Domain-Retriever availability check

[spietreser]

In Domain-Retriever v2.2.8, on the Search Engine Selection tab the availability check is grayed out and not available, while on the Domain Name Selection tab there is a (non-working, yet available) "show only available domains" checkbox.

My question: why was this availability check taken away from previous versions, and can the domain availability check be brought back to life?

Many thanks in advance,
spietreser

[GiantDomains]

good question .. i'll check.

[spietreser]

Thanks GiantDomains, I'm looking forward to the answer.

[Luc]

Thanks GiantDomains, I'm looking forward to the answer.

I'm working on getting it back to the way it was a year or so ago, but there are some problems.

Most registrars don't allow anyone to send mass automated queries (anymore).

We've played with a few different registrars so far, pulling live domain reg
status results but most were either extremely slow (1 domain / 4-8 seconds)
and the others capped at maximum XX queries per minute and if you go
over that you will be banned for a few hours.

Problem with querying whois is that it doesn't actually display live data, so
people will get excited about a domain being "available", pull out their
credit card and then realize that it's taken. Sad story..

It's being worked on, but its harder and harder since registrars no longer want
to be hit with hundreds of thousands of queries per day that don't actually
convert to domain registrations (and I don't blame them).

Hopefully soon..
Luc L.

[NameTower]

Last time I tried mine no overture was working.

Has this been fixed?

[theparrot]

Most registrars don't allow anyone to send mass automated queries (anymore).

Problem with querying whois is that it doesn't actually display live data, so
people will get excited about a domain being "available", pull out their
credit card and then realize that it's taken. Sad story..

Domains can not expire early right? So whois can be used for a first check, with a follow up check if by the whois check is seems available.

[Luc]

Domains can not expire early right? So whois can be used for a first check, with a follow up check if by the whois check is seems available.

Checking all expired domains the day they drop will reveal "unavailable"
because their whois status is "pendingdelete".

Checking them immediately after the drop or at any time during the day
will reveal the same thing.

Checking them the next day will either reveal "available" or "not available"
but both will probably be wrong because of the delay in updating whois
after a drop or fresh reg.

You may have to wait up to 24 hours after drop for Whois to show that a
domain is "available" and in most cases it will not be but the whois has not
yet updated.

Waiting 24 hours to check domain status and then checking it again by
hand to make sure is going to annoy more people and result in lots of
complaints.

Luc L.

[theparrot]

I see, so the data has to be checked all the time because you can not take the pending delete, and the experation and know on which day the domain will become available? Is this tool meant to be run to try and snarf domains the second they become available so no caching can be done?

[Luc]

I see, so the data has to be checked all the time because you can not take the pending delete, and the experation and know on which day the domain will become available? Is this tool meant to be run to try and snarf domains the second they become available so no caching can be done?

I think you are confusing a few things.

By downloading the DROP LIST, which is available with the software and updated almost every minute you KNOW those names will DROP today during drop time.

Knowing which day they drop is not the issue. The thing being discussed
here is being able to check availability after drops for domains with good
linkpop/ovt which may have been picked up by the drop catchers.

Luc L.

[theparrot]

ok, fair enough. I have not seen the tool yet so I am sure I am confusing things. Is the tool free? Where do I find it?

[Luc]

ok, fair enough. I have not seen the tool yet so I am sure I am confusing things. Is the tool free? Where do I find it?

www.domain-retriever.com

not sure what the current pricing is.

[theparrot]

Thanks, says it is $149.99 which is a sale from $199. I am not that serious about domain names just yet.

[spietreser]

Conclusion: it is unlikely that the domain availability check will ever be working again. That's sad :disappoin

[skylight]

Thanks, says it is $149.99 which is a sale from $199. I am not that serious about domain names just yet.

There used to be a time selling at $80.
I will probably get it if it have offer again.

[Domagon]

Never used the above mentioned service so could be way off here...

Anyways, why bother with Whois when checking domain availability - just query the domains on the drop list against their corresponding TLD zone file ... the ones with name server records are registered and those without name server records likely aren't - not full-proof obviously, but querying the zones is much faster and for some TLDs will yeild more accurate results than Whois.

Ron