Z
Creation Date: 2010-08-31T09:30:13.942Z
Registry Expiry Date: 2013-08-31T19:31:17.707Z
Sponsoring Registrar: Register.mu
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID:
Domain Status: ok
Name Server: ns1.zone88.info
Name Server: ns2.zone88.info
DNSSEC: unsigned
Additional Section
Sponsoring Registrar URL: http://www.register.mu
Sponsoring Registrar Address: Port Louis Mauritius
Sponsoring Registrar Country: MU
Sponsoring Registrar Phone:
Sponsoring Registrar Fax: +242.5305
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Contact: register.mu support
Sponsoring Registrar Customer Service Email: support@register.mu
Last update of WHOIS database: 2014-12-01T14:08:44.124Z
The content of the www.gov.mu web site is currently hosted at http://govmu.yolasite.com/. The cost of the web hosting from www.yola.com is MUR 132 for unlimited bandwidth. Messages to mail.gov.mu email addresses is currently being delivered to an email server hosted on hostgator.com.
The "gov.example" second-level domain is usually delegated to the government of the country. There is an assumption that domain names such as www.gov.mu and mail.gov.mu is for the Government of Mauritius as it has been practice since several years. The gov.mu domain name expires in 2025. It is odd that it is being auctioned by the .mu registry operator whereas two of the .mu domain names which has expired is still left working even though the web sites have been compromised.
There is a risk that gov.mu domain names might be used for phishing. Government officials were previously using the mail.gov.mu domain name for email. People outside Mauritius might still send emails to mail.gov.mu as those email addresses have been used in several publications.