Network Solutions Holding Domain Names Ransom > Can see it both ways

Can see it both ways

Well then if that's the case, I'll cry foul like everyone else. Domain Tasting like that screws over the legitimate customer.

The hold SHOULD be customer specific, but should require a login by the Registrar so that they can control (and police) the possible abuse of it. That way the account holder can allow the squatting of names search for, but the registrar should limit said squatting to no more than 2 days across the board, or sooner by account holder control (if they wish to dump the searched names out of the "hold" on them so they can register them at other (better/cheaper) registrars, etc).

Again, the potential for abuse is great, so maybe the bad outweighs the good and domain tasting should be disallowed across the board.

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"No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D Supervisor, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing /3M Corp.)

reply to DHRacer

quote:

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But for those who are trying to get their second/third/forth choice or need to discuss options with business management, this service might be good for them.

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reply to DHRacer
And when you say these are good to go and your client wants the address the next day, you then say OK. You use NetSol, are piped up the ass on the price but whatever, it is the clients money.
So you bill them a month later and the registration is like what $34. One of their people say, "Damn that dude ripped us off, you can register a domain at for only $8! I saw it on a super bowl commercial." So they quit using you because you "overcharged them".

But more importantly, and to TOTALLY disprove your point.
If I am a squatter, I will search for every netsol domain that has a client hold. I will make sure to bulk register every domain that is held for that 5 day period, with a bulk netsol rate of half of what the single buyer is paying. Or snap up what is left on the 6th day with another registrar.
All you have done by checking out things at netsol, is tell me all the first, second, third, fourth choices you have. So this type of "holding" really just helps those who will squat the domain, because is shows recent inquiries. They will buy those up, even at the inflated price of $16 per registration bulk netsol, because their chance of actually having a domain someone wants is so much higher.
Thank god you are not my consultant, because you are thinking too well about the unintended consequences.

Me?

Then just make holds not searchable... Other people should not be allowed to see what's held. Those holds are shown to be unavailable domain names for X time period (like available in 2 days, if not registered), giving the option of the holder to claim or release it without someone seeing the options. Good ideas with initially good intentions done in by bad people with bad ideas.

I didn't know this was occurring, frankly. And I have never used Network Solutions. I prefer to find the registrar first (so my costs are consistent and not "flavor of the month"), and then search for possible domain names and pass the names, and costs along to the client so they know exactly what they are getting and for how much. (But I don't make a business of this, not do I hold myself to be in the business of doing this, so I don't see the good/bad of bulk registrations, abuse of the system.)

--
"No one will believe you solved this problem in one day! We've been working on it for months. Now, go act busy for a few weeks and I'll let you know when it's time to tell them." (R&D Supervisor, Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing /3M Corp.)

I dont think thats possible, since all those pages point to a website, and therefore resolve, and therefore are in DNS. You can't hide domains in DNS, or its very difficult. I guess off the top of my head, DNS updates get "pushed" arround in diff-style files around the net, or someone has access to a mega-DNS server (major ISP), well actually, the mega DNS server would be Verisign's ".com" server, im sure Verisign pushes DNS updates, it has no encentive to keep the resolving tables secret. A private DNS server may hide them through low TTL (meaning quickly disapear in a DNS server's cache, although always possibility of DNS server being set up to collect every address resolved through it by ISP customers).

reply to DHRacer
The point is they are NOT making them not seachable...they are "holding them" to force people who want them to either buy now at an inflated price or wait 5 days.

That is the WHOLE point of the article.

reply to DHRacer
Not correct! Suppose you are in the meeting with your client and they pick a name you had "reserved". While you are in your meeting I can go to Network Solutions and purchase it even before you can get back to your office. The "hold" is for the REGISTRAR'S benefit, nobody else's.

reply to IIIBradIII
Exactly. The hold is by and for Network Solutions itself. There is no identification of the individual user associated with the hold. (You can see this because you don't have to be logged in or because you can got to netsol.com from another machine and the domain will be "available" even though whois reveals a "clientHold".)

Since there is no association of a particular user with the hold, this is purely a way to get you (or someone else!) to register with netsol. In fact, since this procedure facilitates another's grabbing of your domain name (by letting them know that you searched for it), it gives you a greater than usual fear of losing your domain name: Unless you want to risk losing the domain during (or after) the clientHold period (which netsol told me on the phone is 4 days), you are likely to succumb.