drop catching services

[Oceanic]

Hi,

Is there one service that is better than the rest or is it a fairly random thing as to who can secure the domain first?

If there is a preferred or more reliable company can you let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Steve

 

[bensd]

There isn't that much between the public catchers.

The vast majorty of the "premium" drops will go to private catchers.

For a list of publich catchers, have a look at Ashton's thread from yesterday:
http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/drop-catching-domain-names/79549-public-drop-catchers.html

 

[Oceanic]

Thanks for that, how do the private catchers get the premium domains out of interest?

 

[bensd]

Thanks for that, how do the private catchers get the premium domains out of interest?

Private catchers normally only catch for themselves so they can focus on their own interests. ie. Instead of loading up 12 domains for clients they can focus on 1 or 2 etc for themselves.

 

[Oceanic]

Private catchers normally only catch for themselves so they can focus on their own interests. ie. Instead of loading up 12 domains for clients they can focus on 1 or 2 etc for themselves.

Thanks chaps.

OK, next question!

How do you catch names privately, I am guessing you need to pay for some sort of license?

Thanks

 

[monaghan]

The process is the same as public except you don't sell access to your system

I presume you are actually asking how to catch? If so, get yourself Nominet membership, add a DAC subscription to your account craft a bit of code to stuff your desired domain names into the DAC and bang off an EPP Create request when the domain drops and hope you are 1st over the line (no prizes for 2nd place in this game!).

There are some companies (I think you'll find some are members here) that will offer you a hosted solution if you don't have the skill to write your own catch system. This is an area I'm looking into, however, I've not yet completed the necessary code changes so this is not a sales pitch

 

[chrisduggan]

Hi Steve, it can be an expensive game, obtaining / coding a decent drop catching script and hosting it yourself. Our good friend Google will have reference to whats required.

Do you have Nominet membership and a TAG?

Good drop catching scripts are like gold dust and worth a pretty penny.
Don't expect many people to discuss what goes into their personal scripts.

There are a number of good public catching services that do well, I suggest signing up with as many as you can and "booking" them in.

I assume you will have access to a drop list, generally published a week or so in advance.

Plenty of genuine people on this forum to advise, just ask away.

All the best.

For reference

http://www.nominet.org.uk/other/dac/

 

[chrisduggan]

monaghan beat me to it with the senopsis. Thats pretty much it.

 

[detox1978]

Would any of the private catchers like to share how competitive the top domains can be?

I.e. how often do run queries per second and it's success rate.

I know I could setup a system to query every seconds for a couple of thousand, but I'm not sure if the market is running closer to 0.01

 

[monaghan]

I doubt anyone will share timings, but expect that for competition you'll have at least 20 other catchers from here going after each decent name and I'm guessing that there are a lot of other catchers who don't pop up here to say hello.

 

[redbird]

Would any of the private catchers like to share how competitive the top domains can be?

I.e. how often do run queries per second and it's success rate.

I know I could setup a system to query every seconds for a couple of thousand, but I'm not sure if the market is running closer to 0.01

DAC access (well the real time version anyway) is fixed at 432,0000 queries in any 24 hour period, so to run constantly the max speed is 5 times per second.

 

[Ashton]

DAC access (well the real time version anyway) is fixed at 432,0000 queries in any 24 hour period, so to run constantly the max speed is 5 times per second.

Just wondering, do people 'burst' query (ie: periods of high query volume and then periods of low query volume) to make it more likely they get it if it drops in the high query zone?

Cheers, Ash

 

[redbird]

I doubt any of the public catchers do, but at least some of the private ones do. It's all a gamble whatever you decide to do, some you win, most you lose, but it's the good wins that make it all worthwhile.

 

[monaghan]

Just wondering, do people 'burst' query (ie: periods of high query volume and then periods of low query volume) to make it more likely they get it if it drops in the high query zone?

This assumes you know when the domain is likely to drop otherwise you risk wasting quota.

 

[Ashton]

Ah thank you, I have read through a bit of the nominet docs and I surmise the following:

1) You connect to the DAC
2) You send requests for the domain (5 times a second)
3) You read the responses (y/n)
5) If the response date (1996-07-30) becomes (2010-11-25) for example, then its been caught by someone else
4) If the response is N then you run the EPP with a <domain:create> command to register the domain, if it fails, you missed it.

Am I way off track with this? Cheers.

 

[redbird]

This assumes you know when the domain is likely to drop otherwise you risk wasting quota.

The reason I said it is a Gamble is you don't know when it will drop, but you can double chances of getting it within a 12 hour period if go at twice poll rate. The gamble is improved chances of catching weighed against 50/50 chance of it dropping in those 12 hours

 

[monaghan]

Ah thank you, I have read through a bit of the nominet docs and I surmise the following:

1) You connect to the DAC
2) You send requests for the domain (5 times a second)
3) You read the responses (y/n)
5) If the response date (1996-07-30) becomes (2010-11-25) for example, then its been caught by someone else
4) If the response is N then you run the EPP with a <domain:create> command to register the domain, if it fails, you missed it.

Am I way off track with this? Cheers.

Correct (of course, the code and timings are the complex bit)

 

[Ashton]

Correct (of course, the code and timings are the complex bit)

Awesome, thanks a lot for your help.

I guess I can use the testbed's to try out any code I write (but being unable to register any domains)?

One more thing, regarding the gambling - can you make an 'educated' guess to drop time, or is that more info than your willing to share

Cheers, Ash

 

[monaghan]

The problem with the educated guess is that Nominet's telepathy system will detect this and choose to drop the domain in your "off period"

 

[Retired_member41]

The problem with the educated guess is that Nominet's telepathy system will detect this and choose to drop the domain in your "off period"

Lol brilliant.