Network Solutions Gripes

Introduction

Some of my gripes with Network Solutions (NSI) pre-date this web site and thus are not documented here. Based on assorted problems in dealing with them, I transferred a domain to Register.com in September 2000. I had my gripes with Register.com too. Since then, I have also used Domain Direct and had some minor issues with them. Based on my experiences and what I have read (see the Other Gripers section below), Network Solutions (at times doing business as VeriSign) seems to be the worst choice for a domain registrar. 
Update: April 2006. To date, my favorite registrar (and I've used my fair share) has been GoDaddy. 

Latest Gripes

January 10, 2008. Techcrunch. Network Solutions Using Questionable Tactic to Sell More Domain Names Quoting: "... if a user does a search on the site for a domain name, Network Solution immediately registers the domain in their own name. If the user then goes to a discount registrar to register the domain, it shows as unavailable. The user must then either not buy the domain, or go back to Network Solutions and pay their $35/year fee. So far they’ve registered over 72,000 domain names based on user searches."

August 5, 2007. What is Network Solutions afraid of? This is on my CNET blog. I tried to move the registration for a domain from Network Solutions to another registrar. They won't tell you how to do this. Other registrars will tell you.

FYI: April 7, 2006. A reader of this page wrote to say that you cannot transfer a .co.uk domain away from Network Solutions. This is actually buried in the Service Agreement. 
Update: April 11, 2007. Another reader of this page wrote to say that is not impossible to transfer a .co.uk domain away from Network Solutions. To do so he said involves making a request that the domain be escalated for a tag change to the new registrar and then the transfer can take place with no problem. 

May 13, 2006. Their web site was down today for at least a few hours, maybe longer (I wasn't checking it often). That a company like Network Solutions can suffer a long outage is disgraceful. Their web site is their business.  

FYI: If you sign up for a web site with a hosting company, it may be convenient to have them also register your domain. Don't do it. This applies to any registrar, not just Network Solutions. For one thing, they may foul up the domain name renewal. For another, you are not master of your own domain (Seinfeld pun intended). If you need to change something, you are at the mercy of the web site hosting company. For example, if your email address changes, it is important to change the one on file for the domain owner to keep it up to date. 

Someone I know made this mistake when hosting a web site with Earthlink (which, in and of itself, is a big mistake). When trying to update domain information at Network Solutions, the error was: "We are unable to log you in. The User ID is associated with a participant of our Reseller Program who registered a domain name or service on your behalf." 

Whois Problem

March 20, 2004. Network Solutions offers a Whois function that displays some information about the owner of a domain. It is available at
      www.networksolutions.com/en_US/whois/index.jhtml 

I tried to look up an existing .com domain and it kept failing over and over with the error shown here. I was able to look up other .com domains, the problem seems specific to one domain. 

Then I tried a domain search (another function) which you use to see if a domain is available. The domain search reported that the .com domain was taken, as was the .net version of it. The .org version was not taken. 

After the problem persisted for a while I opted to complain to Network Solutions at www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/help/contactus 

There is a section for complaints about a specific domain and I entered my problem domain there. The system rejected my complaint saying: 
         "Sorry, this Web Address (domain name) is not in our WHOIS database." 

I know this to be wrong, because I just did a domain search that showed the domain to be taken. Then I tried the other section for entering complaints and said my complaint was about domain names. They promise an answer in 24 hours and they did respond in just over a day with: 

We are unable to answer your question as the domain name registration you listed is not currently registered through Network Solutions. Therefore, it doesn't have a record in our Whois database and cannot be modified through our services. To find out which registrar holds the record for the Web Address you are looking for, go to www.verisign-grs.com Enter the domain name in the text box and click Submit Query...

They also included data in their email reply that showed the domain in question was registered by URL: www.OnlineNIC.com. It seems this was not a Network Solutions problem after all. A whois search at www.verisign-grs.com worked. A whois search at onlineNIC.com returned the normal domain ownership information.  

