Network Solutions Review and Test Results

Review

Network Solutions became the very first domain registrar in 1993 and began hosting websites a few years later. As part of the Web.com Group, Network Solutions currently provides an industry-leading array of website-related products and services including moderately-priced shared UNIX hosting solutions.

HOSTING PLANS

The nsWebsite Small is the cheaper of the two shared “do-it-yourself” plans. It provides an easy-to-use drag-and-drop website builder and marketing tool (perfect for beginners), 5GB of disk space (adequate for most sites), 50GB of bandwidth, a free domain name, up to 10 e-mail accounts, and 24×7 phone technical support. The nsWebsite Small is priced at $8.95 per month for the annual plan before discounts.

The nsWebsite Large provides all of the features of the Small plan while allowing for 300GB of disk space (adequate for large ecommerce sites), 3000GB of bandwidth, and up to 2500 e-mail accounts. It is priced at $11.95 per month for the annual plan before discounts.

Network Solutions Control Panel. Click to enlarge.

PURCHASE PROCESS

We purchased the nsWebsite Small plan for our NCM Test Site. While the plan does include a free domain name, buyers who wish to use a domain name they already own have no place to enter it during checkout. It must be added after purchase. We opted for the PayPal payment option and submitted our order without further incident. The “welcome” e-mail arrived almost immediately and contained a link to our account dashboard. It did not however, include FTP or DNS info.

SETUP

The Network Solutions account dashboard is not difficult to use. We clicked the “My Hosting Packages” and were taken to the web hosting dashboard. We clicked the “Assign/Edit Your Domain” link and were taken to a page where we added our previously purchased domain name. Back at the Web hosting dashboard we were able to easily configure an e-mail address for the account and access the FTP information.

In order to install WordPress, we clicked the blue “Web Hosting Toolbox” button. This brought us to the control panel (screenshot right). We clicked the Open Source Applications link and were able to install WordPress quickly. However, the installer does not permit you to install WordPress in the root directory. We find this to be problematic as the home page URL of your WordPress site will include a directory parameter. For instance, instead of “http://www.yourdomain.com/”, your site’s address will be “http://www.yourdomain.com/directoryname/”. This may corrected via ‘A’ records, but we see this is as an unnecessary complication.

Network Solutions Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

As far as proprietary control panels are concerned, Network Solutions’ is one of the better ones we’ve seen. But it does not encompass all of the functionality of cPanel which is used by so many hosting services.

We uploaded our test site via FTP without issue and waited for the speed and uptime data to accumulate. In the meantime, we contacted 24-hour customer support by phone to ask about possible upgrades. We found their assistance to be courteous, knowledgeable and timely.

Having previous experience with Network Solutions, we were not surprised by the 10-day test results. As we fully expected, our test site performed flawlessly regarding uptime (screenshot above right), while maintaining average site speed.

Network Solutions Speed Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

TESTING

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to our 10-day test for uptime and speed. Network Solutions recorded an average speed of 1.5891 seconds to load our single-page test site from 13 locations worldwide, and 1.3100 seconds from 7 U.S. locations (screenshot right). Tested for uptime every 15 minutes over 10 days, Network Solutions produced a perfect 100% reliability score (screenshot above right).

Pros

• Free domain name
• 24/7 phone and email support
• 100% uptime
• First-rate network and datacenters
• Shared hosting plans include a fully-featured drag-and-drop website builder
• A+ BBB Rating
• PayPal payment option

Cons

• New account “welcome” email does not include DNS or FTP info
• Processing fee is deducted from money-back guarantee refunds
• Proprietary control panel not as comprehensive as cPanel
• WordPress cannot be installed in the root directory

Conclusion

Despite a few issues with their shared hosting plans, Network Solutions utilizes one of the best networks in the industry and is known for reliability. On balance, their wide array of plans and complete range of hosting options merit consideration. If you are looking for a shared hosting plan that includes a fully-featured drag-and-drop site builder, Network Solutions may be the right choice for you.

Network Solutions has earned 4 stars and is recommended with reservations by NCM Online.

