9,272 domain names disappear from the 'Net SAIC Network Solutions dumps delinquent URLs By Kristi Essick, IDG News Service

July  1996

Mail this article to a friend

San Francisco -- After an announcement last week that 25,000 Internet domain names would be deleted unless the owners made outstanding back payments, SAIC Network Solutions Inc. did away with 9,272 delinquent URLs in late June.

The company, which is under U.S. government contract to regulate and distribute Internet names in the ".com", ".net" and ."org" domains, gave individuals months to pay up, notifying them of their outstanding balances by fax, e-mail, and postal mail. Network Solutions even extended its hours in a last-ditch effort to pull in the back payments, resulting in over 15,000 responses.

The fees to register and maintain a domain name are as follows: $100 for registration and the first two years of service, and $50 a year thereafter. While nearly half of individuals maintaining domain names are behind on their payments, Network Solutions hadn't deleted any names prior to its June 24 Internet cleaning, said David Graves, Internet business manager for Network Solutions.

As of June 24, users attempting to access any of the 9,272 frozen URLs will receive the message, "The server name does not have a DNS entry. Check the server name in the location and try again." Users will also not be able to send or receive e-mail from addresses with one of the deactivated domain name extensions.

But Network Solutions has not given up on the deadbeat domain name owners yet; the extended hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. EST Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends will run through July 12, allowing owners to reactivate frozen domain names if they so choose. "If they don't [pay], it will allow us to purge thousands of unused names and make them available to other people," said Graves.

Ironically, Network Solutions cannot accept payment over the Internet, so individuals wishing to pay for domain names must send a check or call in their credit card information.

Network Solutions, based in Herndon, VA, can be reached at (703) 742-0400.

Click on our Sponsors to help Support SunWorld

What did you think of this article?

-Very worth reading -Worth reading -Not worth reading

-Too long -Just right -Too short

-Too technical -Just right -Not technical enough

Comments:
Name:
Email:
Company Name:

If you have technical problems with this magazine, contact webmaster@sunworld.com

URL: http://www.sunworld.com/swol-07-1996/swol-07-domain.html
Last modified: