Network Solutions Sucks! And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

A friend of mine has been dinking around for three months, not getting her website up and running. Finally, I force her to let me get it up and running. She can’t really afford me, but she’s a lawyer- so she’s agreed to trade services (Bootstrapping in action), plus- she’s a friend.

She’s been trying to do it herself- which, you might know, I applaud (good Bootstrapping, remember). But she’s been fighting with the goofy do-it-yourself website builder on her supremely goofy hosting provider, Network Solutions.

I fought with it and fought with it… Blue Host won.

First of all, do-it-yourself website creators (in this case, Image Cafe) are about as awesome as the original version of PrintShop. The best you can do is throw up (really, throw up) a poorly templated brochure. But, I kind of expect that sort of thing from a do-it-yourself web page builder (Blue Host has some goofy ones, too).

What I didn’t expect was Network Soultions’ absolutely awful user interface. Nothing resembling a Control Panel (the help file said there was one, but the instructions for how to get to it didn’t make any sense). Nothing like a File Manager. Nothing like a built-in FTP client. Nothing like a Simple Scripts interface.

Again… perhaps they do have those things, but they were impossible to find. And every page was just crammed with advertisements.

So- let’s transfer over to Blue Host.

Oh, wait…. Of course, to transfer a domain you need to unlock the domain, and get the Auth code and all that. Guess how hard that was? Yes… hard.

In the FAQ section, the NUMBER 2 (all time, second most asked question) was… How do I transfer my domain name? The answer… only told you how to tranfer it to Network Solutions. No information on how to track down the information you need to tranfer away from them (surprise).

Eventually I was able to track down a little button (two clicks deep into a not-obvious progression of pages) that let me request an email with the Auth Code in it.

We finally got the hosting transferred, although we are STILL WAITING for the Domain Name Servers to point to the new host. Apparently, even though the internet is fully automated and runs at the speed of light, it still takes 4 to 7 days to transfer hosting away from Network Solutions. FOUR TO SEVEN DAYS!!
REALLY?!

And, by the way… NS is more expensive. Yes… MORE expensive.

So… If you are trying to figure out:
What web host should I use?
Where should I host my website?
How do I register a domain name?

The answer… NOT NETWORK SOLUTIONS

I suggest Blue Host. They are the only web host that I’ve never had problems with. They have enough functionality to satisfy a geek who really knows what to do, but they are also easy enough for a total novice.

Bootstrap that, Network Solutions!