Dropping lists?

[Ashton]

How do drop catchers find huge lists of dropping domains (like the admin who posts them after if they are not taken)

I think nominet doesn't allow you to post lists, thats not what I am asking for. I am just wondering how they are found. Do you have to be a nominet member or similar?

Ta. Ash

 

[Skinner]

You have to use a DAC Quota (part of being a member) and scan every combination of words.

How you obtain the list varies, some people scan every combo of 1-4 letters, then scan dictionaries lists, and other word lists, some start with the .com/net/org zone files, others scrape the net for lists.

In otherwords lots of effort and time building them.

If you use zone files the .com alone is prob 80,000,000 names, .net 40,000,000 and .org say 20,000,000, not sure on exact sizes off the top of my head. Allowing for dupes, prob looking at 90,000,000 in total, so scanning these on .org/me/co.uk means 270,000,000 look ups, at half million per day, is about 2 years worth of scanning.

Delay quota's obviously make this easier if you have enough domains and new registrations.

You can also remove alpha-numeric and americanisms, trademarks and remove a million or two potentials, but still its a huge task.

Once the initial scans are done, your year on year scans for org/co/me are looking at 10,000,000 look ups a year, so 20 days a year to maintain it.