WASHINGTON -- The government is demanding an explanation from the company that assigns most of the world's Internet addresses, after it moved quietly to steer customers of an important Web directory to its private commercial site.
"We're very concerned," said Becky Burr, administrator with the Commerce Department. "This was undertaken without consultation with the United States government."People trying to visit the popular "Internic.Net" directory -- which checks the availability of a new Web address -- are unexpectedly being swept automatically to the home page for Network Solutions Inc., which offers to register Internet addresses with the com, net or org suffixes for $119.
The company has remarkable authority over the Internet stemming from its exclusive government contract. It made the surprise change as the government moves to largely end its role managing the global computer network and hands responsibility over to a non-profit group, the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
"The community has had it (Internic) for a long time, and they're used to having it for a reference tool," Michael Roberts, the group's president, said from Los Angeles. "Whether this sort of brute-force approach to closing it is appropriate, there are a lot of questions. The manner in which they did it seemed pretty inappropriate."
Roberts said he expects to talk Friday with Network Solutions about its decision.
The government is upset because the information directory has traditionally been considered a community resource, like a giant telephone book for the Web, and because it owns Internic as a registered trademark.
"Our view is, this information has been freely available to the Internet community for a long time," Burr said. "If there is some reason to change that, we need to be consulted."
The change, which occurred overnight last Friday, infuriated some Internet groups. It illustrates the challenges of diluting the influence of Network Solutions and turning over to private industry the job of running the Internet, which is quickly becoming the most crucial communications medium for the digital age.
Hundreds e-mailed the Commerce Department to complain.
"We're entering a very uncertain period," said Jay Fenello, president of Iperdome Inc., an Internet company. "There are serious questions about how this transition will move forward. This is just a symptom of that."
Network Solutions, based in Herndon, Va., has enjoyed a lucrative, exclusive government agreement to register Internet addresses since 1993. It has assigned more than 4 million Web sites and had $93.7 million in sales last year.
Its decision to quietly steer visitors from Internic to its own site comes just before Roberts' group was expected to select five companies that will compete with Network Solutions in assigning Web addresses.
"They're trying to get as much visibility with customers as they can for as long as they can," complained William Walsh of Fresno, Calif., who runs DSO Net, another Internet company.
"They're going to brand their registrar service as the Internic before there are even other registrars that could compete," Walsh said. "It may be legal, but it speaks of ethical problems."
A spokesman for Network Solutions, Chris Clough, said the Internic information directory is legally a customer list owned by his company. He said the company decided last weekend to consolidate several Web sites it maintained, including Internic.Net, to anticipate changes in how the Internet will be managed.
But Roberts said late Tuesday that confusion over the switch might delay his organization's selection of which companies eventually will compete to assign Web addresses.
Some applicants have already complained that the change by Network Solutions is causing them technical problems.
"It's sufficiently serious that we're considering delaying our deadline to give people more time," said Roberts.