Pricing and Features

Cheap website hosting company price comparisons based on 1-year term list price before coupon/promo codes or limited time/introductory offer discounts. These are the renewal rates for the second year of hosting. To ensure that you receive the most affordable Network Solutions pricing possible, please visit our Web Hosting Coupon Codes page for current discounts and special offers before making any purchases.

Plan	nsWebsite (Small)	nsWebsite (Large)
Website Builder Tool
Over 200 customizable design templates
Website Builder Tool
Fully customizable templates
Easy drag and drop editor tool
High quality free image gallery
Website add-ons (e.g., maps, calendars, etc.)
Website Hosting
Storage	5GB	300GB
Bandwidth	50GB	3000GB
File Sharing	2GB	2GB
Personalized Domain and Email
Free custom domain	1	1
Emailboxes	10	2500
Customer Satisfaction
24/7 Real Person Support
30-Day Limited Money-Back Guarantee
Price per Month*	$8.95	$11.95

*Prices based on 1-year term before the application of coupon/promo codes and introductory/limited-time offer discounts. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the prices displayed on this page are the 1-year term renewal rates.

Company Information

In 1979 an entrepreneur from Arkansas named Emmit J. McHenry founded an innovative engineering company. The first Network Solutions VA office was situated in Tyson’s Corner and the company employed just thirty staff. A number of years later the firm secured a five year contract with the National Science Foundation. The company was asked to register domain names and to act as sole registry for .edu, .net and .org domains. The NSF paid Network Solutions to administer and register those free domains. Some people may find it difficult to believe that NS were the only firm who put forward a bid on the contract offered by the NSF.

A couple of years on the NSF allowed Network Solutions to levy a fee for registering a domain name. All of the domain registrations were manually processed and each and every client received an invoice. The registration fee was one hundred dollars for two years. Around one third of that fee went directly to the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund and Federal Government took their share of the funds.

By the end of 1997 there were in excess of one million domain names on the register. Two years later, .org, .net and .edu were opened up to a number of competitors. At around about the same time, Network Solutions managed to acquire a website design company known as Image Café. This website incorporated a useful web building tool that allowed clients to design their own websites.

The number of domains registered by Network Solutions grew to five million and business was still booming. Two years later the firm decided to improve their customer service, they did so by opening a 24/7 service center in the heart of Hazleton PA. Network Solutions were privatized in 2003 and from then on in the company operated as NS, LLC. Their private domain registration service was launched in 2004. The greatly enhanced services meant that clients could get rid of unused domain registrations and replace them with current ones.

Network Solutions introduced a comprehensive range of web-hosting packages. These packages helped clients to host their sites reliably. NS received a BBB (Better Business Bureau Accreditation) and Network Solutions have now been awarded an A star rating.

The company strengthened their product portfolio in 2006. They introduced a number of new services which included web design, search engine optimization and e-commerce solutions. The restructuring process went well, and today Network Solutions is held in high regard. The company has become an Authorized Google AdWords™ Reseller and a J.D. Power and Associates Certified Call Center. Clients can look forward to having their Ad words account professionally managed. Network Solutions will set-up and activate the account, monitor and maximize on-going campaigns and give excellent customer service.

By 2007 Network Solutions had proved that they were experts in their field. They were able to deliver solutions utilizing Microsoft products. In 2009 Network Solutions looked at various ways of helping local businesses. The company found ways of targeting local online custom by increasing local search visibility. This helped smaller businesses to attract traffic and calls.

In 2010 the firm launched their mobile app; the innovative application is call DomainStorm. In the latter part of 2011 Network Solutions were bought out by Web.com for approximately $560 million. Network Solutions are proud to be a part of the Web.com stock and the company continues to offer domain registration, e-commerce, online marketing services, e-mail and web-hosting services to clients all over the world.

Network Solutions, LLC 13861 Sunrise Valley Dr Suite 300 Herndon, VA 20171 877-628-8686 888-981-4241

How to Install WordPress

This video tutorial demonstrates the installation of WordPress on a Network Solutions shared hosting account using their proprietary control panel and applications installer.