Status: REGISTRAR-HOLD

What's that?

[zeb]

I've been waiting a couple of weeks for a domain to be released from redemption period. As I checked it's availability yesterday, I saw that it had been released. I didn't have time to register the domain, so I came back a little later just to see that the status had changed to "REGISTRAR-HOLD" and the expiration date had been moved to 28-oct-2004. The registrar is NETWORK SOLUTIONS, no registrant to be seen.
So, to my question, what is "REGISTRAR-HOLD"?
Any help appreciated.

[bcolflesh]

Registrar-Hold means the domain name has expired and the registrar has placed it on hold.

[zeb]

Very logical! Why would they do that?

[Timotheos]

Snap names has a good graphical overview here [snapnames.com]

[edited by: Timotheos at 8:02 pm (utc) on Dec. 4, 2003]

[bcolflesh]

To try and extort giant re-registration fees from the previous owner.

[zeb]

Thanks for your answers!
What I think is confusing is that the expiration date has been moved one year forward. Do you think it's possible to get the domain before the new exp. date?

[bcolflesh]

Not for the price you'd pay when it expires - use a throw-away address and contact them anonymously about it to see what they offer.

[cabbie]

>>.Do you think it's possible to get the domain before the new exp. date?

Yes.
Ignore the extended years registration as this is just a formality that netsol do when the name has expired.They reregister it for 12 months and give themselves a credit when the name drops.

[ikemaunnda]

>Ignore the extended years registration as this is just a formality that netsol do when the name has
>expired.They reregister it for 12 months and give themselves a credit when the name drops.

Does anyone have any more info on this? I did my homework, and I can't seem to figure out how NSI gets any "credit" for dropping a name they reregister.

A domain I'm looking at gets two different results on two different whois databases:

(via whois.crsnic.net)
"Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Status: REGISTRAR-HOLD
Updated Date: 25-nov-2003
Creation Date: 19-nov-1999
Expiration Date: 19-nov-2004"

(via whois.networksolutions.com)
"Record expires on 19-Nov-2003.
Record created on 19-Nov-1999.
Database last updated on 10-Dec-2003 17:05:32 EST."

The first one has a status of "REGISTRAR-HOLD", so it doesn't make any sense that the expiration date is in 12 months in the future. On NSI's own database, it says the "Record expires on 19-Nov-2003" (but there is no status?)

What's going on here? The name doesn't matter that much to me, so I am more than willing to let it get dropped and then pick it up rather than snapname it - I just want to understand how all this works.

[cabbie]

take my word for it The netsol one is accurate.Unless the name gets reregisted this name will drop late 2003 or early 2004.