I understand there are businesses who claim to monitor the records and will grab the domain when it comes up. I'm sure many of these are just jumping on the bandwagon; does anybody have advice on finding a good one?
Alternatively, is there any way I could automate checking the WHOIS record myself?
is there any way I could automate checking the WHOIS record myself?
That could depend on whether you're a Nominet tag holder or an individual.
Speaking to one of Nominet's technical team at the back end of last year, it was made quite clear to me that tag holders who repeatedly search the Whois via an automated script would be repremanded and their membership possibly revoked. As tag holders, this was an unacceptable risk for us to take and our plans (which did involve repeat searching the Whois via a script) had to be changed considerably.
As an individual though, it's quite possible to create a script that interrogates the Whois data and checks the domain status. If the status is still detagged, the script would simply loop and do another look up in x seconds or x minutes. If it is available, it could attempt to register the domain via whatever means you chose.
I believe there are companies similar to Snapnames & Expirefish who, for the appropriate fee, will try to scoop detagged domains for you when they are made available again - could save you a fair bit of work!
R.
[edited by: CHC at 6:12 pm (utc) on Mar. 25, 2003]
be wary of certain people who can not show you a list of names that they have acquired.
I agree that a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon.
Shak
