One of my clients moved and missed all of the notices about their domain name being about to expire and then 2 weeks after it was shut down, they decided to give me a call. By the time that they called me the domain was in a state of "registrar hold".

Is there anything I can do to get this domain back immediately? Network Solutions tells me that it could be over a year before it's freed up.

If not, what's the best way to insure that I get the domain back once it becomes available? I've seen expirefish.com, is that the best value for the money or is there some better service?

snapnames.com (http://www.snapnames.com)

Renew the domain at the current registrar, then after 45 days, you can transfer it away from that registrar and not lose any of your renewal time.

If the domain has not yet dropped and is just on hold, you should be able to renew it without any problems.

-t

Network solutions says that I can't register it from them or anyone. It expired somewhere around 12/18/2001 (they registered it on 12/18/1999.)

Here's what the Whois record for it looks like (with mydomain.com and myisp.com substituted for obvious reasons) It's not as if the domain is something that I think will be snagged, it's useless to pretty much anyone around except them (there's no other company with that name.)
======================
Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB.
Local whois DB must be out of date.

Whois Server Version 1.3

Domain names in the .com, .net, and .org domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: MYDOMAIN.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.MYISP.NET
Name Server: NS2.MYISP.NET
Updated Date: 07-apr-2002


>>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 16:55:45 EDT <<<

The Registry database contains ONLY .COM, .NET, .ORG, .EDU domains and
Registrars.

The previous information has been obtained either directly from the
registrant or a registrar of the domain name other than Network Solutions.
Network Solutions, therefore, does not guarantee its accuracy or
completeness.
=========================

No, you will not be able to register it. If the domain is on HOLD status at the registry, then the original registrant should still be able to pay the back-due fees and renew it.

If the domain has expired and moved to the drop queue, then it will drop and can be registered by anyone when it does - however while it is in this in between state it cannot be registered. When it drops in this case is anyone's guess.

-t

When it drops in this case is anyone's guess.

Is there any way to narrow down the timeframe? Are we looking at 3 days, 6 days, 2 weeks, a month, 6 months, a year?

Unfortunately there are no rules for dropping domain names.

I read recently - may have even been in this forum - that the message you are seeing only happens when the name is ready to drop (within 6 days), but I have no way to verify that.

NetSol is still holding domains from more than 3 years ago - and yet some will drop within a few months of expiring.

There are no rules, so registrars just make up their own. NetSol is the worst.

-t

Originally posted by thewitt
Renew the domain at the current registrar, then after 45 days, you can transfer it away from that registrar and not lose any of your renewal time.

If the domain has not yet dropped and is just on hold, you should be able to renew it without any problems.

-t

I thought it was 60 days? :eek:

According to the whois there is a good chance that it should drop on the 12th or 13th of April
you would have to be pretty unlucky for it not to drop by the 13th

Originally posted by timechange
I thought it was 60 days? :eek:
60 days after a transfer. 45 days after a renewal of an expired domain.

-t

Originally posted by hostjet
According to the whois there is a good chance that it should drop on the 12th or 13th of April
you would have to be pretty unlucky for it not to drop by the 13th
Can you enlighten us as to what exactly is telling you this domain will drop by the 13th?

-t

I think he is just adding 6 days to the date the domain was last updated: 07-apr-2002

After the whois changes to read:

Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB.
Local whois DB must be out of date.


It'll drop in 6 days, see http://www.webmasterbase.com/article/352 for more details

hth

Tom

That article is VERY interesting. Thanks Tom. :D

The article is old and information has changed.
For example, NetSol drops domains now around 2pm.

Ah, thanks for the update TimeChange.

I see the author of that article runs a pretty interesting site at:

http://www.domainguru.com

Not sure how current a lot of his info is though...

Well yeah he is promoting his book :D

Can you enlighten us as to what exactly is telling you this domain will drop by the 13th?

as megex and tpsinger said, it is 6 days after the updated date when it says Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB.

that information is available on the snapnames site as well, it has a graph detailing the process.

Originally posted by MagiCat
It's not as if the domain is something that I think will be snagged, it's useless to pretty much anyone around except them (there's no other company with that name.)

Even if there's no other company with that name it can still be valuable, for example if it has high link popularity (http://marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm) or is Yahoo listed it can be worth a pretty penny as people will register it then point it at a different site so getting any visitors who may go to it.

If I was you I'd invest in something like Snapnames (http://www.snapnames.com) or Namewinner (http://www.namewinner.com) to make sure nobody else tries to steal the name off you which would obviously cost you more in the long run to buy it back than the $69 Snapnames fee

Tom