Who are You?   top

With both NSI and Register.com the process of registering a new domain is less than perfect. My biggest gripe is that you can not tell what information will be kept private by the registrar and what information will be made public for the world to see. Trying to change the public information, after a domain is registered, is what led me to abandon NSI. No doubt many people register a domain without realizing that their home address and phone number is visible to everyone on the Internet. 

With Register.com changing the publicly viewable information was possible on their web site using just a user name and password. The process is more confusing than necessary and has some quirks, but updates take effect immediately which means that you can easily correct any mistakes. 

With Network Solutions, I found it impossible to change to the public information. They have various security schemes, none of which are clearly explained.  The security scheme my domain was using was such that email messages could be used to effect changes. At least in theory. I could never get it to actually work however. Below on this page you can ready about my first attempt and second attempt. (January 2001) 

Selling Personal Information   top

February 16, 2001. The Wall Street Journal reported that Network Solutions is actively selling the personal information of people who have registered web sites. Other media outlets most likely reported on this also. The information they are selling includes name, street address, phone number and information about the web site. This information is publicly available only in drips and drabs, one web site at a time. NSI is packaging the information from their six million customers into a consolidated database making it much easier to use. It has been selling this information for only a year, but only now is it public about this. The web site they use to promote this is www.dotcom.com 

Are My Domains Paid in Full?   top

January 2000.  I wanted to make sure that all my NSI registered domains paid for. I knew enough to go to
   http://payments.networksolutions.com
where, of course, there is no inquiry function per se. If you type in a domain name however, it will tell you that no payment is due. I did this for two of my domains - no problem. The third however was problematic and resulted in the following email exchange:

Me to NSI

On your web site on page: payments.networksolutions.com  I get an error when typing in my domain name which is xxx.xxx. I am the technical contact for this domain. The error is:
 Related information could not be retrieved for the domain. 
 This could be because:
  The domain information has not yet been processed or updated into the database.
  You entered an incorrect domain name.
 Neither of these error possibilities is true. The domain is months old and I typed it in many times, even on different days.

NSI to me

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions. Once you register a domain name, you cannot change it or "un-register" it. If you find that the domain name you chose no longer suits your business or personal needs, you should register another domain name.
To register a different domain name, go to our Web site at www.networksolutions.com. Enter the new domain name you would like in the text box on our home page and click Go! Our system will walk you through the process or advise you that the new domain name you would like is registered to someone else.
The domain name you originally registered will continue to be registered to you until the end of the registration period. Registration and re-registration fees are non-refundable and non-transferable.

To recap:  The web site inquiry did not work. The suggested reasons for the web site error were not the problem. I emailed NSI and they responded with a bunch of words totally unrelated to the problem. Eventually someone at NSI did confirm the status of the domain by email.  

Trying to Make Database Changes     top

November 2000.  These are the gory details of my unsuccessful attempt to make changes to the public information of a domain I own that is registered with Network Solutions. As noted earlier, the update was attempted by email, NSI did not at the time (and still may not) have a web interface for making changes. 

Here are some instructions from NSI after the first step of the process completed. Identifying information has been X'd out.

To me, this is confusing. After trying my best to follow these instructions, the changes I requested were never made. I found the situation so confusing, that I just gave up. Here are the error messages and instructions for dealing with the error from Network Solutions. Again, identifying information has been X'd out.

Would you have given up? 

Trying AGAIN to Make Database Changes     top

March 5, 2001.  Since I didn't have full documentation for my prior attempt, and its been months since then, the time seems ripe to try again to change the public information for a domain I own that is registered with Network Solutions. Maybe by now they have a web interface instead of a flurry of email messages. I sent them an email message asking if they had a web interface. 

