Network Solutions Accounting Error Leads to 48-hour Web and E-mail outage for
     Aberdeen Group

                BusinessWire, Monday, April 12, 1999 at 14:44

      BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 12, 1999--

      Aberdeen Group Warns: Network Solutions, Inc.
      Registration-Termination Practices Sloppy -- May Cause Intolerable
      Outages for Web-dependent Businesses
      
      In a report published today, Aberdeen Group,
an IT research and consulting firm, charges
that "unacceptable flaws" in Network Solutions'
registration-termination practices are responsible
for Aberdeen's 48-hour Web and e-mail outage that began
April 1. The report, Network Solutions
Dog Bites Aberdeen Group, Aberdeen Bites Back, is
available on Aberdeen's Web site at
www.aberdeen.com.

      On April 1, due to a simple thirty-five-dollar
($35) administrative error on the part of
Network Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSOL), NSOL placed
Aberdeen Group's DNS record on hold,
causing Aberdeen's Web site to disappear and disabling
all e-mail. Network Solutions took this
action because it believed that Aberdeen Group was
delinquent on its thirty-five-dollar ($35)
annual domain registration. However, Aberdeen Group had
paid the bill and had followed up three
times with Network Solutions in the preceding six weeks
-- even sending a copy of the cancelled
check by overnight courier. Before restoring Aberdeen's
service, Network Solutions demanded a
new credit card payment and never acknowledged its
error. Additionally, once the account was
reactivated, it took nearly 72 hours to replicate the
corrected DNS tables around the world.

      "Our first reaction was outrage," said David
Alschuler, Vice President, Aberdeen Group.
"But when we seriously considered our plight, our
ultimate reaction was fear for the thousands of
companies we have encouraged to embrace the Internet as
a means of competitive advantage."
Aberdeen Group studies numerous companies for whom the
Internet is the sole or primary sales
channel--companies like Amazon.com, e-Bay and
Broadcast.com. According to Alschuler, "A
two-day interruption in their on-line order streams
would have a material impact on corporate
revenue."

      NSOL currently acts as the exclusive registrar for
all domain names within the .com, .org,
and .net top-level domains on the Internet, and the
company also provides registration services
for more than 240 country-code domains. Domain names
provide customers with a unique
Internet identity and physical address to communicate,
market, and transact electronic commerce.
"Obviously NSOL has a right to expect payment for its
services, but our experience demonstrates
that there are serious, unacceptable flaws in the
current system," said Alschuler. "What happened
to Aberdeen Group should not happen to any
organization."

About Aberdeen Group 
      Founded in 1988, Aberdeen is an information
technology research and consulting
organization that closely monitors user needs,
technological innovation, and market
developments. It focuses its research efforts on the
business impact of technology changes.
Aberdeen Group has offices in Boston, MA, and Palo Alto,
CA.


      CONTACT: Aberdeen Group
      Leslie Granese, 617-854-5226 
      granese@aberdeen.com 
      KEYWORD: MASSACHUSETTS
      INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMED COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS
INTERACTIVE/MULTIMEDIA/INTERNET

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