Network Solutions Can't Write a Web Application

I submitted the following just today to the Forum On Risks To The Public in Computers And Related Systems. I'm posting it here as I think it will serve the Internet community and provoke broad discussion.

I received the following email today from
"Network Solutions" <ThedotcomDirectory@dotcomDirectoryUpdates.com>

Subject: IMPORTANT Account Information Request

Dear Michael Crawford,

Did you know that the business Web address you registered with Network Solutions entitles your business to a FREE listing in Network Solutions TM dot com directory TM, the Internet's "find engine"?

Unfortunately, we've been unable to include your business in the dot com directory TM to date because of key information missing from your business record.

Please complete the missing information on the Web form located at http://www.dotcomdirectoryupdates.com/update/a?NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Once you submit your update, your business listing will be included in the dot com directory TM within 4-6 weeks. As a special thank-you, we'll also send the first 4000 customers who submit updates a Network Solutions T-shirt personalized with their domain name.

The domain "dotcomdirectoryupdates.com" is no longer registered as of March 30, 2006.

Please be assured that Network Solutions respects your individual privacy and that all data collected about your business is subject to the provisions of Network Solutions' Privacy Statement, which can be reviewed on your Web form at www.dotcomdirectoryupdates.com. The dot com directory TM has been used by millions of people around the world to find businesses and their Web sites since its launch in August 1999. Act now to make sure your business is included in one of the fastest growing directories on the Internet. A listing in the dot com directory TM is and always will be FREE to you, as a valued Network Solutions business customer.

Sincerely,
Network Solutions, Inc.
The dot com people TM

Your Customer Number: NNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Copyright 2000 Network Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.

I basically regarded this as spam but I try to maintain my consulting business' visibility on the web so I decided I'd update my entry.

After screwing around with their forms for a while, I sent a helpful message to the nice folks at dotcomdirectoryupdates.com, in which I explained to them that attempting to load the page they referred me to resulted in "internal server errors" several times, pages would refuse to load for several minutes at a time and could only be loaded after pressing the "Stop" button and reloading the page, and sometimes submitting a form would get the response "document contains no data". (Note that I'm on a cable modem and other pages I'm hitting around the same time are pretty responsive).

Further, the information they had for me was correct in only three items: my domain name, my former company name (Crawford Software Consulting) and my former city and state (Aptos, California). Instead of the street address "130 Indian Hollow", where I used to live, they had "2 Executive Drive", and they had a zip code that almost certainly wasn't located in California and a phone number whose area code I didn't recognize, that I'm pretty sure is also not in California.

I could understand my company name being out of date, but the rest of the erroneous information suggests that either their database is corrupt or that someone hijacked my entry.

It's important to understand that no password is required to update this information, just the customer number that they emailed in cleartext (and I replaced with "NNNNNNNNNN" above).

What really stymied me though was the search for a Standard Industrial Classification Code. I guess this is some kind of government or industry standard designation for a business type.

You can enter a primary and several secondary keywords in a search form and the "dot com" company will figure out your SIC code. They suggest using "brake repair", "brake parts", "transmissions" and "struts" as example keywords for an auto repair shop.

I started with "programming" and "software consulting" and went on from there, resulting in the following email to admin@reply.net, as instructed by the "Internal Server Error" response page I got:

Hello,

I was trying to update my information with the URL: (abbreviated)

I'm having all kinds of trouble. Basically I think your system is just broken.

Please tell me when you have fixed it. I'm tired of struggling with your broken web server. I don't think this reflects very well on the "dot com" company.

Yeah, right!

The things that caused the Internal Server error was entering "software consulting" as my primary Standard Industrial Code search keyword with "custom software development" as my secondary keyword.

But I've actually tried about a dozen keywords. I would have thought "programming" and "software consulting" would be sufficient, but the results I get are a selection of "There are too many results, please narrow your search" and "Please be more descriptive", finally leading up to "Internal Server Error".

Might I suggest you consult with this fellow for some server architectural work, debugging and an overall spring cleaning, I understand he's very good:

http://www.goingware.com
GoingWare, Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting

I'd like to broaden this by pointing out that I think it is indicative of the state that Network Solutions is in these days. They bill themselves as the dot com company and I suppose the best they can say is that they do keep the root nameservers working. But I think NSI is a pretty bogus company.

There've been a couple feature discusions on http://slashdot.org in the last few months about what the best domain registrar is, with Network Solutions rating pretty low on the list, in part because of their restrictive legal agreements and in part because of their lousy service - for example, they have allowed domain names to be hijacked, which is understandable that it might happen but then they refuse to give them back. A close friend of mine had NSI lose two payments for domain names he owned and nearly lost the domains as a result.

• Ranking the Domain Registrars
  

The Domain Name Buyer's Guide offers reviews of different domain registrars, with Network Solutions ranking at "Consumer Alert", and other registrars ranging from one to four stars based on their price and legal agreements. The review site is new and does not yet offer a lot of feedback based on registration customers' actual experience, but I felt it was pretty information and based on their review chose to do my latest registration at Melbourne IT.

Well, it did back when I first wrote this, but the Domain Name Buyer's Guide's domain got bought out, and no longer offers the valuable advice it once gave.

My experience with Melbourne IT has been pretty good so far, with the interesting exception that the sudden appearance of a charge to my visa debit card in Australia prompted a phone call from my bank security. I'm also doing online shopping for computer parts and charges were showing up from all over the place, and even though I'd used the card for pretty large charges before they'd generally been near where I lived. Must be pretty hectic for bank security for a Visa card to travel round the world in 20 minutes.

Anyone from Network Solutions who may be reading this, I refer you to the Cluetrain Manifesto at http://www.cluetrain.com - watch who you spam, because the Internet talks back!

Michael D Crawford crawford@goingware.com http://www.goingware.com

Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.

Call GoingWare: +1 (831) 401-3790, info@goingware.com