07/15/96 MSNBC: FIRST, GET THE ADDRESS RIGHT

MSNBC: FIRST, GET THE ADDRESS RIGHT

FOR WANT OF superscript$100, MSNBC nearly lost its Internet address. On Dec. 15, the day after Microsoft and NBC announced they would spend hundreds of millions to launch a cable news channel and Web site called MSNBC (page 68), Van Nuys (Calif.)-based Micro Solutions Network Boards Corp. claimed for itself the Internet address of www.msnbc.com.
The Microsoft-NBC MSNBC channel didn't discover the potential fiasco until this spring, when it tried to register its Internet address with Network Solutions Inc., which administers these things. Micro Solutions, which couldn't be reached for comment, gave up its coveted address and got in return Microsoft software worth thousands.
Then came more trouble. Turns out that Micro Solutions had never paid NSI its $100 registration fee. Since the Microsoft-NBC MSNBC took months to notify NSI it had taken over the address, NSI's dunning notices on the deadbeat account were sent astray. MSNBC finally paid its bill on June 13, but NSI erred and pulled the plug on msnbc.com anyway on June 25. The mess got fixed the next day, and the site is up and running again.
``There were errors on both sides,'' says an NSI spokeswoman. If its luck holds, MSNBC launches on July 15.
EDITED BY LARRY LIGHT By Elizabeth Lesly