It took a person 3 days to respond to my message, but an immediate auto-reply told me what I needed to know. It pointed me to a web page for updating domain information. This started another sad journey down update lane. The auto-responder said: 

If you need to make a change to records associated with your domain name, we've got great tools for you to use! If you need to: change the registrant's address appoint a new or different contact to manage your domain name OR switch ISPs (i.e., change primary and/or secondardy name servers) complete a Service Agreement modification form at http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/makechanges/domain.mod

Yes, it did say "secondardy" name servers, that was not my typo. What is a registrant? Is this something everyone in the world but me knows? I clicked on the link. The resulting web page says: 

If you need to change information about a contact who is managing your domain name, complete a Contact Form modification at http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/makechanges/itts/handle

I clicked on the link. The resulting web page said: 

This program will generate the form used to register a new contact NIC handle and will also allow you to modify existing contact NIC handle information. Type in the contact handle for the contact record you wish to modify in the box below. For new contacts, leave the "Contact Handle" field blank.

To me this is confusing. A new contact NIC handle? I didn't know the handle on my contact NIC was even broken. Now that I think about it, I didn't know I even had a contact NIC. How does NSI know that I own a contact NIC? What's a contact NIC?  

Fortunately Network Solutions has online help for dealing with the above. On my computer, the help is 9 screens of information. There is something wrong with a procedure when it needs 9 pages of documentation. 

I took my best guess at filling out the web page with contact NIC handle stuff. The next web page said:  

I created a form? To most people a form is piece of paper with lines and boxes on it. Lets see...they email me a form, but when I get it, its an agreement. Instead of security based on userid/password, NSI is using security based on email. They figure if they send me an email message and I reply to it, it must be me who replied. This is quite a convoluted system of back and forth email messages.  

True to their word, Network Solutions did send me an email message very quickly. It started with: 

I followed the current instructions, and emailed them back, yet again. Fairly quickly, I got the auto-reply from NSI with a tracking number. It is now March 5, 2001 at 7PM. The auto-reply said: 

The update was rejected.  Why? Beats me. This is what they said: 

The request did not come from an appropriate e-mail address. What does this mean? All my correspondence to NSI was done from the email address they have on file for me as the domain owner. 

Again, true to their word, they sent an email message to the administrative and technical contacts for the domain. I know this, of course, because I got one of these messages. The other went to the web site hosting company where the domain lives. Of course, they have no idea what to do with it. They don't know me at all, let alone be aware of changes I want to make to my public information. As you might expect, this message basically says, some unauthorized bozo tried to change information on our database. Rather than paraphrase, here is exactly what it said: 

I can't take it any more. I give up. I don't have it in me to fight this hard over something that should be easy, simple, quick and trivial. This ain't rocket science. 

But this is not the end of our story. 

Remember the web hosting company? They responded to the email message from Network Solutions! They didn't bother checking with me, but just went ahead and approved the update. Two days later (March 7, 2001), I get a message from Network Solutions that my requested updates were done. 

Can I see the update? Nope. Not for one to two days. With register.com, I could see the changes immediately. It was visible the next day. 

---

March 8, 2001. I thought I would ask NSI what went wrong. As per one of their email messages, I went to           http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/help/contactus.html  From there I clicked on the link for questions, typed my question into a web page and gave them the NIC tracking number. We'll see what they say. 

March 15, 2001. After a week, NSI responded. However, they did not answer my question. Not even close. I sent it back to them with a plead to read the question before responding next time. As proof, here is what I said to them:

Network Solutions responded to this question about why they did not consider my email address "appropriate" with the following: 

To summarize: I told them the update request was completed and they came back and told me the update request was completed. As for Zone files and WHOIS stuff, could it be that they barrage you with this techno babble in the hope you will give up?

I responded back to Network Solutions and asked them to please read my first message. This must have been too much for them because they never responded.  

Domain Renewals     top

I registered a domain in July 1999 for someone else and forgot about it. The registration was for two years. June 18, 2001 I get an email message from a competing registry informing me that it is time to renew the domain and providing instructions on how to transfer ownership of the domain to them. Network Solutions has not reminded me to renew the domain.  June 20, 2001. 

