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Network Solutions, LLC is a technology company which was founded in 1979. The domain name registration business has become the most important division of the company; as of 2006, Network Solutions manages more than 7.6 million domain names. Their size, founding status, and longevity have made them one of the most important corporations affecting domain name price and policy. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... This article is about a U.S.-specific corporate form; for a general discussion of entities with limited liability, see corporation. ... Herndon is the third-largest town in Virginia, located in Fairfax County, Virginia. ... In the domain name system on the Internet there is a need for databases to be kept of which domain name maps to which IP address. ... This article is about a term used in economics. ... Web hosting is a service that provides individuals, organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the Web. ... Web design is the designing and graphical presentation of content shown on the Internet in the form of Web sites and other Web applications using many different forms of media. ... Electronic commerce, EC, e-commerce or ecommerce consists primarily of the distributing, buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. ... Search Engine Marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet Marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in the Search Engine results pages (SERPs) and has a proven ROI (Return on Investment). ... Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols that provide secure communications on the Internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, Internet faxing, instant messaging and other data transfers. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... For the tax agency in Ireland of the same name, see Revenue Commissioners. ... This article is about work. ... For the band, see Big Brother and the Holding Company. ... Look up slogan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML...

History

Network Solutions started as a technology consulting company in 1979,^[1] with approximately 30 employees, and focused its efforts on applications development. Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ...

Network Solutions was acquired by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in 1995 and listed on NASDAQ in 1997. Science Applications International Corporation Science Applications International Corporation (usually known as SAIC) is the largest employee-owned research and engineering firm in the United States. ...

John Dillon reports in MediaFilter.org, "Initially, the service was subsidized by the government. But, in May 1993, the National Science Foundation privatized the name registry (InterNIC - Internet Network Information Center) and paid NSI $5.9 million to administer it. In September 1995, NSI instituted the fee system. A few months earlier, it had been bought out by Science Applications International Corp (SAIC)." The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ...

In 2000, Network Solutions was acquired by VeriSign, Inc. for $21 billion.^[1] Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... VeriSign, Inc. ...

In 2003, Network Solutions was acquired by Pivotal Equity Group.^[1] The current CEO is Champ Mitchell.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Roy Dunbar was appointed as the new CEO.^[2]

On February 6, 2007, Network Solutions announced that General Atlantic, a private equity firm, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Network Solutions from Najafi Companies (formerly Pivotal Private Equity). ^[3] Although terms of the deal were not released, the Wall Street Journal reported in a story on May 30, 2007 that the price tag was "around $800 million." ^[4] The Wall Street Journal is an influential international daily newspaper published in New York City, New York with an average daily circulation of 1,800,607 (2002). ...

In 2003 nearly 90% of the company's revenue was from domain-name registrations, said Network Solutions Chief Executive Champ Mitchell. Since 2005, the company has added 69 services and products and today these new offerings are fueling Network Solutions' growth. Now only 45% of the company's revenue comes from domain-name registrations.[1]

At the end of July, 2007, Network Solutions had 6,659,150 domains under management and was in the top five wholesale domain registrars following Go Daddy with 19,709,215 domains and eNom with 7,646,676 domains. Tucows, the largest publicly traded registrar, has 6,622,982 domains under management with its recent acquisition of ItsYourDomain.com.[2] Melbourne IT, a publicly traded company located in Australia, trailed with 4,664,019 domains under management. [3] Go Daddy is an Internet domain registrar and web hosting company, which also sells e-business related software and services. ... eNom is a domain name registration and services technology company founded in 1997 in Redmond, WA, is the second largest registrar of domain names, and manages over 7 million domain names according to ICANN statistics website. ... Tucows (originally an acronym for The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software that has long since been dropped) was formed in Flint, Michigan, USA in 1993. ... Melbourne IT is an Australian internet company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. ...

In addition to being a wholesale registrar, Network Solutions provides web services such as web hosting and website design.

Registry and Registrar business

In 1992, Network Solutions was the sole bidder on a grant from the National Science Foundation to develop the domain name registration service for the Internet. In 1993,^[1] Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) was granted an exclusive contract by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be the sole Domain name registrar for .com, .net and .org Top Level Domain (TLD) names.^[5] NSI also maintained the central database of assigned names called WHOIS. Network Solutions acted as a de facto registrar, selling names directly to end users. Year 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar). ... The logo of the National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. ... A domain name registrar is a company accredited, either by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), or by a national ccTLD authority or both, to register Internet domain names . ... A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of which Internet domain names consist of. ... WHOIS is a TCP-based query/response protocol which is widely used for querying a database in order to determine the owner of a domain name, an IP address, or an autonomous system number on the Internet. ...

