When I was in high school I worked at a small startup.  Ultimately the startup didn’t go anywhere, but I made some great life long friends in the process.  Through a series of unfortunate events we lost control of our domain name, and while it’s not something like car.com or anything like that, it had some sentimental value.  I should be clear though, we didn’t loose control of it, as much as, technically lose control.  You see, back then there was rs.internic.net for registering domain names.  They assigned everyone a NIC handle like MW2782  (which was my NIC handle).  Somewhere along the line, Verisign bought Network Solutions and then spun Network Solutions off into its own company again.  They stopped using NIC handles and ported everyone over to actual usernames.  Unfortunately the person who was the Administrative Contact (i.e. defacto owner of a domain)  was no longer available and we had no idea what username or password we could use to manage the domain.  So for the past 10 years, my friend Ed has been sending a check to Network Solutions every year as they effectively held the domain hostage.  You see Network Solutions will take money from anyone, but only the Administrative Contact can manage a domain name. Ugh.

A few weeks ago I started getting the annual renewal emails from them, and I decided enough was enough.  It took many phone calls, tons of faxing, but now I’ve been able to claim ownership of the domain and move it to my account at Go Daddy.   It only took 10 years, but it’s finally back where it belongs.  To most people this is just silly, but in a weird way, it’s a symbolic triumph that makes me happy. :-)