From...

April 16, 1999
Web posted at: 5:52 p.m. EDT (2152 GMT)

by Tom Diederich

(IDG) -- The firm that calls itself the "dot com people" needs to work on its people skills, an influential analyst shop specializing in information technology complained yesterday.

Network Solutions Inc., the company that -- until May, at least -- enjoys a virtual monopoly on .com domain-name registration, infuriated Boston-based Aberdeen Group Inc. by pulling the plug on its Web presence this month.

On April 1, NSI deleted Aberdeen's Web site and e-mail capabilities from the Domain Name Server (DNS) tables that control the routing of messages over the Internet, Aberdeen's vice president, David Alschuler, said yesterday in an interview.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
	IDG.net home page
Computerworld's home page
Computerworld Year 2000 resource center
Computerworld's online subscription center
Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net
IDG.net's personal news page
Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you
Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for IT leaders
Search IDG.net in 12 languages
News Radio
	Computerworld Minute
	Fusion audio primers

The site was back online 36 hours later, after Aberdeen paid -- for the second time -- NSI's $35 annual domain name registration bill.

Alschuler said the whole mess should never have happened. It was an apparent case of the check getting lost in the mail.

A Network Solutions spokeswoman said her company was investigating Aberdeen's claim. "It looks like it was a combination of errors -- an initial one from them and then others. But we don't have all the details yet." She declined to elaborate.

Herndon, Va.-based NSI yanked the site after sending Aberdeen three notices of nonpayment of the annual registration fee. But Alschuler said Aberdeen paid -- and has the cancelled check to prove it.

The company was so enraged that it published a report titled "Network Solutions Dog Bites Aberdeen Group, Aberdeen Bites Back" (link below) documenting the ordeal.

"In a nutshell, it was a very bad customer service experience," Alschuler said. "And based on e-mail we've received since we wrote it, we believe that we are neither unique or alone. At its root, we would suggest that maybe being a monopoly makes people a little complacent about these things."

NSI never acknowledged any wrongdoing, he added. However, the company did expedite the process of getting Aberdeen back online once it paid an additional $35, Alschuler said.

Since Aberdeen doesn't conduct much business over the Internet, he said the incident was "problematic for us, but not cataclysmic."

Starting next month, NSI will be forced to share the domain name registry business with five competing firms. "We think that it's an appropriate move, and we can't wait for the changeover," Alschuler said. Meanwhile, he said that NSI needs to review its procedures for termination of registration rights, especially considering that the Internet is fast becoming the "lifeblood of many businesses."

"It wasn't an April Fool's Day joke -- but maybe we were the April Fools nonetheless," Aberdeen's report concluded. "There's a lesson in risk management here for every organization for whom the Internet is now (or will soon become) mission-critical -- and we think that means just about everyone."