They continue their pattern of letting registered domains expire without reminding the domain owner. In February 2002 I experienced some errors accessing a web site that I maintain. I thought nothing of it at first, but the intermittent problem continued the next day. To make a long story short, the domain for the web site had expired. As before, NSI never sent me, the domain owner, notification that the domain expired. It had actually expired a couple months earlier, but they kept is alive for a while. I extended my ownership of the domain on the NSI web site without problem. March 11, 2002. 

Network Solutions, now using their new name, VeriSign has been mailing (postal mail, not email) deceptive domain expiration notices to customers of other registrars. The purpose of these notices is to get the unsuspecting customer to transfer to and renew their domains with VeriSign Inc. at significantly higher prices. This was posted to the Politech mailing list. In a follow-up posting a recipient of the phony domain registration bills described VeriSign handiwork. "I got two of these, both from "affiliates" of VeriSign. They were very deceptive. They said that my domain would expire "soon" and "in March." In fact, it will expire in March of 2003. Nowhere did they make clear that they were taking registration away from my current domain registrar." March 26, 2002.

Let My Domain Go     top

November 13, 2001. I wanted to register the domain "michaelhorowitz.net". The registration of this domain by the previous entity that owned it (yet another gripe) expired September 23, 2001. I should be able to register it. But I can't because Network Solutions is hoarding it, a practice that they have been sued about (see Other Opinions topic below). 

Someone had recommended using www.domainsmatter.com as a registrar. When their web site said this domain was not available, I emailed them to ask why. They were nice enough to research it and said that, in their opinion, Network Solutions, the previous registrar for this domain, seems to attempt to keep control by delaying the release of expired domains to be re-purchased by someone else or to be sold through a competing registrar. They said the normal procedure (dictated by ICANN [the registrars' watchdog]) is to hold an expired domain for 40 days before releasing it (in this case, it has been over 40 days) and Network Solutions often holds onto names for longer than the 40 days.

Domainsmatter.com was even kind enough to contact Network Solutions about when this domain would free up, but they were told "I don't know". Then they advised ICANN about the situation with this domain . My thanks go to domainsmatter.com who went way out of their way to help someone who was not even a customer. On December 7th 2001 they even wrote again to say the domain was still not available to the general public. 

I emailed Network Solutions about this at help@networksolutions.com. An auto-responder said they got the message on November 14, 2001 and assigned it a case number. That was it though, a human never responded (as of Dec 7, 2001). 

I also wrote to register.com about this issue because their web site too reported the domain as unavailable. They did not respond. 

If you have a problem with Network Solutions (or any registrar) report it here www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi
I wrote to them about this subject and never heard anything back. 

Other Gripers       top 

Here is a story from Oct. 19, 2000 about Network Solutions being sued for hoarding domain names. 

Quoting from a September 2, 2001 article about registrars at Internet-Tips.net: "Out of all of the registrars that I have used, Network Solutions is the most primitive, requiring a complex series of emails in order to change anything." 

Ed Foster, author of the Gripe Line column in InfoWorld magazine, wrote about Network Solutions in the April 2, 2001 issue. He called NSI "arrogant" and said "NSI has always been on of the most consistent contributors of grist for the Gripe mill..." The column focused on two issues. One was a promotional offer from NSI to renew a domain registration for 10 years for $210. When anyone tried to take them up on the offer however, the deal turned out to be 9 years at $252. 

In his Gripe Line column in InfoWorld magazine, Ed Foster wrote about Network Solutions/VeriSign on September 24, 2001 in a column called Transfer disappearing act. Quoting: "If you don't like the way a company is treating you, just take your business elsewhere -- unless the company is VeriSign, in which case you'll have to fill out a form confirming your desire to leave them, and then hope they acknowledge receiving it." He says this form often gets lost on its way back and forth to VeriSign. Customers who did get answers were often told it was too soon to transfer the domain or too late. Transfers were also disallowed for minor things or would "time out". 

