I have a client who check on a whois for one of his domains, ordered the domain from us, we check it is available, and when we tried to register, we found out that the domain was just taken.

It seem that the whois from which my client is checking is actually monitoring who checks what and register them immediately. Finally my client bought the domain from this domain squatter as he has already printed his name cards with the domain name.

For those who needs to use whois, use them from the reputable sources for eg Networksolutions, Opensrs etc. Cant imagine the extent to which people would scoop down to for business nowadays : (

oddly enough, I was on GoDaddy and going to register hotboxhosting.com and mysteriously someone registered it but is not using it the day after I looked it up

Needless to say, I bought another name and when I found it I didn't think about it this time!

I had the same problem before. Whois a name, available. Come back a few days later to register, it's gone.
The person who registered it is a famous squatter that I am sure many of you have problem with, his email is lion******@aol.com
The whois service I used is www.domainwhitepages.com. I am not saying that they did this (nor I am saying they didn't). That's just what happened.

Interesting. I wondered if this kinda thing happens. I got paranoid anyway and for my first domain names I decided to pick a registrar and then look through their interface to see what was free and bought it right away. I figured since they're selling they won't buy it out from under me. Lots of domains are being squatted, but it's amazing what you can still get using a Thesaurus, "my...", and imagination.

EDIT: What did he pay for the sniped domain name?

I use whois.sc, and have never had any issues.

What was the name of the domain registration company he checked from?

He paid 3 times the prices of what was the site's normal domain pricing. I considered it lucky for him.

Originally posted by BigMoneyJim
Interesting. I wondered if this kinda thing happens. I got paranoid anyway and for my first domain names I decided to pick a registrar and then look through their interface to see what was free and bought it right away. I figured since they're selling they won't buy it out from under me. Lots of domains are being squatted, but it's amazing what you can still get using a Thesaurus, "my...", and imagination.

EDIT: What did he pay for the sniped domain name?

I was in the same situation.
That is why I used my own tool to query the registrar directly.
:D

I was contemplating a venture under a particular name and queried it a couple of times over a 2 or 3 month period. Suddenly it's registered - and 10 months later remains "under construction".

I had never thought about it till I read this string but when I was keeping an eye on it, it was always through the same "whois".

The venture is still in the "what if stage" so I can afford to wait the extra couple of months to see if it's renewed and use somethign else if it is.

Ok wouldn't it be a good idea if we taught the domain squatters a lesson?

I suggest performing whois on many domains each day and then let the squatters register and pay. They're instantly going to start loosing money because they're not going to be able to sell the domains which were not wanted.

Start listing those sqautters whois services!

-Turboz

If a domain you want does get "squatted", then make sure not to visit the site. If you visit too much, or if other people do, the squatter might want to renew the domain instead of letting it expire. And like said before, only whois it in a way that is secure. Hopefully this problem should go away. Don't encourage it by buying the domains from them, there are always plenty of other tld's to choose from. I understand if you already got stuff printed... but thats not a good decision in the first place :/.

I used to use whois.sc in the past, however I think somehow people are tracking what is searched for on it. Most of the good domain names I came up with on it became registered after a few days.

Thanks for the information. I never believed it would be true until now :) What a horrible way to make $$.

Perhaps somebody should set up a squatbaiter team, anonymously use the Whois facilities in his site and do not buy the domain from him :D

domain jacking are famous now days

Do you guys know what companies are big on squatting? What about Enom or GoDaddy? Anyone have any problems with them?

I'm asking because I'm using an enom reseller account and don't want my clients to go through this drama!

FeatureHosting,

I beleive we're talking about the small guys who will stoop to any level to make a few $'s. I don't think we're talking about big companies (I could be wrong though). I doubt you got too much to worry about.

The_Overl, Gotta say I'm with ya there. Getting stuff printed before having the domain registered is pointless and a costly mistake - especially in this situation. I know a good printerwho works cheap. It's cheaper to have stuff reprinted than bid to buy back the domain you wanted.

foress, I'm in for that idea. Lets bankrupt the squatters between us all. I'm sure enough people here have had enough of them so why not hit back?

