Domain Names Get Wiped Out

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March 10, 1999 (12:00 AM EST)

By David Greenfield ,

Internic, the organization responsible for administering Internet domain names, dropped thousands of names from its database last week, rendering heaps of e-mail undeliverable.

While exact numbers aren't available, ISPs contended as many as 18,000 names were lost.

Users who have lost names will basically be forced to get new ones from Internic's parent company, Network Solutions Inc. (NSI), in Herndon, Va.

That's led critics to speculate about why NSI bagged the names. "They [NSI] seem to be embarking on a campaign to benefit their [Worldnic.net domain name registration] service," said Mike Sandburg, vice president at ISP 1,000 Islands Internet, in Watertown, N.Y.

NSI dismissed the charges.

"This is part of targeting people who register thousands of domains and sell them for a profit," said Nancy Huddleston, a spokeswoman for NSI.

Still, such skepticism makes sense, considering NSI will lose its monopoly over domain administration in September 2000. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, in Portola Valley, Calif., will begin handing names out then. ISPs will be able to join NSI in assigning names to customers. A key step in the whole process will occur on May 1, when NSI is slated to begin testing an interface that lets thecompetition tap into its database.