Why I Loathe Network Solutions and You Should Too

I've always considered myself good at separating the "real" from the "scam" when it comes to the web. I don't succumb to the lure of pop-ups, pop-unders, phony domain renewal notices, free vacations from "Dizney" nor the hundreds of companies in India and China that "really like my site" and want to be partners.

Punked By A Major Corporation?
But earlier this year I got swindled by the domain registrar giant Network Solutions. Here's how:

One of my clients began developing content for a new site. About a week into the project, I was curious as to whether she'd registered her domain name yet. I went to the Network Solutions website and looked it up — no, she hadn't, it was still available. I told her, "Hey, go register your domain name before someone takes it."

Missed It By A Day?
The next day, my client is distraught and her business partner is angry with her. Seems she went to Go Daddy to register the name only to find someone had bought it just the day before! In tears and kicking herself for missing it by one day, she went ahead and registered a slew of second-choice names.

Hmmm. I go to Go Daddy and check it out. Sure enough the name is gone. To double-check, I go to iChristianHost.com — gone. To triple-check, I go to Network Solutions — what's this? — AVAILABLE!!

I'm not sure why Network Solutions has special access to this domain name but, not wanting to waste another minute, I quickly buy it for my client — never mind that it costs over 3 times as much as the other domain registrars. I inform my client that I got the name for her. She is overjoyed.

Afterglow or Afterburn?
Hmmm. But now I'm curious. What just happened here? It took me only one web search on "Network Solutions domain names" to find several articles/posts — like this one and this one — of their recent practice of snatching domain names. Seems that when I looked up my client's domain name on Network Solution's site, they locked it down for 4 days preventing its purchase from any other registrar except them! They did this completely without my knowledge or permission! In effect, they "bought" the domain name on the sly (a who-is lookup on the domain name would have shown it as owned by Network Solutions for one year).

When confronted by these accusations of front-running, Network Solutions claimed it was perfectly legal and was a "service" to their customers to prevent them from missing out on their chosen domain name.

Wait, I have a shovel, here's their exact quote:

This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running.

For My Own Good?
Legal via some technical loophole, maybe. But a service to their customers? Which overpaid corporate schmuck came up with that drivel? A worthy service provided on the down-low, unadvertised? And does simply using their free look-up service make me a customer of Network Solutions that needs their protection?

I thought I'd done my client a favor by obtaining her chosen domain name. In actuality, it was my innocent search on Network Solutions that made it unavailable to her in the first place, invoking the anger of her business partner and causing her to lose money by buying several second-choice names and then paying 3 times as much for her chosen name.

Free Crafty Pixel!
What could I do to voice my outrage? Seems a class-action lawsuit was already being done. Seems there were plenty of articles and blog posts about it already. Most of the domain names I own were thankfully not with Network Solutions. But my mainstay "craftypixel.com" was — for almost 10 years. So, of course, I transferred it. When the customer service rep asked why I was leaving, I gave him an earful and he gave me back an earful of the same corporate BS.

So, one irony is that I really was a Network Solutions customer — a long-time customer — to whom they did a huge disservice. They breached my trust to make a few extra bucks and I'm still hot about it. Don't they make enough charging 3 1/2 times the going rate for domain names? From what I can tell, they're no longer doing what I've described in this post. But what else are they cooking up to take its place?

So while all this may be old news to some — this Network Solutions deception broke almost a year ago — I find it even more relevant with all the recent news of corporate misbehavior. I loathe all companies that think tricking people is a great way to do business and a legitimate corporate strategy. So, I demand (hee-hee) the firing of all Network Solutions execs involved in perpetrating that domain snatching nonsense! And how about a refund of my client's fees! And throw in a free Disney vacation!

iThanks

As more and more of life's activities move to the Internet, I'm certainly thankful to be on that moving train (and helping drive it!) instead of at the station. A few more web-ish things I'm thankful for:

• to have finally escaped from the e-vil domain henchmen at Network Solutions (stay tuned for that blogpost!)
• the refreshing way some of my clients stay engaged with their websites (stay tuned for some posts on them as well)
• the inspiring attitudes of my fellow women entrenepreneurs wading through this tough economy
• that the new Google Chrome browser hasn't done too much damage to my web sites
• that my trusted, well-loved web hosting company Alentus can be honest about getting too big for their own dang good -- that's SO rare. I love them all over again.
• that a sneaky, snarky, criminal I.E. web designer might FINALLY have messed with the wrong person

Happy Holidays!

Are You Overpaying for Web Hosting?

