Verisign Domain Name List?

[DomainPigeon]

Howdy,

I was reading up a bit on InstantDomainSearch and I'm trying to figure out how it works. In the comments of an article about the site, Beau Hartshorne, the site's developer, writes:

Instant Domain Search uses a local cache of names to do the queries. (I get the lists of names directly from VeriSign.) I do not do WHOIS queries. That’s why it’s so fast. I do not make calls to other services.

He makes it sound like Verisign publishes a list of all the taken domain names and he uses that to determine a specific domain name's availability.

What list is he talking about?

Appreciate the help.

[Joel Smith]

The file that he is talking about, must be the TLD Zone file, this is the list of all active Domain names in a particular TLD and is updated daily.. Once you sign an agreement with verisign, they do provide you with this file, for DotCom, DotNet and DotName...

You can read more about the TLD Zone file at the verisign website at the below link :
http://www.verisign.com/information-...ge_001052.html

[katherine]

You can check domains here: http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois/
if you just need registry data, not the full whois.
But this is not realtime.

[Mind]

I just get access (ftp) to TLD zone file. It takes 4 weeks after application is send and 2 phone calls for data verification and login information.