Locked Domain

Locked at NetworkSolutions...what can I do now?

[newnewbie2]

HI!
My client (a florist) had a previous webmaster that hosted their website. This hosting company set themselves up as the Registrar, Admin Contact & Technical Contact. This fly-by-night hosting company has since gone out of business, leaving my client without a website or a domain name!

They have been stuck in limbo for months waiting on the domain name to come up for renewal. It FINALLY expired in August, and I called NetworkSolutions to renew this domain name for my client.

Everything was cool, until I noticed that the registrar was STILL the old ripoff hosting company. I tried to change it, and got an error message that the domain was LOCKED!

I called NetworkSolutions and asked them what to do, and the only thing they said I could do was to send an email to [e-mail].

I sent that out today, but I am VERY discouraged! How can the old company still have this domain locked? It has expired. Shouldn't the expired status rule over the locked status? What does "Locked" actually mean? Nobody could tell me, and I'm very discouraged.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciatedd!

[fathom]

First I would resolve the clients problem by picking up another domain name, consider this as disposable -- a one year solution to get them back on their web feet.

Network Solutions should be able to resolve the problem with the old domain but it will likely take time.

If the branding of the old domain "isn't" that important you should forget about it and continue on with the new domain.

If it is "important" keep working on it and when resolved place the site back there, and use the new domain as a redirect or host separately and develop a new brand, new products, use for specials, promotionals, etc.