America Online's Award-Winning Internet Systems Chosen by Network Solutions to Host Servers Critical to the Operation of the Internet.

Business Editors/Hi-Tech Writers

DULLES and HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 13, 2000

AOL's World Class Network Infrastructure Selected to

Host Two Top-Level Domain Name Servers

America Online, Inc. (NYSE: AOL), the world's leading interactive services company, and Network Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSOL), the world's leading registry of domain names, today announced that America Online has been selected to host the first two new top level name servers for Network Solutions.

The AOL locations in Dulles, Virginia and Mountain View, California, were selected by NSI to be the initial production deployment of the two new top level domain name servers from a group of twenty leading Internet Service Providers.

The AOL sites were selected because of the high percentage of Internet traffic handled by AOL's network, exceptional connectivity to the Internet, world class data center environments, and proven track record of network and data center high availability.

AOL's high performance network consistently earns AOL and CompuServe, America Online, Inc. brands, high scores in Visual Network's (formerly Inverse Network Technology) monthly benchmark.

Recently, Visual Network's January results presented the AOL and CompuServe services with top marks in the amount of time required to download typical Web pages, receiving the only two A+ grades awarded to a national ISP. AOL was faster than the Industry average by 34%.

The domain name server systems are critical to the basic functioning of the Internet. The servers, to be located within AOL data centers, are the first step in users' finding any address on the Internet ending in ".com", ".org", or ".net", a critical element of most Web browsing.

AOL will provide these servers with the infrastructure necessary to ensure a reliable connection for not only AOL members but for the vast portions of the Internet to which AOL is directly connected.

AOL's direct connections to the Internet are managed at several traffic exchange points, TeraPOPs, which have the capacity to move more than 20,000 megabits (Mbps) per second to and from the Internet.

Each TeraPoP has direct access to AOL and other major Internet networks via very high capacity circuits ranging from 45 Mbps to 2.4 Gbps which allow traffic to flow directly from AOL to the requested destination without having to travel to the multiple exchange points of third party networks, increasing reliability and speed of communication.

"AOL's excellence at Web infrastructure led us to our decision to choose AOL as host to our first two new outsourced name servers," said Bruce Chovnick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Network Solutions' Registry. "The tens of millions of Internet users who depend on Network Solutions for their name resolutions will be supported by a secure, stable and robust infrastructure and AOL will be a significant part of that support."

Matt Korn, Senior Vice President, Network Operations, America Online, Inc., said: "We are excited to learn that the best-of-breed technical support and infrastructure we already provide to AOL and CompuServe members, and to the entire line of AOL brands, have been chosen to benefit the Internet community at-large."

"AOL's selection to be the first organization to host new top level domain name servers by Network Solutions is recognition of AOL's technological success. AOL's enormous Internet connectivity, extremely reliable data centers, 24x7 operations and highly skilled staff will ensure these critical name servers have maximum availability and direct access to a large portion of the Internet. The new name servers will be effectively at the center of the Internet," said Joe Barrett, Vice President, Internet Operations, America Online.

About America Online, Inc.

Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 22 million members, and CompuServe, with more than 2.5 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers; AOL MovieFone, the nation's #1 movie listing guide and ticketing service; and Spinner.com and NullSoft's Winamp, leaders in Internet music.

Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.

About Network Solutions' Registry

The Network Solutions Registry is the leading provider of Internet locator services and is a business within Network Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSOL).

The Registry maintains the definitive directory for .com, .net, .org and .edu Web addresses and is responsible for the infrastructure that propagates this information throughout the Internet.

As the exclusive provider of registry services to .com, .net and .org, the Registry currently supports 35 active ICANN- accredited registrars operating in 12 countries around the globe. For more information, see the www.nsiregistry.com Web site.