A lot of web designers will offer to handle your web hosting as a convenience to you (or themselves). This is fine but beware: some of them will attempt to fatten their pockets here at your expense. Do you have a simple brochure website with no streaming audio/video, databases, e-commerce or other advanced applications? Then, you shouldn’t be paying over $25/month for web hosting – and that’s even throwing in an extra $10-15/month for your web designer's trouble! Be careful not to go too cheap on web hosting, though – price isn’t everything when it comes to web hosting - reliability, support and options are most important. But even with a solid, reputable hosting company, a 300-page brochure website complete with Flash, dynamic menus, PDF downloads, and web-to-email forms costs next to nothing to host – usually under $10.

Find out more about what to look for in a web hosting company.

What You Need to Know About Your Own Website

Make sure you're well-informed about EVERYTHING related to the creation and maintenance of your website. That way, you'll be prepared if you need to modify your website and your web designer seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. With the right information, you or another web designer will be able to pick up where your old designer left off.

Immediately following completion of your website, be sure to request:

1. Copies of all website graphics including LAYERED (that’s important!) graphics files (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) and any stock photos the designer purchased on your behalf.
   
   
2. All access information (username, password, website, phone number, etc.) for your:
   
   
   
   • domain name registrar
   
   
   • hosting company
   
   
   • email
   
   
   • stats
   
   
   • shopping cart
   
   
   • any special applications needed to maintain elements of your site (like your menu or search application).

When your business needs to make an urgent change to the website, you will NOT want to be wasting days, weeks or months trying to track down the above information from a web designer who might be Missing in Action. And when you do get the information, remember to keep it in a safe place!

Web Design Contracts

I’ve heard enough web designer horror stories to emphatically tell you to ALWAYS sign a web design contract. Verbal agreements are for sucker wanna-bes, whether you're the client or designer.

What Should Be In Your Web Design Contract

I’m not a lawyer, so do NOT take this as legal advice. But, based on my professional experience, a good web design contract should at least specify:

• Estimated project cost (in terms of hours or dollars)
• Payment terms
• Estimated project completion date (or something related to timely progress towards project completion)
• Cancellation policy
• Who owns the completed design and related graphics (logo, stock photos, etc)
• Who owns the domain name (make sure it's YOU, not the designer!)
• Non-disclosure terms (so your competitor down the block doesn’t see the final site before you do!)

Even if the web designer or client is a close friend or relative, you'd be wise to have a signed web design contract. That way everyone is starting on the same page -- literally!

Protect Your Domain Name

I can't blog about it enough. There are still web designers out there who will steal your domain name and try to sell it back to you. Basically, what they do is register the domain name for you but put themselves as the owner, not you. I personally know several small business owners that this has happened to, right here in the Inland Empire, and they can’t afford the legal costs of a resolution.

Make sure you are the “Owner” and/or “Registrant” of your domain name. The best way to ensure this is to go to a domain registrar website and register it yourself -- even if you’ve been promised a “free” domain name from your web designer. You can get a “.com”, “.net” or “.org” name for less than $10 these days. If you do register the name yourself, don’t get seduced into buying additional domain-related products that you may not want or need (email accounts, hosting, SSL, privacy, etc.) and make SURE the registrar website allows easy access to a control panel that lets you modify your nameservers – sounds a little techie but that is crucial to the ability to host your website anywhere you choose.

I've been registering domain names through Christian Web Site for years with no problems and I've also been registering at iPower for the last year or so. Both sites offer domain names for under $10 and give control panel access to modify your nameservers. You can also try Yahoo and GoDaddy.

And, don’t forget the name of the website where you registered the name! Save your confirmation email in a safe place -- you'll need it later!

Cheap Web Hosting Companies

Cheap web hosting companies offer you the moon and stars for less than $6/month. Are they worth it for your business?

More of What You DON'T Need and Less of What You DO Need
With cheap web hosting companies, what you gain in email addresses and disk space that you'll never use, you often lose in flexibility, support and your own valuable time. Beware: they know most people are impressed by the word "unlimited" and will try to exploit the value seeker in you.

Support? Well...
At the cheap hosting companies, their support teams seem to be good for reading straight out of their handbook or referring customers to their online doc. Sometimes that solves the problem. When it doesn’t, I can hear their mouths hanging open and I never get a callback. I once spent a lot of time trying to get a cheap web hosting company's "free" poll application to work. Their support team only had a dumb answer for the problem and never fixed it. A complete waste of my time!

Learn More
Read my full article to learn:

• what else to look out for with cheap web hosting
• what you should look for in a web hosting company
• why Alentus is the web hosting company I recommend
• a few cases where a cheap web hosting company might be a good choice

Full article on cheap web hosting companies >