It really depends on where the domain was registered. And when they try to
grab them.

From their customer support, their servers send queries every fraction of
second.


--
Thanks,

Justin.
http://www.opera.com/mail/

Yeah, well. I bet CS is lying. Automated queries, especially at that
outrageous rate, are a violation of the terms of service of every domain
registrar I know of and would get them blacklisted from many WHOIS servers
*extremely* quickly.

SnapNames is far from the only domain "back ordering" service, and I'm sure
one of the others may have gotten to the domain in question before SnapNames
did.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [Email Removed] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Steve, to tell you the truth, I have no idea how SnapNames grab the names.
They must have a way to know exactly the second a name will be released.

eweb.com is currently being sold at $4,100 - Some one outbid me by far!
The bid is closing in 2 days and a half.

--

Justin.
http://www.opera.com/mail/

Well, that's the thing. They don't, not without checking WHOIS every single
second. And I don't believe they're checking WHOIS every single second.
Checking often? Yes. I'm sure they are. Checking that often? No.

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [Email Removed] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Seeing as how I actually wrote code to pick up drop names for use by
registrars, I'd like to say respectfully you are somewhat incorrect sir.

There is (or was, at least a couple years ago) a "drop window" where names
would be deleted from the database. Our goal was to send "register"
commands as quickly as possible for the names. Writing an algorithm that
picked up the best names was an art, and frustrating.

Verisign GRS eventually set up a different set of servers just for the
registrars trying to get dropped names because the traffic was overloading
the normal servers. Each registrar was limited to 20 or so active
connections. With the amount of time it takes round-trip per transaction
that pretty much puts a cap on the amount of bandwidth you'll be able to
suck.

P.S. This activity is definitely prohibited by the REGISTRAR, however the
registrar itself engages in this activity which is permitted by the
registry. If you want to try to get drop names you need to be an ICANN
accredited registrar, or pay one to do it for you.

PPS Verisign tried (I think finally did) implement their backorder system
where you can pay them to be "next in line" when a name drops, skipping the
entire drop process. Most registrars were pretty pissed about this because
Verisign was directly competing with them for drop name business.

None of this activity has anything to do with Whois servers.

Not true.


- SG

Pool.com grabbed the name faster than SnapNames.



--
Thanks,

Justin.
http://www.opera.com/mail/

Well, I can only go by what the registrar says. I would have assumed that
the rule "no automated processes running against our database" applied to
EVERYONE. That's not an ICANN thing. It's not a registry thing. If NetSol
(or someone else) wants to contractually limit access to their chunk of the
WHOIS database, there is nothing stopping them unless their contract with
ICANN says they can't do so.

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that my conclusion is a logical one based
on what J. Random Domainowner can see.

Not surprising; they're slime.

It has to do with the whois database, no? Or are the registrars querying the
roots directly?

?? I've seen others. Do they all resell SnapNames?

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [Email Removed] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"

Steve,

ICANN accredited Registrars communicate with the registry via RRP protocol
directly to the registry's RRP servers. Verisign maintains a second set of
RRP servers specifically for automated drop-names processes, and they are
VERY strict about using the normal pool for this activity. If you run an
automated process through your registrar 1) you will probably overload the
registrar's servers and piss them off and 2) you will send your traffic
through the registry's general server pool and get the registrar into hot
water.

The registrars communicate via RRP protocol directly to the registry which
interacts with the root database in real time. Whois servers are updated
with this information periodically (it used to be once per day, not sure any
more) for public use.

Many other registrars have been working on trying to get drop names.
Enom.com is one of them, a few years ago there were at least 6 or 7 other
registrars competing in the same business, but I'm not sure exactly who all
does it right now. I know for sure eNom does though.

- SG

I think it's more often now. Actually, I think it depends on the registrar.
Netsol is at least twice a day. GoDaddy is near-realtime.

Trent, I appreciate your clarifications. Color me educated. :)

--
JustThe.net - Steve Sobol / [Email Removed] / PGP: 0xE3AE35ED
Coming to you from Southern California's High Desert, where the
temperatures are as high as the gas prices! / 888.480.4NET (4638)

"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table" --Anna Nalick, "Breathe"