WEIRD .ORG Happenings Today

[Duke]

I don't know if any of you were aware of the following weird happenings with .ORGs this morning - I only found out by accident.

When I search for domain availability I use a certain registrar (where I have only a handful of names) because they have lightning fast results when you enter a name. However they cost $5 more than my Enom reseller account, so when I decide to register I switch windows and get it through my Enom account.

Now this morning, registrar #1 showed HomeFinance.org as having dropped and available to register. So I jumped to Enom to grab it and Enom said it was gone. I went "Darn - someone beat my by seconds!". I went back and refreshed Registrar #1's window and it said still available! To make a third check, I went to a 3rd completely dfferent registrar - GoDaddy. They also said the name was gone, but when I clicked on the GoDaddy WhoIS it said "No Record Found". So finally I went back to registrar #1 and went through the purchase process and did in fact get the name! (Though it was harry there too in that you had to hit the buy button about 5 times because it kept returning SSL Errors before finally going through).

OK, so now we come to another name - HotBodies.org. Excellent name with great OT number, taken in every other extension large and small. Registrar #1 says available, Enom and GoDaddy say its not. Out of curiosity I went to a 4th registrar - Dotster and they said yes it is available. I did get the name through registrar #1.

I repeated this whole scenario to get MyPets.org and GolfTournaments.org. Enom and GoDaddy both reported them taken. Registrar 1 and Dotster both reported available. I'm sure I never would have gotten all four names if the widely used Enom and GoDaddy correctly reported their availability.

It was NOT a case of Enom & GoDaddy just reporting all .ORGS as unavailable. Others would show up just fine. As of the time of this post, the glitch is still occurring. I have never seen anything like this. Any idea what is going on?

[stuff]

I noticed that also, in namescout is name available, but in enom not? I noticed that I can`t chnage .org-s nameservers in enom also, .com and .net no problem, only .org

[Duke]

Didn't know about the nameserver change problem. I'm sure it is all related. Weird that Enom & GoDaddy would be affected but not Dotster & Namescout. Problem still exists right now. I have a couple of other names I wouldn't mind having, but I would only pay the cheap Enom price for them. They are available even though Enom continues to say they are not.

[dotNetKing]

Yep, I have noticed this too.

Could be related to the problems pir are having and the way the different registrars are coping with these?

[Duke]

Originally posted by dotNetKing
Yep, I have noticed this too.

Could be related to the problems pir are having and the way the different registrars are coping with these?

Odd that it just cropped up today though. I eas not having any previous problems with Enom since PIR took over the .ORG registry.

[dotNetKing]

Originally posted by Duke


Odd that it just cropped up today though. I was not having any previous problems with Enom since PIR took over the .ORG registry.

I think it could be an intermittent problem.

I noticed the same "phenomenon" with eNom a few days ago too, i.e. an eNom (reseller account) showing a .org taken, whereas another registrar letting me register it.

[Source]

Duke - b4 you attempt to reg with your registrar of choice, check the real whois at pir.org FIRST.

I've use the same approach as you recently (nb #1 --> GD #2), but inserted pir.org as an intermediate step. It's a pain but it saves you a lot of headaches.

NB WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY EVEN THO YOU WON'T GET THE DOMAIN!

Besafe - use pir.org.

[Duke]

Originally posted by Name-Maker
Duke - b4 you attempt to reg with the your registrar of choice, check the real whois at pir.org FIRST.

I've use the same approach as you recently (nb #1 --> GD #2), but inserted pir.org as an intermediate step. It's a pain but it saves you a lot of headaches.

NB WILL TAKE YOUR MONEY EVEN THO YOU WON'T GET THE DOMAIN!

Besafe - use pir.org.

Thanks for the tip Name-Maker, much appreciated!

[Mr Webname]

Enom is having nameserver change problems again - this is very frustrating!

[Luc]

Agreed.

I have been unable to change the name servers on a .org
domain for close to a week now (enom account).

I have experienced the same problem as Duke as far
as registering an org with multiple registrars (eNom always
says its taken while others say it's available).

It's weird and very annoying.
Luc L.

[Duke]

Originally posted by DomainRetriever
Agreed.

I have been unable to change the name servers on a .org
domain for close to a week now (enom account).

I have experienced the same problem as Duke as far
as registering an org with multiple registrars (eNom always
says its taken while others say it's available).

Makes me wonder how many good .orgs I might have missed this week because Enom reported them gone when they were really available.

[.com.net.org]

check with registry (PIR) to confirm.

I just notice you changed your nick to Duke.
Shorter, that's a domain should be (shorter and 1 word).

[nicorlino]

as far as i know enom uses a much more accurate tool to check availability. if registrar 1 uses whois and sees no record he sais it's available. enome however shows a domain as not being available, even if there's no whois info at that point. it probably means that somebody beat you not by seconds but maybe by minutes or hours!
best regards
nico

[Duke]

Originally posted by nicorlino
as far as i know enom uses a much more accurate tool to check availability. if registrar 1 uses whois and sees no record he sais it's available. enome however shows a domain as not being available, even if there's no whois info at that point. it probably means that somebody beat you not by seconds but maybe by minutes or hours!
best regards
nico

That's exactly the opposite of what happened. Enom reported all day that the names were not available (as did GoDaddy), but I had no trouble at all registering them elsewhere. Whatever the problem was, I noticed Enom finally had it straightened out this morning.

[mole]

Originally posted by Duke
Whatever the problem was, I noticed Enom finally had it straightened out this morning.

I suspect its all the system reconfiguration they had to do to get a better feedback loop on the .com.cn side that is screwing things up recently.

[maxheadroom]

I found similiar strangeness, but I don't think it's a case of a domain being available one place, but not other. Because several of those that I found that were available, and I purchased on enom, later that day I got a failure notice. When I did a whois on them, I found they went back to 1996, so it was just a bad reporting issue, not a case of domains really available.

[Duke]

Originally posted by maxheadroom
I found similiar strangeness, but I don't think it's a case of a domain being available one place, but not other. Because several of those that I found that were available, and I purchased on enom, later that day I got a failure notice. When I did a whois on them, I found they went back to 1996, so it was just a bad reporting issue, not a case of domains really available.

That was not my case at all. Enom (and GoDaddy) reported them unavailable and would not let you register them all day that day). I went to another registrar where they were properly shown as available, registered them and got them (now all with my WhoIs) with no problem.

[dotNetKing]

Duke: Same definitely happened to me too. Shown as taken through eNom, and successfully registered to me through another registrar.

[maxheadroom]

Are you serioius? That sucks for enom.

[Duke]

Originally posted by maxheadroom
Are you serioius? That sucks for enom.

It was both Enom and GoDaddy. Seems to have been limited to just that one day as I have not seen it happen again. Glad I had a third registrar as a backup even though it cost me more to register the names.