David Strom wrote an article called "Picking the right registrar" in the March 2, 2001 edition of his newsletter Web Informant. In the article he discussed his experiences with Network Solutions over a period of years. He found them to be "particularly annoying" as far as sending him (the domain owner) spam email. He also noted that email sent to NSI "often went unanswered for days or weeks." Finally, he referred to the tech support from Network Solutions as "lousy."  He also wrote an article about how to chose a domain registrar on December 18, 2001. 

FYI: the article above included mention of http://www.domainnamebuyersguide.com/  an independent review of various registrars run by Chris Truax, a California intellectual property lawyer. 

FYI: The web hosting company Hostway describes the process of moving a web site from another hosting company to them. The process is harder with Network Solutions than with some other registrars. 

Ed Foster, author of the Gripe Line column in InfoWorld magazine, wrote YET AGAIN about Network Solutions (now doing business as VeriSign) in the April 15, 2002 issue. He is so frustrated with them that he had to resort to asking readers how to deal with them! He says "VeriSign's domain registration operation is out of control. The outfit formerly known as Network Solutions has made many an appearance in The Gripe Line over the years, and I wonder if it isn't futile to continue discussing it. But for the name on the door, nothing seems to have changed through the years. The oldest complaints about Network Solutions remain in the VeriSign era and are, in fact, more obvious than ever. And new ones arrive too thick and fast to look into them all, even if I were going to write about them every week." Two of my favorite gripes in the article are that when VeriSign screws up they won't help their customers and their terms of service say that you can't sue them. A word to the wise. 

The domain hoopla.com was stolen from its rightful owner by a forged fax to Network Solutions. Network Solutions so far has not seen fit to give it back to the rightful owner. April 12, 2002.

Verisign's Deceptive Practices Stopped by Dan Gillmor San Jose Mercury News May. 16, 2002. Domain-name seller BulkRegister sued VeriSign saying the company sent thousands of "renewal notices" to BulkRegister customers that sought to trick them into unwittingly transferring their accounts to VeriSign.
VeriSign to stop mailings to competitors' customers June 21, 2002.The San Francisco Chronicle. As a result of a lawsuit filed in a Phoenix federal court by VeriSign's competitor, Go Daddy Software, VeriSign has agreed to stop a direct mail campaign that critics say duped many Internet users into switching their domain registrations from competing companies. Go Daddy contends that VeriSign's mailing, titled "Domain Name Expiration Notice," misled its customers into believing their domains were due to expire May 15. Customers who responded to the letter unknowingly transferred their domain registrations to VeriSign, Go Daddy said. VeriSign said it will stop mailing letters "designed to look like an official domain name expiration notice" to users of any competitor

VeriSign sales tactics only erode its reputation By Scott Herhold Mercury News June 13, 2002. Quoting: "Every now and then...an aggressive sales tactic is so unfair and so manipulative that it lacks smarts as well as morals...Such is the case with the heavy-handed attempts by VeriSign to poach customers from its rivals, a technique that will cost the company more in reputation than it ever gains in fees. The scam? VeriSign has sent out official-looking ``expiration notices'' to customers of other registrars, urging them to renew by a certain date. Instead of the $8 or $12 or $15 that its rivals are charging annually...VeriSign demands that they send in $29. In the fine print, the company says that by filling out the form, you agree to transfer domain registration to VeriSign. This practice is known as ``slamming,'' and it feeds off public ignorance..."   

www.VeriSignOff.org says: "The goal of VerisignOff is to help people understand that there are alternatives to Verisign/Network Solutions and that by patronizing these registrars, we help send an important message; consumers expect the companies that they patronize to treat them ethically and respectfully." They also say that Network Solutions and VeriSign "engage in a variety of business practices that are, in our opinion, unethical, fraudulent, and calculated to be opaque and unfriendly to consumers." There are links to other VeriSign and Network Solutions gripers such as www.nsihorrorstories.com which, in turn, has still more links to Network Solutions gripers. June 2002.

