What are the dangers of NOT using Network Solutions for domains.

[Mike Boeh]

Hi Guys:

For all my important domains (ie: retro64.com), I use network solutions/verisign to register them. For all the ones that aren't life-and-death, I use namecheap.com.

In my opinion, Namecheap's domain management features are much nicer than Network Solutions. But there is some mistrust in the back of my head about using someone else to register a domain. Is there any laws about domain ownership that would cause my concern to be valid?

Thanks!

[arcadetown]

My understanding is that everyone is basically an internic reseller at some level thus all registrars share the same basic rules and legalities. We we're using directnic.com before but recently migrated everything to godaddy for ease of multiple domain management and of course price. One thing that was nice about directnic was their phone support which came in handy a couple times. I hear godaddy's support is pretty good but no personal experience yet.

[george]

I cannot even remotely imagine that a company can get away with such an act... You legally own the rights to the domain name, no matter what. They are simply providing the service for you... Infact, I have trouble trusting Network Solutions, they don't exactly have the best reputation for fair business conduct (especially in the past, i think they are better now because of all the more recent ICANN rules)... That's why for my new domain names I go with GoDaddy now. They have good prices and so far they have a good reputation.

[Dan MacDonald]

NetSol is one of the most innefficent registrar's there are. The reason they no longer have a monopoly is exactly because of that.

I've used DynDns as my registrar and DNS hosting for years and never had a single thing go wrong. Works as advertized.

[Aldacron]

I started using GoDaddy back in 2001, and no problems. However, be vigilant in keeping your registration current no matter which service you use. I know of two companies (and likely more) out there nabbing domain names as soon as the lease expires so they can later sell them. I lost aldacron.com to DomainContender (http://www.domaincontender.com) after owning it for three years because I forgot to update my billing information.

I've read/heard of others who have lost their domains to DomainContender. They are indiscriminate on which domains they register. It's likely an automated process. I doubt anyone other than myself would want to buy aldacron.com from them, and I refuse to on prinicipal.

[mrfun]

I too started with Netsol, but switched after receiving poor service and getting tired of being soaked. I 've used www.registerfly.com for a few years now, zero problems!

[Abscissa]

Yea, I've had problems with netsol's service as well. And they're probably the most expensive registrar out there. I switched to GoDaddy this year and have been very happy with them so far.

Dangers of not using Network Solutions? Your wallet might get too heavy ;)

[Jack Norton]

Another satisfied godaddy customer here.
They recently advised me about the new ICANN policy and provided a nice "Lock all domain" button in your control panel so you can block all your domain with them to prevent unwanted transfers or contact details changes... :cool:

[GBGames]

I am actually in the process of switching my domains from directnic.com to godaddy.com, but it is not because I am not satisfied with directnic. I thought they were great, but I've heard such good things about Go Daddy that their lower price won me over.

They say that transferring a domain takes 5 days in the FAQ, so gbgames.com should be transferred within the week. I have another domain that expires on the 22nd though, and I haven't gotten anything from directnic indicating that a transfer request was made. Go Daddy indicates that it is going through, though. I just hope the transfers go through without a hitch. I'd hate to lose my domains.

[undersan]

I use godaddy.com and I've had no problems. Network Solutions used to be the only domain registrar, but it's my understanding that they are now just one of many ICANN-accredited domain registrars, so their status is now no different than, for example, godaddy.com.

This may be a little off-topic, but does anyone here have thoughts on domain ownership transfer? I often find seemingly unused domains, and I wonder what is the best way to approach the owner about buying.

Making an offer through Afternic's anonymous system might make a good impression on the owner, but it looks like Afternic ends up taking about $110 for the transaction. By comparison, some escrow services take less (escrow.com takes $25 on a $500 sale).

[Dan MacDonald]

I will attest to the fact that I have never herd a bad thing about godaddy, even my uber linux geek networking prof in college swore by them.

[GBGames]

I use godaddy.com and I've had no problems. Network Solutions used to be the only domain registrar, but it's my understanding that they are now just one of many ICANN-accredited domain registrars, so their status is now no different than, for example, godaddy.com.

This may be a little off-topic, but does anyone here have thoughts on domain ownership transfer? I often find seemingly unused domains, and I wonder what is the best way to approach the owner about buying.

Making an offer through Afternic's anonymous system might make a good impression on the owner, but it looks like Afternic ends up taking about $110 for the transaction. By comparison, some escrow services take less (escrow.com takes $25 on a $500 sale).

Interesting story: when I originally wanted to get gbgames.com, I found that it was already being used! When I went to the site, it was some guy in China who had some text (I couldn't read Chinese at the time) and a counter. I think it was just a vanity site.

Well, I emailed the email address listed, asking basically since he wasn't using it for anything important, and I wanted to make use of the domain, if I could have it.

