Ok folks,
I am creating a new web site at www.the-athenaeum.org. It would be just great if I could buy the domain name www.athenaeum.org or www.athenaeum.com. The .org address is owned by a photographer, who has a small, poorly designed, not-often-up web site. Despite my describing to him my noble intentions :cool:, and despite his subpar use of the name, the owner says that he won't sell it to me, and even if he would, it would be "way above my price range".

Well.

I notice that Network Solutions says you can "back order" a domain name (see mine at http://www.snapnames.com/nsi/networksolutions.jsp?affiliateID=49&dom=athenaeum.org ). This means that you can be the first in line to register it as soon as it expires.

My questions:

1. Is this legal?
2. has anyone done it? It costs $50 to sign up for the back order service. Could you pay and still not get it?
3. Does the current owner have a grace period beyond what it listed in the WHOIS listing (it says "Record expires on 19-Aug-2001.")?
4. Would you consider it unethical to camp on a domain name like this? I _have_ asked this guy nicely; he just blew me off.

Any advice much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Chris McCormick
Webmaster, technical lead, content provider ... aw, heck, the whole staff.

<<MOD EDIT: Signature must be in profile, not posts>>

I believe by ICANN regulations (unless they've changed) that domain owners have 60 days after expiration in which to reactivate their domain names. What you are doing is perfectly legal and has become a big business. If the present holder of that domain name does not renew it within the alloted time, you hope to get it. There is nothing wrong with that. Of course, the present owner might renew it, so don't get your hopes up too high.

From limited posts I've seen on the subject and a certain amount of common sense I imagine you would be wasting your $49.

Network Solutions (despite their wishes to the contrary) are no longer the sole owner of domain names... well actually not technically true yet but that's the idea... There are a heap of other registrars now all vying for the same domains.

Bottom line... NS and snapback want your cash... they offer no guarantees and I would imagine that if you were to run a little experiment (costing $49) you would find that after registering a snap back request that it would STILL display the opportunity to register a snapback on the same domain afterwards.

I've heard of at least one case where a domain name was expired pending release, an interested party registered a snapback and then the very same registrar who had taken the snapback order sold the doman to ANOTHER interested party.

Bottom line, it's not worth it.. you're better off finding another name that's available.

Another way is to roll your own. Write a script and when the 60-day grace period is up start running it and hopefully you'll get the name. I tried it and it worked. I had 5 machines doing about 15 to 20 requests for the name per minute. I was lucky because NSI released the name 6 days later. Sometimes they hold them for YEARS after they expire. Also you must have an account with a registrar otherwise the script becomes too complicated. I used BulkRegister.

I am currently using SnapNames for a couple domains I'm interested in purchasing, but I did not go through NSI. True, there is no guarantee on securing the domains, but SnapNames also offers a no hassel refund policy and great support. It was worth setting up snapbacks for my situation.

If the man who owns the domain you would like to purchase does not respond to your e-mails, then move on and find another domain name. You could use snapnames or a script to watch and see if this person lets it expire, but don't count on it, expecially now that you have tipped them off that your interested in acquiring it.

Originally posted by brav0
Another way is to roll your own. Write a script and when the 60-day grace period is up start running it and hopefully you'll get the name. I tried it and it worked. I had 5 machines doing about 15 to 20 requests for the name per minute. I was lucky because NSI released the name 6 days later. Sometimes they hold them for YEARS after they expire. Also you must have an account with a registrar otherwise the script becomes too complicated. I used BulkRegister.
Aloha
sounds like a cool script
ever feel like Sharring it ??

Sure, here's how I did it:
I used a program called WinTask (http://www.wintask.com) which is a great macro program with a very easy to use and powerful scripting language. It's very similar to basic. It can read parts of the screen and based on what it reads it can make decisions. The drawback of WinTask (and most macro programs I know) is that they execute tasks serially, so there is a lot of wasted time between your request and the server response. I overcame that by using KatieSoft (http://www.katiesoft.com), which basically is a software that divides your screen into 4 sections and you can browse 4 different webpages simultaneousely (or the same page 4 times, which is what I did). So using WinTask you can submit a request in one pane and without waiting for a server response move on to the next and submit another and so on. By the time you finish with the 4th pane there is a response already in the first and based on the output you proceed with the registration if the name is available or resubmit if it is not. There are probably better ways to do it using vb or c++ or perl or some other language but I dont't know how to use them. With WinTask it took me about 3 hours to do the job. You can expect about 3-4 completed requests per minute for each machine the way I describe it. Hope it helps.

P.S. It's best to use WinNT or Win2000, I used Win98 and I had to reboot the systems once a day because they would become very sluggish after that.

Aloha
one more question I know I usually use dotster not sure what you were using
I will have to give it a try though
if not sounds kinda fun to do
I am on win2k and have a 2nd box here so should be no prob puter wise
Mahalos for the tip

Originally posted by Honu
Aloha
one more question I know I usually use dotster not sure what you were using
I will have to give it a try though
if not sounds kinda fun to do
I am on win2k and have a 2nd box here so should be no prob puter wise
Mahalos for the tip

I used BulkRegister.com and the script was customized for their interface. You can just as easily do it for dotster or any other registrar for that matter.

Good domain hunting.