Access to the website of main provider and manager for .com (www.networsolutions.com) was impossible.

Everything started on January the 8th as Registrars community (ICANN accredited registries offices) is aware of a new misdeed from the historical Registrar  .

All names searched on its web site were immediately unavailable due to the simple reason that this registrar   was retrieving live the result of your research and if it was available it was registered in order to be sold. Its logic was very simple. If the name on search is available this means that it is of bidder interest.

Challenged on all sides by its competitors, the registrar   put forward explanation about protection, security and custormers services but the community is not taken in anymore.

If it were an another institution than Networksolutions, it could have been believed and due to the lack of link between Registry/Registrar   of the business concern its policy should have been agreed even despite its big financial implication.

In today situation, millions dollars needed to register available names are cashed by Networksolutions Registrar   right into Registry and the result is an account cancellation as the company belongs to Verisign Registry.

In this case, the more and more international Community seems to have pass its own judgement on through immediate sanction without waiting any formal trial. All countries attack drove its website to saturation point and blank situation. Google and Yahoo had been targetted by same kind of attacks in 2002 and 2005 but in few minutes these californian companies had been able to thwart them due to their impressive resources. Netsol said that its service stop was intentional and is not connected with its last decisions.

Since April 21 st 1999 Networksolutions lose its monopoly for the management of two of three extensions available during the launch of the DNS (Domain Name System) its rogue behaviour was condemned by the profession as a whole. Since the beginning of 2000, the Registry which was playing the role of direct seller decide to put up its own page on all names search or entries still available under .com because the free competition policy torn off the hands US administration (Department of Commerce) was drying out its financial flow.

As the customer had the only choice to buy domain name he was seeking for through its web site, all this had the result of by-passing the market as a whole as well as the others retailers specialized in the managing of domain names.

Under ICANN legal and moral pressure, the sentenced registrar   gave up and cancelled its decision nevertheless it made 15 millions dollars profit on several years, according to lawyers estimations that it never paid back. And the registrar   didn’t stop at this point.

In 2003, it systematically blocked all transfers request towards another registrars, freezing millions domain names argueing about customers security and domain name stealing !

Once again ICANN had to act under its legal panel in order to force all registrars to be open and ready for easy transfers at any request.

Networksolutions never recovered of its dramatic turnover fall wich was the result of its monopoly situation and innovation as well as the great domain names availability under three unique extensions at that time and the expensive price of 120 USD each domain name.

The last straw is the attempt since 2005 of retrieving by this registrar   most of the extensions including its name saying that it is unfair that anyone could take possession of its identity without asking permission !

This is a constant fight between strength and sensible sense which is the heart of ICANN meetings from which surprises are most of the time expected with irony by registrars.

Sam Syamak BAVAFA Pour Domaine.info