Network Solutions Sucks (Old)

formerly formerly known as — The Network Solutions Sucks Page — then VeriSign bought NetSol
formerly known as — The Verisign Sucks Page — then Verisign sold NetSol

The major VeriSign references were removed in 2009, since VeriSign no longer owns NetSol, and hasn't for a while.
And for all I know, NetSol may no longer be akin to organized crime, so this page is mostly for historical purposes, as I'm not currently interested in keeping it updated.

Alternatives to Network Solutions

Do to increasing distaste for GoDaddy, I currently use Dynadot, and have been very happy with them.

And hey! They now have a referral program, so if you click that link and give them money then I get account credit! Here's a link without the referral code though, in case such things are distasteful.

I had excellent results with a more expensive specialty-niche hosts, httpme.com and ServInt. Didn't like their cost/disk space, so I currently use Spry for a VPS account. If you don't know what VPS is, you'd want to look at their shared hosting instead. I haven't used it though, and don't know if there are better options out there.

i am not affiliated with the above companies in any way other than being a customer

Problems with Network Solutions / NetSol

From: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/32852.html

All your Web typos are belong to us

By John Leyden

Posted: 16/09/2003 at 11:28 GMT

Network administrators are fuming about changes made by domain registrar Verisign to the DNS system yesterday amid concern that the alterations could make it difficult for mail servers to reject mail from invalid domains.

Verisign yesterday added wildcard DNS records to all .com and .net domains - redirecting surfers who get lost on the Net to a search page, called Site Finder, run by the company. Those who type in non-existent addresses will also be served up Site Finder, instead of an error message.

The radical, and largely unheralded, changes were made yesterday and followed up by a post by Verisign to the NANOG mailing list. This did little beyond stating that Verisign has added a "wildcard A record to the .com and .net zones" and pointing users to a white paper that Verisign has prepared .

So, Verisign has turned domain name typos into an advertising opportunity. This is an abuse of Verisign's role, via acquired company Network Solutions, in running the root DNS servers.

And then there are the practical issues: sysadmins are fuming at the knock-on effects of the changes.

The concerns raised by Reg reader Ray Bellis, technical director of rural broadband outfit Community Internet, are typical.

"This breaks all sorts of things horribly. It makes it very difficult for mail servers to reject mail from invalid domains", Bellis said..

"Even worse, if an MX record points to an invalid host name, that host will now resolve, the SMTP connection accepted and the mail then rejected. Because the rejection is a 550 error, that mail will not get retried *ever* again. If that MX was the highest priority mail server than all mail to that domain name will bounce."

Already a backlash is building, with Net admins being urged to block Verisign's catch-all domain. This could get very messy. ®

They sent out a bunch of "renewal" notices for domain name registration to people that weren't their customers (including to me) — attempting to trick people into switching to them (at a higher price!) by "renewing". (March 2002):
Transfer disappearing act

The Network Solutions Sucks Page (Old)

Alternatives to Network Solutions

Problems with Network Solutions / NetSol