domain name availability

[Mark Jeftovic]

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/