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Network Solutions

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An ICANN-accredited registrar A company that registers domain names for customers with the registry. Full definition, Network Solutions, LLC, with IANA registrar ID The unique number that identifies an ICANN-accredited registrar. Full definition 2. From the end of 1992 it registered .com, .net and .org names under a US government agreement and ran their registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition until Verisign The company that operates the .com and .net registries. Full definition, which bought it in 2000, took over that role; the registrar business was later sold and, by Newfold Digital An American web services group that owns Bluehost and the registrar Network Solutions. Full definition's own account, is now part of Newfold.

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Industry roles and organizations

Updated on 5 min read

Network Solutions is a registrar: a company that registers domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition for the public. Until registrar competition began in October 1998, it was the company that registered .com, .net and .org names under an agreement with the United States government, and for a time it also ran the central database for those extensions. Today it is one registrar among many and runs no top-level domain.

What Network Solutions is

As of October 2026, Network Solutions, LLC is an ICANN-accredited registrar with IANA registrar ID 2. In IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The functions that coordinate the root zone, IP addresses and protocol numbers. Full definition’s list, ID 1 is marked reserved, so 2 is the lowest ID in use. For example, the .com registry’s RDAP Registration Data Access Protocol The modern protocol for looking up domain registration data, replacing WHOIS. Full definition record for networksolutions.com shows “Network Solutions, LLC” with IANA Registrar ID 2.

As of October 2026, ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition’s and IANA’s lists show two more accreditations under the same name: “Register.com - Network Solutions, LLC” (ID 9) and “Domain.com - Network Solutions, LLC” (ID 886). Each ID is a separate accreditation with its own RAA Registrar Accreditation Agreement The contract between ICANN and each accredited registrar. Full definition with ICANN. Seven accredited registrars list an RDAP address on rdap.networksolutions.com. A shared address shows shared technical systems; it does not show who owns a company.

From sole registrar to one of many

On 31 December 1992 the United States National Science Foundation (NSF) entered into a cooperative agreement with Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) covering services that included domain name registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition. The Department of Commerce’s statement of policy of 5 June 1998, known as the White Paper, describes NSI’s role at that time: it registered names in the gTLD generic top-level domain A top-level domain not tied to a country, run under ICANN contracts. Full definition “on a first come, first served The rule that the first valid request for an available domain gets it. Full definition basis” and maintained “the authoritative database of Internet registrations”. That five-year agreement was due to expire on 30 September 1998.

In October 1998 the Department of Commerce and NSI amended the agreement “to introduce competition into the provision of registrar services” in .com, .net and .org. This began the split between the registry, which keeps the central database, and the registrars, which sell names to the public. Under the same Cooperative Agreement The agreement between Verisign and the United States government that limits .com price rises. Full definition, No. NCR 92-18742, NSI and then Verisign managed the authoritative root zone The top of the DNS, listing every TLD and its name servers. Full definition file from 1998 to 2016, according to the NTIA National Telecommunications and Information Administration The United States government agency for internet policy, which oversaw IANA until 2016. Full definition.

Registry and registrar in one company

ICANN approved a registry agreement with NSI on 4 November 1999 and signed it on 10 November 1999. Under it, NSI ran the registry for .com, .net and .org, with equal access for all ICANN-accredited registrars.

NSI also kept its own registrar business. It had to give every accredited registrar, itself included, equivalent access to the SRS Shared Registration System The registry system that all registrars connect to in order to manage domains in a TLD. Full definition, and to make sure the registry’s revenues and assets were not used to advantage its registrar over others. In an amendment effective 10 November 1999, the Department of Commerce approved the separation of NSI’s registry and registrar assets into separate businesses and facilities.

Verisign years and the question of a sale

According to Verisign’s own history page, Verisign acquired Network Solutions in 2000. ICANN also refers to “VeriSign’s acquisition of Network Solutions in 2000”.

The 1999 agreement offered a choice: if NSI sold either its registry or its registrar business to an unaffiliated party within 18 months, the agreement would be extended by four years. Verisign stated that, unless revised agreements were accepted, it would keep the registry and sell the registrar business by 10 May 2001.

On 2 April 2001 ICANN announced revised agreements that dropped the requirement to sell. Instead, they required the registrar business to be run “in a separate subsidiary” and strengthened the rule that Verisign must not favor its own registrar over unaffiliated ones. On 25 May 2001 Verisign, described by ICANN as “the parent of Network Solutions, Inc.”, signed separate .com, .net and .org registry agreements in place of NSI’s 1999 contract. From then on, the Cooperative Agreement named Verisign as the non-government party.

On 3 September 2002 ICANN sent “Network Solutions, Inc. Registrar (VeriSign Registrar)” a formal notice of seventeen breaches of the RAA sections on registration data The information kept about a domain and its owner. Full definition, with fifteen working days to cure them. The published letter does not record the outcome.

Later owners

The later ownership is described in a UDRP Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ICANN's out-of-court process for trademark disputes over domain names. Full definition decision by Forum A United States provider of UDRP and URS domain dispute cases, formerly the National Arbitration Forum. Full definition (National Arbitration Forum) dated 18 August 2023, in which Newfold Digital was the respondent The domain holder against whom a domain dispute is filed. Full definition. According to Newfold, Network Solutions “was then sold to Pivotal Private Equity”, was “subsequently acquired by Web.com”, and came to Newfold when Newfold acquired Web.com. This is a party’s statement recorded in the decision, not a finding of the panel The one or three independent experts who decide a domain dispute. Full definition. The decision gives no dates for these sales.

What it offers in domains

As an ICANN-accredited registrar, Network Solutions registers names for the public in gTLDs such as .com and .net. The monthly reports that the .com and .net registry operator The organization that holds the contract or mandate for a TLD and sets its rules. Full definition files with ICANN give a dated sense of scale. At the end of June 2026:

  • ID 2 (Network Solutions) sponsored 3,132,002 .com names, out of 170,253,825 at all registrars, and 396,148 .net names, out of 12,745,973.
  • ID 9 (Register.com) sponsored 932,750 .com names.
  • ID 886 (Domain.com) sponsored 834,317 .com names.

These are per-accreditation figures, not a group total or market share.

  • Verisign is the registry operator for .com and .net. It sells names to all accredited registrars, and Network Solutions is one of them. The two shared an owner from 2000 until the registrar business was sold. As of October 2026, the .com Registry Agreement The contract between ICANN and a gTLD registry operator. Full definition of 1 December 2024 says Verisign “shall not act as a registrar” for .com and may not own more than 15 percent of any ICANN-accredited .com registrar, so the two businesses are kept apart by contract.
  • Newfold Digital: as of October 2026, it is the parent group by its own account in the 2023 decision; it holds no accreditation under its own name.
  • Register.com and Domain.com are separate accreditations, IDs 9 and 886, that carry the Network Solutions, LLC name in IANA’s list.

For example, if example.com were held at ID 9 and moved to ID 2, that would still be a transfer between two registrars under ICANN’s Transfer Policy ICANN's rules for moving gTLD domains between registrars and changing registrants. Full definition, even though both accreditations carry the Network Solutions name. registrant The person or organization that holds a domain name registration. Full definition should check the details of their own case with their registrar.

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