The dot com Big Brother.
Written: Mar 22 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Reasonably reliable, established.
Cons: Monopoly central.
|
|
|
| dbirchall's Full Review: Network Solutions.com |
Having used the Internet for a decade, and written about Network Solutions and related topics for a book that's coming out next month, I was happily surprised by the opportunity to review them. That's not to say I'll pull any punches, though.
Today's quiz question:
What do you get when you cross a vast, cooperatively generated database of information about Internet domains and servers with a bunch of corporate suits with backgrounds in the "national security" community?
You guessed it - Network Solutions! Of course, that wasn't always their name. They used to be known as Government Solutions, and they ran the NIC (Network Information Center) for the military's Defense Data Network. They originally won the InterNIC contract in a three-way agreement with AT&T and General Atomic, but managed to leverage their way into running the whole show themselves. And they didn't always have the spooks on board - that happened later, when SAIC, a government contractor with its fingers in everything from Three Mile Island to Desert Storm, bought part of Network Solutions.
For most of the 90's, Network Solutions was the only provider of domain registration services for the common global top-level domains - .com, .org, and .net. At first, this was fine - they had a contract with the government to run the InterNIC, and few people minded. But when the idea of opening domain registration as a competitive market came around, Network Solutions didn't take it lightly.
I don't want to say Network Solutions is a totally anti-competitive, monopolistic company, but Microsoft could learn a few tricks from them. After claiming that it was technically impossible to open the market, they then caused as many delays as possible in the actual implementation of competitive registrars. They added all sorts of disclaimers and legal language to the output from the InterNIC database, claiming that they owned the information (much to the surprise of domain owners who'd given them the information). And even now, they control the database the other registrars feed into, guaranteeing themselves a cut of every domain registration fee.
At the same time they were playing hardball with their would-be competitors and the government, Network Solutions were exploiting their customers. Domain contacts began receiving unsolicited e-mail advertisements, plugging various services that Network Solutions offered - in many cases, services that competed with those offered by the customers themselves. And while taking steps to prevent "spammers" from querying its database for the e-mail contacts of every domain name, Network Solutions made that very information available for sale to advertisers. This went against numerous technical procedure and policy documents, which clearly stated that domain contacts were technical and administrative contacts, and that the addresses were to be used in the event of problems.
Now, Network Solutions is merging with VeriSign, which enjoys a similarly monopolistic position as the sole major provider of digital certificates for secure e-commerce. The obvious goal is to create a "one stop shop" that will be the only provider of both kinds of services, and thus grab an even bigger slice of the Internet pie.
Although I still do business with Network Solutions myself - I haven't had time to research competing registrars and move my domains to one of them - I cannot recommend them. Their business practices, and their utter disregard for ethical use of customer information, are unacceptable. I'd recommend doing anything possible to avoid doing business with them.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dbirchall
|
|
Member: Dan Birchall
Location: Hilo, Hawaii
Reviews written: 262
Trusted by: 64 members
About Me:
Techie, writer, dad, outdoorsman, traveler.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.