Network Solutions is hijacking unassigned sub domains and delivering link filled holding pages for hundreds of thousands of sites.
Win Betteridge runs GotGame.com and contacted TechCrunch with the details:
For instance, app.gotgame.com resolves to a Network Solutions page with text links, including “Poker Tournaments” and “Texas Holdem Games.” The same is true of any other unassigned sub-domain. We have spoken to customer service a few times about fixing this problem…
I don’t know if this is standard practice for a hosting company, but this strikes me as another case of Network Solutions unreasonably profiting at the expense of its customers.
According to a search on DomainTools there are 294,438 sites on the same Network Solutions IP address as GotGame.com. I ran a test on the sites listed (for free) by DomainTools and every single one had the same issue: unassigned domain names with link filled Network Solutions holding pages.
Yet another reason to not use Network Solutions.
Holy heck this is shocking.
WTF, thats bullshit.
netsoldoesnt.gotgame.com bastards!
This may have SEO implications, too. It doesn’t return a 404, so Google’s going to treat it as intentional site contents – and they penalise for duplicate content.
Unbelievable is that this kind of schemes keeps showing up and nobody takes action to punish this guys. It’s simply amazing…
Bastards!
IMO, all their clients should sue them and ask for huge compensation.
unfreaking-believable, I want to sign up for an account just to be apart of the class-action.
Fuck Network Solutions.
If there is one company on the internet I would like to see die a painful death, it is them. Everything they do is horrible. I wish people would stop giving them money.
Genius! But preposterous! I can’t believe they would high jack sub domains. I haven’t been searching for domains on the major registrars for years for fear of them snapping them up and trying to resell at a premium. This is yet another terrible example of registrars misbehaving.
Network Solutions is the antithesis to “GOOD”, yes I mean “EVIL”. Every year they sink deeper into another layer of hell we never imagined.
NetSol, come on, get with it! The only reason you really exist today is from Legacy aspects – get a real business model and start treating people with respect.
jason
This is a great opportunity for other Domain Registrars! If I were them I’d post a copy of this post on my home page.
If you have a domain thats hosted by them, I’d switch……that will teach them.
That is ONLY if you are using their DNS for your domain, isn’t it? The only reason app.gotgame.com resolves to NetSol’s under construction page is because gotgame.com’s NS points to NetSol. Most registrars point your domain to their under construction pages after a new domain is registered…
Maybe there is a wildcard record that has not been removed from gotgame.com?
wow this is some bullshit. i am glad i do not use network solutions.
Sheesh… talk about desparation from a company. It’s about as bad as a company suing to generate revenue.
This kind of “catch all” A records should be against the rights that you received when you signed up with network solutions. Something tells me you can set a catch all that would stop this junk.
just my .02
Isn’t there an HTACCESS trick to avoid this?
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST}!^www\.example\.com [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.example.com/$1 [R=301,L]
You would lose however your subdomains unless you create more conditions, and this will only work with Apache (which statistically most of us seem to be using anyways).
[citation_needed]? http://www.webm...orum92/3511.htm Over by the fourth post!
IF this gets tested by those who are using network solutions, please let the rest of us know posting a comment here somewhere!!!
lol – if you realize the opportunity, you’re genius.
if you didn’t, you spend your time blasting them – but it’s still rather wrong.
CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT…. this is total B.S. How funny would it be if someone started a site called networksolutionslawsuit.com and they used it to for their link farms? I hope someone does it.
coool,I like the good news
Scott is correct. This is a function of using NetSol for name servers, not just for domain registration.
Man oh man do I hate Network Solutions. I can’t believe I hate them more now than when I was a customer, but I do. Pure sleaze.
Ok, that’s not just uncalled for, that’s room for damages. I can attest to the fact that Google can and will ban websites for too many subdomains too fast, due to the subdomain spam attack back in 2006:
http://www.seo-...issed-all-week/
This happened to a popular environmental economics blog that I read that is hosted by Network Solutions. Network Solutions actually had the audacity to charge them $12 to redirect env-econ.net to http://www.env-econ.net. As a result of Network Solution’s shenanigans they got bumped from Google as a result (they were previously the #1 site when searching “environmental economics”) and they lost over half of their traffic.
http://www.env-.../01/google.html
http://www.env-...e-google-n.html
After doing a bit of test (against other domains whose DNS are also set to NS97/NS98.WORLDNIC.COM), it appears that there is a wildcard record that returns the SAME IP address as your main domain.
Now, gotgame.com actually has its main domain hosted on NetSol’s hosting service. app.gotgame.com actually resolves to the same IP address (NetSol’s hosting service), but obviously the vhost on that web server is not configured to handle that host name, so it returns a default placeholder page — which happens to be NetSol’s under construction page.
Hijacking?! Looks like pretty standard practise from hosting companies. Anyway. At least people here are having fun kicking bashing their most hated companies.
