The Washington Post, June 25, 1996. Domain Delinquents Get Day's Reprieve Firm Delays Suspension of Internet Service to Process Flood of Fees By David S. Hilzenrath The Herndon company that assigns the basic addresses on the Internet said yesterday it would delay until this evening a plan to cut off the service of address holders who haven't paid the required fees. Network Solutions Inc., which registers addresses under an arrangement with the federal government, had planned to cut off the delinquents yesterday, but postponed the action as it processed a flood of last-minute payments. The cutoffs involve about 10,000 of 400,000 "domain" names -- the portion of the Internet address that follows the "@" symbol -- whose holders have not paid Network Solutions a $100 registration fee. Network Solutions spokesman David Gravff said the company would suspend service for those domain holders that had not paid by 5 p.m. on Sunday. The service of those who pay between that time and tonight will be suspended, but the company will soon reinstate it. The cutoff involves domain holders that registered their addresses between Sept. 14, when Network Solutions began charging new users, and Feb. 28. Domain names may be held by companies, universities, individuals, government agencies or other organizations, and a single domain name might be used by many people. People using domain names that are suspended would not be able to receive electronic mail. Similarly, people would not be able to connect to World Wide Web sites using suspended domains. The company two weeks ago estimated that 25,000 domain names would be suspended, but it reduced the total as last-minute payments arrived. The company will wait 60 days before reissuing the suspended domain names to new users, giving delinquent users another chance to pay and reclaim them, Graves said. ----- For More Information: Is your domain name available? Find out by visiting The Post's site on the World Wide Web at: http://www.washingtonpost.com [End]