Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Domain Names : Anyone know how long before a .uk domain is deleted ?

[monaghan]

I'm interested in a .co.uk domain that was up for renewal in July 2004, it's whois is showing as registration suspended.

Nominet don't seem to publish the timeline for deleting of the .uk names.

Any clues as to when it will get deleted ?

Note: It's not a critical domain to my business, just a thought for a potential personal project, so not worth spending on a name grabbing service.

[Bashar]

http://www.whois-search.com/links/?c=5

[Bladerunner]

Unless they have changed things recently it is all very random.
They have a process that they go through - attempt to contact owner, send owner paper invoice, move into £100 to re-connect your domain name phases.
However they all simply happen, not after any fixed number of days.

The last co.uk I wanted was on suspended for ages and was then suddenly re-attached - looks like the previous owner was paper billed and paid up.

Previous to that I waited 6 months for a co.uk to move from "detagged" to me being able to actually register it.
When shopping.co.uk went "detagged" many moons ago Nominet held on to it for well over a year before randomly dropping it back into the pool.

[Goldwing]

There is a 30 day period directly after domain lapses for indirect renewal, this is then followed by 2 months where it can still be renewed directly through Nominet.

So to answer your question 3 months give or take a few days.

Bladerunner

Yes things have changed, names are no longer detagged at the end of their period and for the record there never has been a £100 "re connect" fee, I suspect you are confusing this with the Nominet direct registration fee.

[Bladerunner]

Cool - pleased to hear I'm out of date actually.
Checking daily for that co.uk for six months did get rather boring in the end

[Lubeca]

Just to add to the information - Nominet went to their current "positive renewals" system in November 2003. At the time they had quite a backlog of detagged (non-renewed) domains, and I don't know if they have managed to clear the backlog. Any domains that expired after 31 October 2003 will have been deleted three months after the expiry date.

And a word of warning - there are now companies out there that systematically watch about-to-be-deleted .uk domains, and try to register them the day they expire (just as there are with GTLD domains). So if you are really really keen on a domain you may need to do more than just monitor it.

[Lubeca]

Oh, and another point. Bladerunner - Nominet were not dropping domains back into the pool "randomly". Domains were deleted

- either, once Nominet had tracked down the registrant and received confirmation that the domain was no longer required

- or, when the registrant had proved to be uncontactable

So, in most cases the time scale for deletion would depend on how soon Nominet got a response from the registrant.

[Bladerunner]

Originally posted by Lubeca
Oh, and another point. Bladerunner - Nominet were not dropping domains back into the pool "randomly". Domains were deleted

- either, once Nominet had tracked down the registrant and received confirmation that the domain was no longer required

- or, when the registrant had proved to be uncontactable

So, in most cases the time scale for deletion would depend on how soon Nominet got a response from the registrant.

Which to be fair was still "random".
Sure there was a process in place but claiming it wasn't random when you then go on to say "deletion would depend on how quickly Nominet were able to get hold of customers" is extremely picky.

Unless there is a strict:
Domain Expires
10 Days later paper invoice
20 Days later Detaggeed
30 Days later Deleted banck into the pool.

There is no randomness here.
However...

10 Days later paper invoice
xx Days later customer contacted, new invoice sent
xxx Days later detagged because custoemr doesn't want it.....
etc

Of course it was "random" as you couldn't govern when a customer would respond.

[Goldwing]

Actually Bladerunner you are correct in a way.

The problem was not that it was random though, it was a case that it simply was not getting done at all, at one time the backlog was over 1 million domains, since the onset of positive renewals the backlog has been cleared and we are on to a fairly consistant time frame for deletion. There was though a certain randomness about clearing the backlog.

Time frame

Domains due on bi annual anniversary and if not positively renewed then the registrant is invoiced directly, if no payment is received then the domain is suspended on a 2 month period and then dropped and made available for registration.

Within this period the registrant can restore the domain for whatever price the tagholder charges but the restore date is backdated to the original renewal date.

[Philco]

I'm interested in a .co.uk domain that was up for renewal in July 2004, it's whois is showing as registration suspended.

Two times recently I tried to get the .co.uk version of two .com`s I have on the days nominet say they should drop, both got snapped within seconds of becoming available again at nominet. Both went to resellers who immediatley listed them for sale at sedo.

So unless you have an automatic system that can beat whatever these guys are using, forget it.

Philco