If the music industry can hiot back at file sharers, then domain registrants can hit back at cyber squatters.

-Turboz

They are normally the smaller resellers of the big names. Big names themselves would not stoop so low, their reputation is far more important than the tiny money they can make out of such despicable acts.

Just making sure! :)

But then most of the time for myself, I would ahve already gone through the process of defining the name of the domain that I want and then with the list of possible domain names I go search for its availability, and if available I buy straight away and start the progject once DNS resolves.

Don't really wait on a domain purchase because prices are not like 10 years ago where I paid 10 times more than what i did now :)
( I really felt like a "sucker" when I spent $70 bucks on a domain whenever I think back.... Same goes for my 486 PC which costed me thousands..... )

Never had a problem with DomainRightNow who are part of the WildWest imperium...

always use the registrar whois check for availability, usually more trusted than newbie whois sites.

Or just use the 'whois' command on your unix promt :)

regular whois sometimes doesn't show the newly reg'ed domains which require 24/48hrs to get updated in the com/net registry thats why better checking the availability at registrars :)

Originally posted by Bashar
regular whois sometimes doesn't show the newly reg'ed domains which require 24/48hrs to get updated in the com/net registry thats why better checking the availability at registrars :)

I think Tucows updates it immediately because when I register a domain through them it resolves two minutes later.

the registry update instantly (nameserver wise) but the whois wont show at the registry till 24/48hrs

ur talking about rapid dns updates from verisign

I've always been using Registerfly ( registerfly (dot) com ).
I've registered more then 100 domains with them, and always been using them to perform whois lookups..

Never experienced anything like that.

So, I therefore give a thumbs up on Registerfly ;)

Generally I check using geektools.com or the command line tool, especially if I am just checking availability for a potential name for a site. Rarely do I use the registrars page to do whois checks other then the verification its free when im doing the registration itself as I have been caught once by someone doing that (most of my registrations except .ca's are through enom which should be fine, but I'd rather not chance it)

Originally posted by Turboz
Ok wouldn't it be a good idea if we taught the domain squatters a lesson?

I suggest performing whois on many domains each day and then let the squatters register and pay. They're instantly going to start loosing money because they're not going to be able to sell the domains which were not wanted.

Start listing those sqautters whois services!

-Turboz


I love this idea!


:banana:


- HN Mike

Originally posted by Turboz
I suggest performing whois on many domains each day and then let the squatters register and pay.
Start listing those sqautters whois services!

-Turboz

I was wondering if someone else was thinking the same thing.

While I imagine that some of this happens, though less likely I'm sure on some of the more reputable sites.

However, I'm not sure that everyone can jump to the conclusion that a name they thought about or even checked a few days, weeks, or months ago that is now taken, has been "taken" this way.

With a background in product development, I can tell you that no matter how incredibly brilliant your idea may be, your crazy if you don't think that someone else hasn't thought of it aren't thinking of doing it also right now.

All the more reason, if it's important enough to get, then get it. While some of these may be in squatter hands, others may have been from someone else registering their 2-3 choices, and decided to go with another one.

After all, everyone says if you want it you better get it and all the good names are taken!

I completely understand your point, but doesn't the timing seem a bit odd to you?

For anyone just coming in, I was going to register hotboxhosting.com and after I looked at it on GoDaddy I decided to sleep on it before buying it. When I went back to buy it, someone had already registered it. Whoever registered it has no site on it.

Consequently, look here: http://www.whois.sc/hotboxhosting.com
The site is not up. I also see that maybe he lost his domain and may have re-registered it during my delay.

Again, it was the timing of the events....

LH

you snooze you loose (in domains)

never delay a domain registration even for seconds, people make $xx,xxx for domains in milliseconds when they drop and register them :dgrin:

This seems unlikely ...

It seems like it would be too expensive to buy every domain name that someone checked for availability. How many do you search when you find a good one (probably search dozens of possibilities) ....

The only reason your 'good name' gets registered is because someone else thought it was a 'good name' too.

Originally posted by oshawa
This seems unlikely ...

It seems like it would be too expensive to buy every domain name that someone checked for availability. How many do you search when you find a good one (probably search dozens of possibilities) ....

