Network Solutions is no more! The end of a decade of frustration!
My sorry tail began in 2000 when I registered my domain, ImmortalSoFar.com on the new-fangled internet thingy. Back then, Network Solutions was the only registrar available so I went through them and got my instantly forgettable 8 digit account/user id numbers. It seemed a good idea to give my ISP email address (remember when we had those?) for the admin and my domain address for technical contacts. Back then, they were pretty much the same thing but different fields in the WhoIs record.
Time passed. I left my old ISP because they could only offer dialup, hard drives crashed, emails were lost and the domain registration market opened up. Prices for domain registration started to fall ($10 vs $38-$50) but Network Solutions continued to behave as if they were still a monopoly. They were bought out by Verisign, a similarly over-priced company with an old reputation and then a variety of consortiums, each of which treated it as a cash cow running it into the ground before selling it on to the next bottom-feeder in the chain. Investment in servers and hosting (which I never used, thank goodness) was non-existent, their fees were still high and their business practices were becoming infamous.
Fast forward to 2005 when I decided I had had enough and no longer wished to to business with these creeps. Simple enough, I went to NearlyFreeSpeech and transferred my domain - which was declined. When I registered the domain, there was no such thing as a "lock", they had added it in the meantime and altered their system so that technical contacts could only renew domains and not transfer them. Only the admin contact could do that.
The one with the forgotten user number and password.
Where the password could only be sent to the email address on file.
At the ISP that was no longer in business.
Or sent to the address which I hadn't updated because I couldn't get in.
Or mailed to a new address upon receipt of a fax of an ID and a utility bill.
Which I don't have because I live in an RV.
I was at an impasse and, having pointed out that I never asked them to put these measures in place, was left absolutely nowhere. All I could do was pay their $38 (or $70 on year when it was a day late vs the month's grace most registrars give) and fume every year for the next decade clicking through 5+ screens of their upselling minefield.
Ironically, this year I paid early just to make sure but then decided that enough was enough and decided on a desperate plan. I had kept an eye on my old ISP's domain and, although it was inactive, it was still registered. I had hoped to buy it up and recreate my old account but now I decided to take the chance that the owner was basically honest and not some cyber-squatter. I contacted him through his WhoIs information, explained my situation and pleaded with him to set up a forwarder for my old account for a couple of weeks. He could see that the address on the technical contact matched the email I sent and that the names were the same (somthing NS chose to ignore) and agreed.
As soon as my "ping" email to my old account arrived in my inbox, I went onto the NS site, requested a password reset, logged in as soon as it arrived and changed all of the contact information I could to my new domain. Some, I could not. Changing your information did not give you the option to change the email address but I hoped it wouldn't matter.
Unfortunately, a major change like that results in your account being locked for 60 days (long enough to overrun the renewal date when most people think about changing registrars) but I'd had enough of that. I called them up and told them to remove it in accordance with ICANN rules (which gives them 5 days to do so when requested).
Now the bs about "protecting their customers" came into its own. The security questions they asked were the ones I had set up not 5 minutes earlier! As for setting up my old account, anyone could have done that! Their intransigence, supposedly in the name of security, had left a hold you could drive a truck through! Still, I got a transfer code and the domain would be unlocked in 2-3 days.
Then I received a second copy of the transfer code so, assuming that meant it was unlocked, I started the transfer. It failed. One of the possible reasons given by NearlyFreeSpeech in their email was:
The other registrar may be an ancient, soulless creature from beyond the stars formed of crystallized hate and madness, from whose black-hole-like maw nothing can escape.
They've obviously dealt with Network Solutions before! The actual unlock confirmation arrived 2 days later and I resubmitted the transfer request. The status was that it succeeded but was pending action by the losing registrar.
Then I got notification (and threats) from Network Solutions wanting me to confirm my contact information for ICANN by clicking a link or they would suspend my domain. I waited. I figured once the transfer was complete then it would be none of their damned business anyway. Only when nothing happened for a couple of days did I risk clicking the link and then suddenly the transfer went through - obviously a last-ditch attempt in the hope that I would ignore it.
