If you use Network Solutions to check for domain name availability and then decide not to buy the name or buy it from another registrar, you're out of luck!

Network Solutions will snap up the domain and hold it for four days--a process known as "front running". They can do this because of an ICANN rule that allows them to buy the name and hold it for four days before deciding to pay for it or release it back into the general pool.

They do this in the guise of 'protecting' their customers. Saying that they are saving the name for the person who searched for it in case they decide later they want to buy it. However, anyone that goes to the Network Solutions site is able to purchase that domain name, but only from Network Solutions.

So, it seems that Network Solutions is really protecting themselves, as the name has been removed from the pool and no other registrar can sell it--only Network Solutions. And since anyone that goes to their site can purchase the name--exactly which customers are they protecting?

Hopefully this ICANN rule will be changed to not allow this unfair and possibly unethical practice to continue. But should get caught in their trap, it has been reported that a phone call to their support center may be fruitful in getting the name released so that you can purchase it at the registrar of your choice. This is not guaranteed and it might require a good deal of persistence, but it has been done.