domain name availability

[michaelmross at my-deja.com]

Take a look at http://www.unclaimeddomains.com/. Looks like someone
figured out the way to do this....


In article <3.0.6.32.20000120220702.00a843d0 at mail.privateworld.com>,
  Mark Jeftovic <markjr at privateworld.com> wrote:
> At 09:37 PM 1/20/00 -0500, Kevin Darcy wrote:
> >patrick at teleport.com wrote:
> >
> >> Hey
> >> I need to check large numbers of domains for availability. I've
been
> >> using dig non-recursive searches, but they take a long time and
> >> sometimes return results as available when they are not. Recursive
> >> searches seem more reliable but take way too long.
> >>
> >> Does anyone have any ideas, or has anyone developed a similar
tool? My
> >> biggest concern is speed. Is there a way I can do a non-recursive
> >> search and get accurate results?
> >
> >Just because a domain isn't in DNS doesn't mean it's available to be
> >registered. NSI and probably other registrars allow one to
> >"reserve" domains. What you'd need is direct access to the
> >WHOIS database, and unless you're a registrar yourself, you're
probably
> >not going to get it.
> >
>
> The closest you can actually get to being able to tell is to see if
the
> domain is a) in the roots and then b) in the *registrar* whois. If
it's
> not in that whois but not in the roots, it's probably available.
> Unless it's "on hold", if it is, it can stay that way for any random
> amount of time.
>
> When it finally drops from being "on hold" it enters a 5 day "holding
> period" where for all intents and purposes, it looks available using
> the method above, but attempts to register it will fail. (It will
> still show up in the registry whois though.)
>
> To narrow it down you do need direct access to the SRS, and most
places
> to run queries on it are all web based (i.e. your friendly
neighbourhood
> ICANN accredited registrar).
>
> It's probably possible to use something like openSRS to get direct
> programming level access to the SRS, but I'm not sure on their
requirements
> yet.
>
> Also, everything I said above pertains to .com/.net/.org, other TLD's
> have their own policies (it's probably easier to tell with most of
them)
>
> -mark
>
> ----
> Mark Jeftovic, <markjr at easydns.com>
> easyDNS Technologies Inc. http://www.easyDNS.com/
>
>


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