Network Solutions Adds Tony Rutkowski to Management Team.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2000

Leading Network Guru Brings expertise to Network Solutions

Network Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ:NSOL) today announced that Tony Rutkowski has joined the company as Vice President, Internet Strategies. Rutkowski most recently had been a principal of NGI Associates, Director for the Next Generation Internet and staff consultant to General Magic.

&uot;To say Tony gets the Net is an understatement. Tony's diverse career spans more than 30 years in the Internet and telecom marketplace and he has participated on all sides of the issues ranging from GE to the FCC to the ITU,&uot; said Jim Rutt, Network Solutions' CEO. &uot;His principled approach to advancing the Internet's growth and his dynamic insight into the Net's structure and capabilities will be a strong asset to the management team.&uot;

&uot;From the perspective of a next generation Internet strategist, Network Solutions is poised to scale and evolve in many of the most important, interesting, and profitable of the emerging business and technology sectors,&uot; said Rutkowski. &uot;NSI in position, people, and infrastructure is the foundation of Silicon Valley East.&uot;

Rutkowski is a global enterprise strategist, and has been a public official, organization leader, consultant, lecturer, and author in both the Internet and telecom worlds. During the past three decades of his career, he has held prominent positions in the business, public, and education sectors, in many different facets of the computer networking, telecom, publishing, and mass media industries, both domestically and internationally. This includes employment with General Magic, Sprint International, Horizon House, Pan American Engineering, General Electric, Evening News Association, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Cape Canaveral City Council, Internet Society, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and New York University Law School.

He is currently active in the following international organizations: Agent Society, Internet Law and Policy Forum, and the International World Wide Web Conference Committee. Rutkowski has participated in Internet projects on behalf of the Aspen Institute, the Rand Corp, the Register of Copyrights, the President's Framework for Global Electronic Commerce task force, and the Harvard Kennedy School Global Internet Infrastructure (GII) Project. He also serves on diverse advisory and editorial for-profit and non-profit boards including: WWW Consortium, Center for Democracy and Technology, Georgetown University Communication, Culture and Technology Program, PAAM 98 - International Conference and Exhibition on The Practical Application of Intelligent Agents and Multi-Agents, and Telecommunications Policy magazine.

Rutkowski holds a J.D. from Washington College of Law, American University, Electrical Engineering, B.S.E.E. from Florida Institute of Technology, and a degree from University of Detroit in advanced mathematics.

About Network Solutions

Founded in 1979, Network Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: NSOL) pioneered the development of registering Web addresses ending in .com, .net, .org and .edu and is the world's leading Registrar with more than 8.1 million net registrations. To meet the needs of corporations worldwide, Network Solutions also provides domain name registration services for all available country-code Top-Level Domains, for example, .de (Germany), .fr (France) and .uk (United Kingdom). Network Solutions additionally plays a critical role in the infrastructure of the Internet through its Registry services. Network Solutions' Registry customers include all the Registrars of domain names ending in .com, .net and .org. Network Solutions also provides Internet Technology Services that assist large commercial organizations in the evolution and management of their Internet technologies. For more information, see the www.netsol.com/nsi Web site.

Network Solutions registers the majority of Web addresses worldwide through various channels, including nearly 240 companies in over 30 countries in its Premier Program and over 41,000 companies in the Affiliate Program. Network Solutions has created value-added small business solutions through agreements with leading companies such as American Express (NYSE: AXP), IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT). Through its Alliance Program, Network Solutions works closely with EarthLink (Nasdaq: ELNK), Interland, Inc. and Interliant, Inc. (Nasdaq: INIT). Network Solutions also has entered into marketing agreements with companies like Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO).

Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include, among others, potential volatility in the company's stock price, uncertainty of Internet privatization, increased competition, including price competition, in the domain name registration business, customer acceptance of new products and services offered by the company in addition to or as enhancements of its registration services, risks associated with the company's international business, uncertainty of future revenue and profitability and fluctuations in its quarterly operating results. More information about potential factors that could affect the company's business and financial results is included in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, especially in the company's Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed on December 22, 1999, as amended, Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998 and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the periods ended March 31, 1999, June 30, 1999 and September 30, 1999.