First ever registrar was?

[WebDigger]

I'm just curious; who was the very first public domain name registrar and what were the early registration prices like?

 

[Domaniak]

I gather you're asking about gTLD registrar?
Answer: Network Solutions. Pricing, at the end of their monopoly, was ~$35/year, if memory serves.

 

[Kuffy]

The first name registered was Symbolics.com in 1985

 

[Domaniak]

The first name registered was Symbolics.com in 1985

I stand corrected. Never heard of them. I'd always dealt with NetSol, but that was in the 90's...

 

[creataweb]

I stand corrected. Never heard of them. I'd always dealt with NetSol, but that was in the 90's...

That was the first domain reg'ed... and way back when they used to be free!

 

[Kuffy]

I stand corrected. Never heard of them. I'd always dealt with NetSol, but that was in the 90's...

I think you are correct, and Netsol was the first registrar. From Wikipedia.

Network Solutions Inc.(NSI) started as a technology consulting company incorporated by Gary Desler, Ty Grigsby, Emmit J. McHenry, and Ed Peters in Washington D.C. in January 1979.[3] In its first few years, the company focused on systems programming services, primarily in the IBM environment. Annual revenues passed $1 million in 1982, growing to $18.5 million in 1986.

John Dillon reported in MediaFilter.org: "Initially, the service was subsidized by the government. But, in May 1993, the National Science Foundation privatized the name registry (InterNIC - Internet Network Information Center) and paid NSI $5.9 million to administer it. In September 1995, NSI instituted the fee system. A few months earlier, it had been bought out by Science Applications International Corp (SAIC)."

 

[usernamex]

The NetSol fees were $100 for two years until the monopoly ended.

Then who was next?

https://www.icann.org/news/icann-pr-1999-04-21-en

The five registrars participating in the testbed are, in alphabetical order:
America Online CORE (Internet Council of Registrars) France Telecom/Oléane Melbourne IT register.com

In addition to the five testbed participants, ICANN also announced today that 29 other applicant companies have met its accreditation criteria and are expected to be accredited to compete as registrars upon completion of the testbed phase.
http://archive.icann.org/en/registrars/posttestebed-21apr99.htm

 

[Domaniak]

The NetSol fees were $100 for two years until the monopoly ended...

My company was NetSol's exclusive distributor for Poland in the late '90's. They were the gTLD registry cum registrar, all-in-one like. By 1998-1999, before their monopoly ended, their retail pricing was US$35 per year or thereabouts, we had a huge discount as their distributor Then Verisign bought them out and they were merged and re-branded under the Verisign name. A couple of years later NetSol or NSI (Network Solutions International) was "reborn", entirely new branding, logo and all. Verisign continued as the .COM/.NET registry and NSI joined the crowd as one of the competing registrars. I was in Asia by then and haven't kept up, so can't say what relationship, if any, there is between Verisign and the new NSI.

 

[WebDigger]

If Symbolics.com was registered at Network Solutions (the first registrar) in 1985, then how come NetworkSolutions.com was only registered in 1998?

 

[deez007]

Yeah, netsol was the granddaddy of registrars... not sure how they ended up fizzling into the background. Would have actually expcted someone to have bought them out and maybe revive the business.

 

[Kate]

If Symbolics.com was registered at Network Solutions (the first registrar) in 1985, then how come NetworkSolutions.com was only registered in 1998?

To begin with, the www didn't exist in 1985. Domain names were used for E-mail, FTP, telnet and the like. So you didn't register a domain on some website. You had to send a fax usually....

 

[ultradog]

The "creation date" on the Whois for NetworkSolutions.com shows as 1998, but obviously it was registered way before then. The date reflects when InterNIC stopped being the head honcho that everything went through. (I have old bills for domains from InterNIC from about 1998. It's funny to recall that you didn't have to pay up front; they'd bill you later.)

One domain I have shows a creation date of 2008, but I owned it at least 4 years before that, and it didn't get deleted, either. I switched registrars, though.

 

[Namezie]

I believe it was InterNIC. I remember those days when you would actually register a domain name and you would have to send confirmation by fax. Yes, FAX. They would then send you a snail mail letter showing which domain you got, and how much time you had to pay it. I remember it being $50/year or something like that.

Don't even get me started on how they handled the DNS changes. It was all by email. Total gong show.

 

[Domaniak]

...Don't even get me started on how they handled the DNS changes. It was all by email. Total gong show.

Yeah, that's how NetSol worked, too. There was an email template to fill out, then send out to register a domain - Admin, Tech, Billing contacts, nameservers and all. Sounds pretty weird looking back from today's perspective, I know. But it was pretty efficient. I remember using this to actually catch some dropping names, worked out pretty well more often than not, too!

 

[Domaniak]

...It's funny to recall that you didn't have to pay up front; they'd bill you later.)

Yep, same thing at NetSol. They registered the name and gave you 14 days to pay for it. Good ole days!