The only reason your 'good name' gets registered is because someone else thought it was a 'good name' too.

I wouldn't put it above domain squatters to buy EVERY DOMAIN NAME out there.

When I was registering www.pagerank11.com all the other pageranks were gone... some domain squatter was sitting on pagerank01 to pagerank100! In total, he had hundreds of those domains listed!

I'm not going to show his page listing as I don't want to give him any business but it was crazy! Well over $1k worth of domain names!

Originally posted by HOST78
I wouldn't put it above domain squatters to buy EVERY DOMAIN NAME out there.

When I was registering www.pagerank11.com all the other pageranks were gone... some domain squatter was sitting on pagerank01 to pagerank100! In total, he had hundreds of those domains listed!



I just checked 3 random numbers ... pagerank39, 47 and 83 are all available. He must have learned the number one lesson for domain squatters ... you gotta pay renewals each year ... lol

There are too many combinations to tie up any domain names that are longer than a few letters .... for example:
page-rank10.com is available (without getting into the dot net, dot info, etc. ... or the "get-pagerank10.com" types)

I know where you are coming from when you are pssed off at domain squatters ... but the idea that someone is buying every domain that people check is a bit far fetched.

Originally posted by oshawa
I just checked 3 random numbers ... pagerank39, 47 and 83 are all available. He must have learned the number one lesson for domain squatters ... you gotta pay renewals each year ... lol

There are too many combinations to tie up any domain names that are longer than a few letters .... for example:
page-rank10.com is available (without getting into the dot net, dot info, etc. ... or the "get-pagerank10.com" types)

I know where you are coming from when you are pssed off at domain squatters ... but the idea that someone is buying every domain that people check is a bit far fetched.
Yeap, you are correct :)

At one point in time, they were all taken, but now most of them are becoming unregistered - got to love the renewal fees :blush:

Hope he got burnt big time :emlaugh:

I've never had this problem, I always check with either oneandone.co.uk or namecheap.com

Originally posted by LadyHost
I completely understand your point, but doesn't the timing seem a bit odd to you?

For anyone just coming in, I was going to register hotboxhosting.com and after I looked at it on GoDaddy I decided to sleep on it before buying it. When I went back to buy it, someone had already registered it. Whoever registered it has no site on it.

Consequently, look here: http://www.whois.sc/hotboxhosting.com
The site is not up. I also see that maybe he lost his domain and may have re-registered it during my delay.

Again, it was the timing of the events....

LH


Registered through: GoDaddy.com
Domain Name: HOTBOXHOSTING.COM
Created on: 12-Feb-03
Expires on: 12-Feb-06
Last Updated on: 11-Feb-05

Yes ... it definitely could be possible that someone is getting a list of the available ones and just picking the good ones ...
however, it is also possible that someone else thought of that name too ... hotboxhosting.com is a very cool name ... although it might not invoke trust if it means the techs are 'hotboxing' the datacenter every night ... i can picture them now ...
:rofl:

It would be a fun place to work though ... :cool:

I've read about this a lot, especially with GoDaddy. I always use whois.sc, and I've never had an issue. I don't recommend using a domain registrar's whois data, but instead use a third party service (such as whois.sc).

I noticed the domain you mentioned - hotbox - was created in 2003. When doing searches on major registrars, or our own reseller registrar accounts, names will sometimes show as available even when they are not......and vice versa. I have found the best practice is to use a second source to verify. Between a couple registrar whois searches and/or one through nsiregistry.com you can generally find out for sure what the situation is. We have done searches through this method and waited up to 2 or 3 weeks to register good names without any trouble.

Originally posted by geegard

When doing searches on major registrars, or our own reseller registrar accounts, names will sometimes show as available even when they are not......and vice versa.

I have had this happen too ...

I always make a list of names and sleep on it. Very rarely do I buy it on the spot. When you keep getting "sorry, please try again", it turns your brain to mush and you make poor decisions on choosing a name. You get 'desperate'. That's why the domain www.sorrypleasetryagain.com is already registered ... lol

how far will some people go just to make an extra buck or two... tsk tsk tsk.