Network Solutions Highjacking Unused Subdomains
TechCrunch reported in April that Network Solutions was highjacking subdomains to serve advertising-link filled pages when a user requests a subdomain that isn’t used by domains hosted with NetSol.
This means, for example, that if I hosted domainspats.com with Network Solutions, and if I did not set up a subdomain for domains.domainspats.com, or spats.domainspats.com, or anything.domainspats.com, if anyone typed that address into their browser, instead of getting my standard error page, they would get a page filled with ads for which NetSol gets paid.
This would include domains that aren’t set up to resolve the www version of the domain (e.g., www.domainspats.com), and even with www set up properly, it would apply to any and all typos, such as 222.domainspats.com or eee.domainspats.com, or ww.domainspats.com or wwww.domainspats.com.
According to TechCrunch, this practice is affecting hundreds of thousands of sites hosted with Network Solutions.
Shame on Network Solutions. It’s not the first time they’ve been caught engaging in questionable behavior, and it almost certainly won’t be the last.