The electronic message, which bore the subject line "NSI e-commerce tips," was mass mailed Wednesday to individuals listed as technical contacts in NSI's who-is database of domain registrations. The e-mail, at least the second of its kind from the domain registrar in recent months, touted NSI's Web site security offerings and its partnership with Verisign.

"They have our customers as a captive audience for advertising and for potentially taking away our business. What's to say that their next mailing won't include an offer for Web hosting?" complained William Walsh, general manager of DSo Internet Services, a Web hosting company in central California.

Like many ISPs, DSo acts as a reseller for NSI, registering domains on behalf of its hosting customers. In the process, access providers must supply administrative and billing contact information on their customers to NSI.

At present, Network Solutions allows junk e-mail recipients to request that their addresses be removed from its lists. But Walsh said the company should also enable domain holders to opt out of receiving its advertising at the time of registration.

Network Solutions spokesperson Christopher Clough Thursday defended the company's mailings, and said NSI intends to continue using the whois database to cross-market services to domain holders. But Clough predicted that the company may offer other opt-out options as additional ICANN-accredited registrars enter the business and leverage their own who-is data.

"How they handle privacy and other issues will be a differentiator between registrars, and will be part of the choice that resellers and consumers make about choosing a registrar," said Clough.

The pre-payment policy in place at register.com and Melbourne IT, the first two test-bed registrars to come online, may however prevent many ISPs from shopping around for domain services.

Under their accredation agreement, registrars must pay a $9 fee to NSI upon entering a domain in its shared registry database. As a result, registrars are in turn requiring their customers pay for domains at the time of registration. NSI currently has no pre-payment requirement.

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For hosting companies that annually register hundreds of domains on behalf of customers, moving to a registrar that requires such up-front payments could put a big dent in their cash flow. Walsh estimates that switching from NSI would necessitate tying up $20,000 dollars, since DSo, and not the domain holder, would be required to pre-pay for the registration.

"We basically have to funnel our registrations through NSI. We have no option, and neither do most ISPs."