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Network Solutions Suck
goes beyond just pissing me off - this is an insult to everyone who is based
outside of the US.
Non-americans have long been unimpressed with the general american attitude towards the
top level domains (.COM, .NET, .ORG, etc). When was the last time you saw an american
company with a .com.us domain? To be completely honest, I can't even remember having
*ever* seen one...
The United States has adopted many international TLD's as well as the registration
process, the payment currency, etc, but this is not what I have a problem with; after
all, the Internet was funded and "born" in the United States. What angers me is that
when I go to Network Solutions, check to
see if a .COM is available, and attempt to register it using my contact information, it
won't let me do so.
Where exactly is the problem occurring? In the "Account Holder (Registrant)" form, and,
specifically, the State/Province and Zip/Postal Code fields. I'm
Australian - I live in South Australia, which is abbreviated to "SA", and my postcode is
"5000". NSI refuses to accept this when I try to submit the form. It comes back with
"The state abbreviation you used, 'SA', is not valid" and "The postal code must be a
number between 00005 and 99995". OK. Entering the postcode as "05000" keeps NSI happy in
that regard, but it still won't accept the SA. Note that I have taken care to specify
that my country is "Australia -- AU" in the dropdown box provided.
Why won't it accept SA? Just because SA happens to not be the abbreviation of one of the
"united" states? I try leaving the state field blank, and resubmitting. No luck - it
says: "The Address you have provided is too short. Please use the 2-letter state
abbreviation."
I just tried that!
NSI has completely failed to consider that not every country has a 5 digit postcode, and
not every state or province is abbreviated to 2 letters. Luckily, there are now alternatives (other ICANN accredited registrars), and they're alternatives I will be trying when I next have some free time to retry grabbing the domain I'm after.
Two of these registrars are:
I encourage others to post URLs of registrars they've used, and their experiences and tips. I have emailed NSI about the problem, and will add a comment when I hear back from them.
