--- id: "network-solutions" kind: "glossary-term" title: "Network Solutions" language: "en" category: "Industry roles and organizations" updated: "2026-10-13T10:05:42Z" canonical: "https://tldlog.com/glossary/network-solutions/" translations: es: "https://tldlog.com/es/glosario/network-solutions/" de: "https://tldlog.com/de/glossar/network-solutions/" fr: "https://tldlog.com/fr/glossaire/network-solutions/" it: "https://tldlog.com/it/glossario/network-solutions/" pt-BR: "https://tldlog.com/pt/glossario/network-solutions/" ru: "https://tldlog.com/ru/glossariy/network-solutions/" zh-Hans: "https://tldlog.com/zh/cihui/network-solutions/" --- # Network Solutions An ICANN-accredited registrar, Network Solutions, LLC, with IANA registrar ID 2. From the end of 1992 it registered .com, .net and .org names under a US government agreement and ran their registry until Verisign, which bought it in 2000, took over that role; the registrar business was later sold and, by Newfold Digital's own account, is now part of Newfold. Network Solutions is a registrar: a company that registers domain names 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's list, ID 1 is marked reserved, so 2 is the lowest ID in use. For example, the .com registry's RDAP record for networksolutions.com shows "Network Solutions, LLC" with IANA Registrar ID 2. As of October 2026, ICANN'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 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. 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 gTLDs "on a first come, first served 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, No. NCR 92-18742, NSI and then Verisign managed the authoritative root zone file from 1998 to 2016, according to the NTIA. ## 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, 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 WHOIS data, 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 decision by Forum (National Arbitration Forum) dated 18 August 2023, in which Newfold Digital was the respondent. 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 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 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. ## How it differs from related companies - **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 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, even though both accreditations carry the Network Solutions name. Registrants should check the details of their own case with their registrar. ## Sources - [IANA Registrar IDs (CSV)](https://www.iana.org/assignments/registrar-ids/registrar-ids-1.csv) - [Statement of Policy on the Management of Internet Names and Addresses ("White Paper")](https://www.ntia.gov/federal-register-notice/1998/statement-policy-management-internet-names-and-addresses) - [ICANN-NSI Registry Agreement (1999)](https://www.icann.org/en/registry-agreements/multiple/icann-nsi-registry-agreement-10-11-1999-en) - [ICANN Announces Decision on Registry Agreement for .com/.net/.org Domains](https://www.icann.org/en/announcements/details/icann-announces-decision-on-registry-agreement-for-comnetorg-domains-02-04-2001-en) - [Forum UDRP decision FA2307002052775, Watchdog USA, LLC v. Newfold Digital, Inc.](https://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/2052775.htm) - [.com Registry Agreement (1 December 2024)](https://itp.cdn.icann.org/en/files/registry-agreements/com/com-agreement-html-01-12-2024-en.htm) ## related terms - [registrar](https://tldlog.com/glossary/registrar/) - [Newfold Digital](https://tldlog.com/glossary/newfold-digital/) - [Verisign](https://tldlog.com/glossary/verisign/) - [IANA registrar ID](https://tldlog.com/glossary/iana-registrar-id/) - [Cooperative Agreement](https://tldlog.com/glossary/cooperative-agreement/) - [SRS](https://tldlog.com/glossary/srs/) - [registrar family](https://tldlog.com/glossary/registrar-family/) - [vertical integration](https://tldlog.com/glossary/vertical-integration/)