Wikipedia Says Network Solutions Sucks

I really appreciate comments. I really do. I love the interaction with people who use this site. Most of all, I love being right and crushing the opposition.

Network Solutions is waiting for you to search for an available domain name using their site.

With that as background, I got a comment or two from Jack Carlson, who, again, I really appreciate for commenting. He defended NetSol and I had to question if I was right about their practices or not. I know what happened to me and a client of mine. Maybe they saw the error of their ways and changed their practices. I needed to reevaluate.

I checked Wikipedia (and since it’s on the Internet, it must be right of course,) and they also had references that all seem to check out. I think this section below is probably true. It matches my experiences and my client’s. Please click through and read the whole thing.

What do you think? Have you ever had a good or a bad experience with NetSol? Please leave a comment and we’ll all battle it out in the never ending search for the truth.

Network Solutions – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Controversy over domain name front running

There is evidence that there are parties subscribing to this information which are buying some of these domains within milliseconds of them being de-registered.

Network Solutions Inc offer a search engine which permits users to find out if a domain name is available for purchase.[18] Unregistered domain names entered into this search engine are then speculatively reserved by Network Solutions. [18] It should be noted this “reservation” can be removed by anyone immediately by contacting Network Solutions customer service hotline, or it will automatically unreserve within 4 days, allowing the domain to be freely registered anywhere. Also, visitors searching for domain names on their website allow the reservation when they click “OK” on the Reservation Confirmation dialog box. Clicking cancel will prevent the domain name from being reserved.

On January 8, 2008 Domain Name Wire published a story alleging that Network Solutions practices domain name front running.[18] “If you try to register a domain at Network Solutions, but decide not to register it, you won’t be able to register it anywhere else,” the article says.[18] “Network Solutions registers the domain in its company name with the words ‘This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com’.”[18] Circle ID reported on January 8, 2008 that Jonathon Nevett, Vice President of Policy at Network Solutions and one of the seven members of the ICANN community who was consulted by the ICANN committee looking at domain tasting abuse,[19] had offered a response to the news story stating Network Solution’s policy.[20] The policy was “a security measure to protect our customers,” said Nevett.[20] “When a customer searches for an available domain name at our website, but decides not to purchase the name immediately after conducting the search,” Nevett added, “after the search ends, we will put the domain name on reserve.”[20] Nevett said that if the domain was “not purchased within 4 days, it will be released back to the registry and will be generally available for registration.”[18]

Jay Westerdal, one of the seven members of the ICANN community who was consulted by the ICANN committee looking at domain tasting abuse,[19] published an article on Domain Tools on January 8, 2008 stating that Network Solutions is exposing the domains to domain tasters.[21] The domain tasters “will snipe those domain up milliseconds after Network Solutions deletes them,” says Westerdal.[21] “It is a deplorable action that Network Solution would announce potential domain names to the entire world,” Westerdal added.[21] On January 8, 2008, Tucows, the largest publicly traded domain name registrar, published an article on their company web site titled “Registrar Reputation and Trust” criticizing Network Solutions policy.[22] “Potential Registrants are effectively forced to purchase the domain from Network Solutions for a period of four days at which point the domain is dropped,” wrote Tucows employee James Koole.[22] Koole says that Tucows has found a way to address the issue of domain tasting and have policies in place that uphold the rights of Registrants.[22] “Tucows works to prevent domain name tasting by charging our Resellers a monetary fee on domain name registrations that are cancelled within the five-day Add Grace Period (AGP),” Koole said.[22] “Tucows doesn’t use WHOIS query data or search data from our API to front-run domain names,” Koole added.[22]

On January 9, 2008, Cnet reported that Network Solutions will soon not register domains when people search for domains from the company’s Whois search page, will offer only an “under construction” page for sites that it has reserved, and newly reserved pages won’t be linked to the numerical Internet addresses that allow Web browsers to locate the pages.[23] Network Solutions will continue to register domains when people search for domains from the company’s home page.[23]

There is evidence that there are parties subscribing to this information which are buying some of these domains within milliseconds of them being de-registered.[19][21] This occurs for thousands upon thousands of domains, with a certain percentage then eventually being bought by the original party, providing a profit. [19][21]

Read the entire article at Network Solutions – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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