FYI: For help in choosing another domain registry try RegSelect is an independent source that compares more than 50 sources of Internet domains to make sure you get the best prices and features possible for your dollars. An Alphabetical Listing of Registrars by Company/Organization Name can be found at The Accredited Registrar Directory. June 25, 2002

Lawyer learns hard lesson on wild, wild Web August 25, 2002. The San Jose Mercury News. Attorney Anu Gupta runs www.immigrationdesk.com, which lets clients download legal forms and get online advice. She recently discovered her web site and emails were in the hands of a company in India thanks to a mistake by VeriSign. ``They didn't even let me know. They just went one day and gave the Web site away'' she said. After hours on the phone to no avail, she drew up a lawsuit and told the company she'd file it if she didn't get back control of the site by the end of the day. That got their attention. VeriSign finally complied, telling her an employee had transferred the site by mistake. 

VeriSign (Network Solutions) may lose their contract to sell Web addresses unless they maintain more accurate records of its customers. They were accused by ICANN of "blatantly ignoring" their obligation to fix their records. Good Morning Silicon Valley. September 4, 2002. 

VeriSign's Signal Is Fading. Forbes Magazine. Penelope Patsuris, October 9, 2002.  Quoting: "For a company that has a government-sanctioned monopoly on the domain-name database that makes the Internet work, you'd think that VeriSign would be in the catbird's seat. Instead, it looks as if the Internet infrastructure outfit's best days are behind it." A Gartner Group analyst is quoted in the story as saying "They make fraudulent requests of customers and are stealing business from other companies . . . The majority of calls I get about VeriSign are people asking me, 'Who else can I use besides them?"

Network Solutions Spills E-Mail Addresses Company to Apologize; Customers Fear Spam  Network Solutions Inc. said it will apologize to tens of thousands of customers whose e-mail addresses the company inadvertently released yesterday. "A few thousand" Network Solutions customers received e-mail messages that contained more than 85,000 e-mail addresses of other Network Solutions customers. The Washington Post. January 24, 2003. 

Hackers Put U.S. Flag on Al-Jazeera Site Associated Press March 28, 2003.  Hackers wreaked electronic havoc on Internet sites operated by the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, diverting Web surfers to pornography and to a page with a U.S. flag and the message "Let Freedom Ring." The mistake was embarrassing for Network Solutions, and for its parent company, VeriSign Inc., which sells authentication and security services in addition to operating the master records for all Web addresses ending in ".com" and ".net." 

Thanks, VeriSign, for breaking the Internet The Internet registrar's decision to appropriate all the Net's misspelled domain names for itself is a bogus, greedy power grab. By Andrew Leonard in Salon. September 17, 2003

VeriSign refuses to suspend Internet address diversions San Francisco Chronicle September 23, 2003. Despite a flood of criticism, VeriSign has told ICANN that it won't disable its Site Finder service. ICANN had asked VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the service. The controversial service diverts Web users who enter invalid URLs because of careless typing to VeriSign's own Web site. VeriSign is also facing lawsuits filed by Popular Enterprises, a Florida firm with a competing Site-Finder-type service, and by Go Daddy, another Internet registrar that has accused them of engaging in unfair business practices.

VeriSign thumbs its nose at corporate governance By Dan Gillmor in the Mercury News September 24, 2003

Network Solutions settles charges it duped consumers AP September 25, 2003. They were charged with tricking consumers into transferring their domain name registrations to the company. They promise not to do it again.

NetSol Expiration Notices Sent in Error, Maybe  Ed Fosters Gripe Log October 1, 2003.

January 26, 2004. A reader of this site wrote me with worse NetSol experiences than mine. As an FYI, their company now orders secure certificates through GeoTrust and they recommend others to do the same. I have no experience with GeoTrust.

Verisign wins Internet Villain award by Matt Loney ZDNet UK February 20, 2004

Someone wrote to me after reading this web page and mentioned RecallVeriSign.com - The Web Site Dedicated to Removing VeriSign as the .COM and .NET registry!. As of April 15, 2004 almost 16,000 people have signed the petition. April 15, 2004.