My domain is now registered through a decent company at last and I have full access and control over it. I had thought that I would be writing off the outstanding time I had already paid for (the receiving registrar already gives a free year on receipt) but it turned out that that time gets transferred, too.
If you're with Network Solutions, don't waste any time. Get out NOW!
Time passed. I left my old ISP because they could only offer dialup, hard drives crashed, emails were lost and the domain registration market opened up. Prices for domain registration started to fall ($10 vs $38-$50) but Network Solutions continued to behave as if they were still a monopoly. They were bought out by Verisign, a similarly over-priced company with an old reputation and then a variety of consortiums, each of which treated it as a cash cow running it into the ground before selling it on to the next bottom-feeder in the chain. Investment in servers and hosting (which I never used, thank goodness) was non-existent, their fees were still high and their business practices were becoming infamous.
Fast forward to 2005 when I decided I had had enough and no longer wished to to business with these creeps. Simple enough, I went to NearlyFreeSpeech and transferred my domain - which was declined. When I registered the domain, there was no such thing as a "lock", they had added it in the meantime and altered their system so that technical contacts could only renew domains and not transfer them. Only the admin contact could do that.
The one with the forgotten user number and password.
Where the password could only be sent to the email address on file.
At the ISP that was no longer in business.
Or sent to the address which I hadn't updated because I couldn't get in.
Or mailed to a new address upon receipt of a fax of an ID and a utility bill.
Which I don't have because I live in an RV.
I was at an impasse and, having pointed out that I never asked them to put these measures in place, was left absolutely nowhere. All I could do was pay their $38 (or $70 on year when it was a day late vs the month's grace most registrars give) and fume every year for the next decade clicking through 5+ screens of their upselling minefield.
Ironically, this year I paid early just to make sure but then decided that enough was enough and decided on a desperate plan. I had kept an eye on my old ISP's domain and, although it was inactive, it was still registered. I had hoped to buy it up and recreate my old account but now I decided to take the chance that the owner was basically honest and not some cyber-squatter. I contacted him through his WhoIs information, explained my situation and pleaded with him to set up a forwarder for my old account for a couple of weeks. He could see that the address on the technical contact matched the email I sent and that the names were the same (somthing NS chose to ignore) and agreed.
As soon as my "ping" email to my old account arrived in my inbox, I went onto the NS site, requested a password reset, logged in as soon as it arrived and changed all of the contact information I could to my new domain. Some, I could not. Changing your information did not give you the option to change the email address but I hoped it wouldn't matter.
Unfortunately, a major change like that results in your account being locked for 60 days (long enough to overrun the renewal date when most people think about changing registrars) but I'd had enough of that. I called them up and told them to remove it in accordance with ICANN rules (which gives them 5 days to do so when requested).
Now the bs about "protecting their customers" came into its own. The security questions they asked were the ones I had set up not 5 minutes earlier! As for setting up my old account, anyone could have done that! Their intransigence, supposedly in the name of security, had left a hold you could drive a truck through! Still, I got a transfer code and the domain would be unlocked in 2-3 days.
Then I received a second copy of the transfer code so, assuming that meant it was unlocked, I started the transfer. It failed. One of the possible reasons given by NearlyFreeSpeech in their email was:
The other registrar may be an ancient, soulless creature from beyond the stars formed of crystallized hate and madness, from whose black-hole-like maw nothing can escape.
They've obviously dealt with Network Solutions before! The actual unlock confirmation arrived 2 days later and I resubmitted the transfer request. The status was that it succeeded but was pending action by the losing registrar.
Then I got notification (and threats) from Network Solutions wanting me to confirm my contact information for ICANN by clicking a link or they would suspend my domain. I waited. I figured once the transfer was complete then it would be none of their damned business anyway. Only when nothing happened for a couple of days did I risk clicking the link and then suddenly the transfer went through - obviously a last-ditch attempt in the hope that I would ignore it.
My domain is now registered through a decent company at last and I have full access and control over it. I had thought that I would be writing off the outstanding time I had already paid for (the receiving registrar already gives a free year on receipt) but it turned out that that time gets transferred, too.
If you're with Network Solutions, don't waste any time. Get out NOW!