I guess there are other ways to play that game and maybe use Network Solutions as as a useful idiot.
Being sensitive to domain copy cats, I registered a few versions of my domain. But I'm not going to spend the money to layout blanket protection.
But knowing this, every 5 days I can go to Network Solutions, sped a few minutes and register domains I wouldn't like to see someone else have. Or maybe think twice about it as the domain will be pricey.
Maybe a bit of a pain to do, but certainly a little no-cost insurance.
Direct navigation and googling is a poor way to check domain name availability; while the majority of registered domains will at least have a parked/landing page at the address, some domains are registered (taken) but don't have any kind of active web server. If you don't do a whois search you won't know that it's in fact already taken.
__________________ "Ah, Henny Penny," said Chicken Little, "the sky is falling, and I must go and tell the king."
I was kind of surprised that people only found out about this earlier this year. I thought it was common knowledge. NS have been doing this for years which is one of the reasons why I never signed up with them.
So, if we all went to NS and spent all day searching different domain names, would they register all of them? That might cost them a bit.
Already been done several times by several different people It doesn't cost NetworkSolutions a thing to register a domain "temporarily". They are just exploiting a loophole in the system.
But knowing this, every 5 days I can go to Network Solutions, sped a few minutes and register domains I wouldn't like to see someone else have. Or maybe think twice about it as the domain will be pricey.
Maybe a bit of a pain to do, but certainly a little no-cost insurance.
This could actually backfire. People and bots monitor dropped domains for ones that look like they may have value and this could bring attention to yours.
Re: Network Solutions busted! 
It doesn't cost NetworkSolutions a thing to register a domain "temporarily". They are just exploiting a loophole in the system.