Never heard back. I think a month later, I found that the domain was available. I didn't pay attention to when it was supposed to expire, so I don't know if it was supposed to be, but I jumped on the chance to get it. I've had it ever since.

The only weird things that have occurred is that I got some emails asking for game controllers for some reason, and one time I got an email from someone who wanted to help do reviews on my site. Thing is, while I was doing reviews on my site, it was for QBasic games. This guy wanted to do reviews of Game Boy games. He apparently sent the email to the wrong site, but he insisted that it was mine, until I finally persuaded him to check the URL. I never heard from him. B-)

EDIT: Oh, so my suggestion is to just ask whatever email address is listed.

[kevryan]

I use godaddy also - never had a problem.

[DFG]

Actually, you will have more problems with NetSol than just about any other major name seller. I have heard more bad feedback about them than all the rest combined. Go with GoDaddy.com, use their domain lock to keep extra security on anyone hijacking your name and you are good to go.

[Midnight Synergy]

Mike, I'm going to be the lone dissenter here, I've stuck with NetSol for all (three) of my domain names. I have actually had a good experience with them, and I'm instinctively wary of GoDaddy etc given the number of fly-by-night companies that have come and gone. This might be unmerited though, given the huge amount of business they do (and generally good feedback they get).

Also, the difference in cost is not that much (1-2 extra games sold a year!) that I've just preferred to keep everything under one hat.

Now watch NetSol go belly up. :eek:

[Mike Boeh]

My reason for wanting to switch has nothing to do with cost- I already have retro64.com registered through 2010 anyway. But other registrars have much nicer features. Namecheap's controls are fantastic, and they have Mailforward.

I guess it's fine, I noticed that popcap and reflexive aren't using netsol either. But there's just this nagging feeling about it....

[3dben]

Ive been using NetSol for .. well as long as I can remember and have registered several domains with them, some I choose to keep, some I didnt. Ive never had any problems and can easily recommend them; I do think they are keeping their prices rather high though and has started me to think about this very issue; but because I have not had any problems I keep using them.

-=ben

[DFG]

The problems I have heard with Netsol is getting a domain moved. Their customer service has a bad reputation and they are just not user friendly.

GoDaddy is definitely not fly by night. They have received huge kudos year after year. I absolutely love them and the price is right. I have had a few hundred domains registered through them over the last couple years and moved all my majors over to them.

[Omega]

Mike, you're killing me! You have the audacity to write the first shareware game I ever registered (6 years after playing it), and you ask about not using network solutions?

Here's the answer. Network Solution is crap and the worst thing imaginable. They used to be the only registrar. Now, all they do is maintain the database. They don't even do the .org's anymore. All they do is maintain .com's and .net's. ICANN was created to be a neutral committee on domain names. For 5-8 years now, anybody can become a registrar by paying about $25,000 and $6 per domain name, keeping the overhead. They all use the same API to connect to whichever company takes care of whichever domains, and it all happens seamlessly. Of course, NetSol continued to charge $35/yr for many years, while their actual cost was $6. Why? Name recognition, since they were the first and only one allowed to sell domain names by the US Government. Verisign bought NetSol a few years back, and decided to add their name to the front, then NetSol became known as Verisign:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020812073654/www.netsol.com/en_US/timeout.html

Then, they realized that everybody hated netsol for lying and abusing customers, and for not deleting some expired domain names; for overcharging, being slow, for making DNS changes against ICANN policy, etc, and a lot of bad publicity from all of that. Verisign thought, crap, we don't want to put our name as the new name, so they went back to Network Solutions for the domain names. They still had "Network Solutions by Verisign". Now, they don't even their name at all on the web site, except at the bottom with the Copyright Verisign.

And you know what, I just checked their web site, and now it says Copyright Network Solutions!

All registrars are equivalent. GoDaddy, Dotster, etc. They cannot 'go out of business'. Even if they went out of business, I'm sure another company would take over. All they each do (including NetSol, now) is pay the domain name fees of $6 to ICANN, or whoever maintains the database, and make money on the overhead. Additionally, paying the $25,000 to become a registrar gives you many highspeed lines to the databases. Most registrars have some lines that they don't use, because the extra connections are meant for high simultaneous traffic. So, to make more money, they sub-lease their extra lines to other registrars, or to companies like Pool.com that try to register good expired domain names when they are deleted at 2 AM every morning, and need as much traffic as they can get to grab good domain names faster than anybody else.

I recommend GoDaddy as they register more domain names every year than anybody else, and have excellent tools. I hate NetSol, and Dotster's account page is very, very slow and cumbersome.

There's a reason why GoDaddy holds a dispraportionate amount of domain name registrations and renewals--they're #1 by far!

[george]

Mike, you're killing me! You have the audacity to write the first shareware game I ever registered (6 years after playing it), and you ask about not using network solutions?

i too was surprised when i saw this question was from mike... a newbie question from a veteran (no offense mike)... i guess anything is possible :-) i guess this shows we are all the same huh.