Drop catching basics

[Deester]

Hello all,

I'm glad I stumbled upon this forum, lots of good info!

I'm very new to dropcatching domains, I was hoping someone could clarify a few points for me.

These questions all apply to .co.uk's not .com's

1. Does it generally take 90 - 92 days for a domain to become available for re-registration?

2. By becoming a member of nominet and obtaining your own TAG does this grant you better access to whois system? More accurate or not?

3. Are queries to the whois system capped at 1000 per day then you are banned for 24 hours? If this is true, how do the public drop catching services do it when they get busy?

4. Is it feasible as a non nominet member to write an application to monitor a domains status via the whois and then automate an application via a few registrars?

Sorry for all the questions, I was ignorant to the entire industry and have just discovered something new that is interesting!

Any info much appreciated!

Deester

 

[rob]

1. Does it generally take 90 - 92 days for a domain to become available for re-registration?

Generally its that timeframe, yes.

2. By becoming a member of nominet and obtaining your own TAG does this grant you better access to whois system? More accurate or not?

Yes, it is more accurate in the sense you can see changes quicker than the general public update.

3. Are queries to the whois system capped at 1000 per day then you are banned for 24 hours? If this is true, how do the public drop catching services do it when they get busy?

Public whois system is limited to 1 query a second per IP. Public drop catchers have lots of IP to monitor the whois and use other means.

4. Is it feasible as a non nominet member to write an application to monitor a domains status via the whois and then automate an application via a few registrars?

Yes, you will not get the top names which are often registered before they are deleted (!) however depending on your target you ought to have an advantage over non nominet members without a system.

 

[Deester]

Thanks for the reply Rob, much appreciated!

Could i ask you to elaborate on the fact that some domains are registered again before they are deleted? Sounds interesting!

 

[accelerator]

Some of the companies that offer dropcatching services, e.g. enom, snapnames etc, have agreements with the registrars, e.g. network solutions, which means they are able to offer the domains to their customers before the official expiry date.

Plus remember that you can always make an old-fashioned approach by contacting the domain owner directly rather than waiting for the domain to drop.

Rgds

accelerator

 

[EdPhillips]

Some of the companies that offer dropcatching services, e.g. enom, snapnames etc, have agreements with the registrars, e.g. network solutions, which means they are able to offer the domains to their customers before the official expiry date.

...

That does not apply to .uk, though, which seems to be what most of your question was about. A .uk domain can only be registered after the old one is deleted. However, it may be that a domain can be registered before the public WHOIS shows it as deleted. The WHOIS is not real-time and is not designed for this purpose.

You should read Nominet's website about the WHOIS and the DAC (under the tag-holder section), as it will answer some of your questions.