So, I sent an email the other day to Verisign, telling them how upset I was about this whole "Site Finder" deal. And today I upped the stakes by sending another message, but this time I copied Investor Relations and Press Contacts. And today I got a nice little response:

Dear Mr. Nielsen,

Thank you for contacting Web Site Support.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Unfortunately, this is not a service created or offered by Network Solutions, Inc. This product is not related to any registered domain names. If you have any technical questions regarding Site Finder, please contact Verisign Global Registry Services at sitefinder@verisign-grs.com. If you would like to read more about the service and its implementation, I would like to refer you to the Site Finder FAQ’s on the VeriSign Registry web site at http://www.verisign.com/nds/naming/sitefinder/faq.html. VeriSign's processing of queries for nonexistent domain names is in full compliance with provisions of the DNS protocol that address wildcards as well as the operational best practices described in the document entitled Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the Guidelines") [1].

We appreciate your message and look forward to providing you with continued quality service in the future.

Should you need anything else, please do not hesitate to contact Web Site Support through e-mail or through the toll free number 1-800-891-3341.

Best regards,

Ronilo001
WebSite Support Team
Network Solutions, Inc.
mailto: WebSiteSupport@NetworkSolutions.Com


But I'll be darned if I can find the document that he, and the page he referred me to mentions, so I respond:

Dear Mr. Ronilo001,

Thank you for your message. I was not aware of the link you sent me, so I thank you for that.

I don't have any technical questions about Site Finder, other than how Verisign/NSI thinks they can justify "stealing" of error traffic that should belong to the Internet as a whole. If Verisign had just implemented a simple error page, or search options from which they would not profit, or not profit much from, I don't think too many people would be bothered.

Anyway, I would like to confirm that ICANN or some other authority really has established that this is all well and proper. From what I read over at ICANN, they were pretty bent out of shape over this whole theft thing too...

But while I used the link that you gave me, I am unable to find the source of "Domain Name System Wildcards in Top-Level Domain Zones ("the Guidelines") [1]" that is referred to on the site and which you quoted.

Can you please tell me where I might locate this document?

Thank you,
Christian Nielsen
Nielsen Technical Services
http://www.nielsentech.com

More to come? I hope so... and sy, if you have a minute, let sitefinder@verisign-grs.com know how you feel about this whole thing...

(hristian