Latest NetSol Innovation Back Ordering Domains

July 12, 2001 7:41 AM

Latest NetSol Innovation Back Ordering Domains Matt, were you planning on renewing metafilter.com in 2003? If not, I can always just back order it now so that when you let it lapse, it will all be mine... (evil laugh). Or how about we backorder microsoft.com, aol.com, etc. Makes you wonder how NetSol's policy on lapsed domains will be changed. Will they give you the several weeks/months of leeway they used to (just because they were lazy) or will they re-sell on the day it's expired? Related note: did you notice how dotster.com (which I believe metafilter is registered under) takes control of your URL during that leeway period letting the world know you haven't paid yet.
posted by matte (19 comments total)

Of course, NetSol will, on registering your backordered domain name, get your contact details wrong so that you can't do anything with it.

Couldn't you write a cronjob to do the same thing?
posted by holgate at 7:59 AM on July 12, 2001

You could, but then you wouldn't be paying NetSol (the low cost of) $49 a pop to get it. I do wonder if they'll inform the current owner of the domain name that someone has his eye on it.. seems like it would be the nice thing to do, but this is NetSol we're talking about.
posted by zempf at 8:03 AM on July 12, 2001

I lost my personal domain name last month. It was sold a week after lapsing (my attention, too, lapsed. grrr...).
posted by rushmc at 8:04 AM on July 12, 2001

This entire (domain registration) system needs an overhaul from top to bottom. It is absurd that own can not actually own a domain, but must lease it from Network Solutions / ICANN. And this 'backordering' is only encouraging a new army of cybersquatters.
posted by ljromanoff at 8:05 AM on July 12, 2001

Actually, NetSol needs smashed and done in with, if only for the 'we'll squat on your domain when it expires' ridiculousness. But since they're still behaving as if they had no competition, maybe we'll get lucky and they'll run themselves out of business.
posted by darukaru at 8:17 AM on July 12, 2001

Does anyone here actually use NetSol any more? I shifted all my domains to either DomainMonger or GANDI as soon as I could. My guess is that schemes like this are the death rattle of a failed ex-monopolist.

And don't get me started on the idiots who run ICANN.
posted by holgate at 8:39 AM on July 12, 2001

One of my favorite mp3 sites got highjacked by some losers trying to make a quick buck off the hits that his site used to generate, even stealing the mp3's that the guy posted up and distributing it themselves. Terrible, terrible. The Music Lover website can now be found here. Boycott themusiclover.com and definitely do not download the software they provide there.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 8:45 AM on July 12, 2001

Doh. themusiclover.com got his domain back. I'll shut up now. Continue on and pretend like I said nothing at all.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 8:47 AM on July 12, 2001

On the contrary. I think people should download the software from themusiclover.com as much as possible. Preferably constantly...
posted by kindall at 8:48 AM on July 12, 2001

kindall, did you ever see the software that was being distributed at themusiclover.com previously? It was such a scam. They said they did it because they were tired of all the banner ads and stuff, but the fact of the matter was The Music Lover had very few banner ads, and the guys who wrote the software always popped up a banner whenever you downloaded a song through their proprietary software. They were just lining their own pockets. Shame shame. The guy who runs The Music Lover puts a lot of hard work into his site, and I don't think he makes very much money off it.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 8:52 AM on July 12, 2001

are you protected, though, if your domain's registered at netsol or not? from the looks of it, the cron job that runs will scan the entire whois database ...
posted by maura at 8:55 AM on July 12, 2001

OK, I'm wrong. The domain's still gone... You'll notice a link to The Music Mafia at the bottom of themusiclover.com. And they've got mad pop-ups. Now they're stealing the original music lover's page and sticking it into a frame. These guys really disgust me. They take all the hard work the guy's done, stick it into a frame and get money for the hits that they get through the frameset. Sigh.
posted by PWA_BadBoy at 8:58 AM on July 12, 2001

Now I definitely think every member of MeFi should download all those files today, all day. Turn off the JavaScript first, of course -- to take care of the popups -- but no reason to be shy about using their bandwidth, eh?
posted by kindall at 9:11 AM on July 12, 2001

I just want to know why some domains can be listed as expired, but still be unavailable for registering.
posted by endquote at 9:33 AM on July 12, 2001

I just want to know why some domains can be listed as expired, but still be unavailable for registering.

Aren't those the ones that NetSol took for themselves on expiry, to be sold off by auction?
posted by holgate at 9:50 AM on July 12, 2001

I personally want to get my last name from the clutches of NetIdentity.com. I hate how they horde more than 15,000 domain names. Of course as they say first come, first serve (when it's not a trademark.)
posted by riffola at 10:06 AM on July 12, 2001

My last name is owned by a UK company called Any-Web. Pissed me off, but they do let you get an e-mail address at their domains.
posted by kindall at 10:58 AM on July 12, 2001

What I find most interesting is that Network Solutions is ignoring domain trasfer requests for domains that have expired. I transferred six domains two days ago from NetSol to pairNIC (tucows/opensrs) and I received registrar transfer confirmation from NetSol for only five of those six domains. The missing one was a domain that shows I still own it, but has an expired date. NetSol is so lame...
posted by camworld at 3:06 PM on July 12, 2001

Does anyone here actually use NetSol any more?

As Cam mentioned, some of us (nay, I'd say a huge multitude of us) are reluctant NetSol customer—hostages to their incompetence and greed.

I have about 5 years worth of domains locked up inside Network Solutions and have been stymied at every turn trying to get them transferred. Zeldman was lucky that he was so high-profile. Some of us are just regular joes.
posted by fooljay at 12:33 PM on July 13, 2001