Network Solutions is just plain dirty and no one that works there could claim to have morals. If they did they would be lying. I just wonder why people still pay them $35.00+ dollars a year for domain registrations, anyone that does is just burning money. Prestigious my A$$.
Scumbags
I work for Network Solutions and just wanted to post to say that I have escalated this . I will report back here as soon I have more info.
Shashi
#16 Eric, check out http://HelpMeSue.com its a good read.
True story.
When I was looking up domain names on Sunday April 6th, I saved a bunch of ones that were available to a notepad file, and so I am absolutely certain that the file was last modified April 6th 2008 and contains the name “powerscroll.com”—one of the names I thought I might be interested in. Now when I look it up again, it was registered April 6th! I had only been using two sites to look up names, register.com and bustaname.com so one of them is totally corrupt!
I’m not sure who to trust now..???!!!
@25 The bottom line is you can’t trust any of them. Until ICANN steps in and starts punishing companies that do stuff like this, it’s like the wild west and registrars are going to keep pushing until someone pushes back…
Right now, no one is pushing back…
they also have a domain valuation tool which is supposed to tell how much a registered name is worth so you can enter a bid. They had such a messed up algorithms. They said a 6-letter .com site of a french person’s last name, with zero traffic and not even a site up, was worth over $25,000.
@23:
If this is real, at least NetSol is taking a look at blogs (i.e. the comcast post from a few days ago).
GoDaddy is trustworthy.
NS = Whore
If they are doing this to your domain, send them a bill. All sub domains are the legal property of the domain holder, not the registrar
cheers
It really shows NS’s character.
Here is a solution: set a DNS wildcard of all sub domains to your main domain (i.e. *.yourdomain.com) pointing to your website server and make sure that you have an alias set so that your web sever resolves those wildcard calls. Point your domain to the DNS of your provider and do it there if Network Solutions doesn’t let you set wild cards.
If you are hosting with NS… well I guess then it’s time to quit and go somewhere else ASAP.
I don’t use NS, and never will.
-Please check out my blog for ways to make money online
http://mikesmon...ub.blogspot.com
I wonder why they would do such a thingy.
http://www.meet....com/index.html
Web Meeting + Chat + User Management
All the people talking about how unethical it is to be giving NS your money, seeing as how it’s the spawn of all evil….?
I’ve been trying to move my domain registration for seven years.
Seven. Years.
Every single time, they come up with some new tactic to hold my domain for ransom. This time, it’s setting up “domain protect” as a feature (ha.), then telling me I can’t transfer because the domain is protected. When I go in to change it and take the unasked-for domain protection off the domain? It counts as a change in service, and they make me wait 60 days to transfer. During that 60 days, they just re-set domain protection, effectively rendering me completely powerless to transfer, due to, as they say, the ICANN rules of not letting a domain be transferred within 60 days of an account change.
I’m two seconds from a bazooka filled with chickens and a trip to their headquarters. I *hate* those people. Every last festering, stinking one of them.
GoDaddy was doing the same to my subdomains a while back. total bullshit.
This story does not surprise me. However, I am shocked at the number of tabs whoever took that screenshot has open.
I’m guessing that by noon tomorrow, they’ll come out with a statement saying it was some kind of server/programming error.
Netsol is owned by General Atlantic Partners
http://www.gene...ash/default.asp
They own a boatload of net companies. Private equity without a conscience.
Some junior associate with a stupid idea brought this to the table. He’ll get a big bonus this year.
Where is ICANN/ WIPO et al?
it’s about time for all netsol customers to file a class action and sue it’s ass off and shut it down for good. Jerks!
Well lately Roadrunner which is time warner’s cable internet provider now does hijacked domain style results pages with ads if you type a domain into the search bar and it doesn’t resolve.
So clearly they must be intercepting your search and paying enough attention to it to see if it resolves and then making money on putting up a page with ad links if it doesn’t.
Netsol is already an irrelevant company… it’s just a matter of time before others realize this and dump them for any of their hosting or domain related services!
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com – Create Unique Memories!
If your domain is using the NS nameserver, add a wildcard “A” record so any subdomain will resolve to your website. *.domain.com
or stop using NS <- better solution
I noticed this with a similar domain hosting service provider answerable.com They are doing this for years.
It’s amazing watching these sleaze bags self destruct with one stupid stunt after another.
I think this is just a case of DNS misconfiguration. No one bothered to check before publishing, though, am I right?
this is cool…
“I’m two seconds from a bazooka filled with chickens and a trip to their headquarters.”
Is that legal? If you have a trademarked company name tied to your URL, can a company – especially a hosting company – just tag a sub-domain to what is legally yours??? This is starting to sound like a potential class law suit action in the the making. There must be some caveat in Network Solutions legalese and terms of service…but that small print is straight sh*t.