In 1995, the National Science Foundation gave Network Solutions authority to charge for domain name registrations. Network Solutions charged $100 for two years registration was imposed on all domains; 30% of this revenue went to NSF to create an "Internet Intellectual Infrastructure Fund." ^{[6] [7] [5]} In 1997, a lawsuit was filed charging Network Solutions with antitrust violations with regards to domain names.^[8] The 30% of the registration fee that went to the NSF was ruled by a court to be an illegal tax. ^{[9] [10]} This led to a reduction in the domain name registration fee to $70. ^{[11] [12]}

In the 1990s, Network Solutions implemented a policy of censoring domain names. This came to light when Jeff Gold attempted to register the domain name shitakemushrooms.com but was unable to. Further aggravating the controversy was the fact that while Network Solutions' automated screens blocked the registration of shitakemushrooms.com, the domain name shit.com had been successfully registered.^[13] Network Solutions argued that it was within its First Amendment rights to block words it found offensive, even though it was operating pursuant to contract with a Federal agency NSF. ^{[14] [5] [15]}

Network Solutions' $100 charge, which many parties believed was excessive, in addition to its monopoly position in the market, was one of the contributing pressures that resulted in the creation of the International Ad Hoc Committee and its failed attempt to take control of the domain name system, and to the US Department of Commerce, NTIA releasing the White Paper and ultimately contracting with ICANN to administer the DNS. ICANN headquarters ICANN (IPA /aɪkæn/) is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ...

With the formation of ICANN, the domain name industry opened up to partial competition, with NSIF retaining its monopoly on .com, .net and .org but having to recognize a separation of registry and registrar. By the end of 1999 the fee for registration had been reduced to a wholesale rate of $6 per year to registered resellers.

Controversy over Domain name front running

Network Solutions Inc offer a search engine which permits users to find out if a domain name is available for purchase.^[16] Unregistered domain names entered into this search engine are then speculatively registered by Network Solutions, who then offer the domain for sale at a price about 1.5 times the going rate. ^[16]

On January 8, 2008 Domain Name Wire published a story alleging that Network Solutions practices domain name front running.^[16] "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.^[16] "Network Solutions registers the domain in its company name with the words 'This Domain is available at NetworkSolutions.com'."^[16] 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,^[17] had offered a response to the news story stating Network Solution's policy.^[18] The policy was "a security measure to protect our customers," said Nevett.^[18] "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."^[18] 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."^[16]

Jay Westerdal, one of the seven members of the ICANN community who was consulted by the ICANN committee looking at domain tasting abuse,^[17] published an article on Domain Tools on January 8, 2008 stating that Network Solutions is exposing the domains to domain tasters.^[19] The domain tasters "will snipe those domain up milliseconds after Network Solutions deletes them," says Westerdal.^[19] "It is a deplorable action that Network Solution would announce potential domain names to the entire world," Westerdal added.^[19] 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.^[20] "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.^[20] 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.^[20] "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.^[20] "Tucows doesn’t use WHOIS query data or search data from our API to front-run domain names," Koole added.^[20]

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.^[21] Network Solutions will continue to register domains when people search for domains from the company's home page.^[21]

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.^[17][19] This occurs for thousands upon thousands of domains, with a certain percentage then eventually being bought by the original party, providing a profit. ^[17][19]

Controversy over Fitna the Movie

In March 2008, Fitnathemovie.com, the website Dutch politician Geert Wilders had hosted at Network Solutions, was taken offline. Network Solutions stated that Geert Wilders refused reply to numerous inquiries as to what the content of the movie would be. As such, Network Solutions concluded that the content was most likely harassing, objectionable or against the acceptable use policy. As a result, Fitnathemovie.com will most likely not be the method to publish the politicians anti-Quran movie. Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician. ... Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician. ...

Citations

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 37th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 38th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

See also

• List of Domain Registrars
• Domain name system

This is a list of domain registrars in order to the statistics at RegistrarStats. ... The Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with so-called domain names; most importantly, it serves as the phone book for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e. ...

External links

• Network Solutions Website
• Network Solutions consumer discussion forum.
• Who says there are no second acts?, a C|Net Article, 10 August, 2005
• Network Solutions negative reviews
• VeriSign acquire Network Solutions for $21b CNN Money March 2000
• C-Net Article August 20, 2003 - Voting machine fiasco: SAIC, VoteHere and Diebold [4]