List of all domain names for UK

Where to get zone data file?

[Lord Majestic]

Hi all,

I am wondering whether anyone knows where and how to obtain UK's zone file, which should contain list of all domain names for .uk part of the web.

Verisign was far more supportive in that respect than Nominet who basically told me to go away.

thanks,

Alex

[edited by: Lord_Majestic at 11:34 pm (utc) on Oct. 28, 2004]

[IanTurner]

If you have a justifiable reason for it - try talking to Nominet.

[jmccormac]

Most of the cctlds are very wary about giving access to their zonefiles. A few of those fake renewals scumbag operations caused a lot of problems recently and I don't think that Nominet will allow zonefile access to just anyone.

Regards...jmcc

[Lord Majestic]

If you have a justifiable reason for it - try talking to Nominet.

I tried -- they (Nominet) told me they won't do it, they in essense laughed me off for giving them a call with such a request, as if it was not their job to serve at the main authority on that matter!

Don't like Verisign, but they acted fantasticaly well - had to sign contract and they allowed free of charge access to zone files of .COMs/.NETs/.ORGs!

They thought I was spammer, as if spammers would talk to them - plenty of mailing lists on sale for small amount of dosh :-/

[jmccormac]

The main problem (from the registry viewpoint) with allowing zonefile access is the risk of the data ending up in the wrong hands. That's perhaps why Nominet didn't want to provide access.

Regards...jmcc

[Lord Majestic]

That's perhaps why Nominet didn't want to provide access.

AFAIK they have responsibility to provide that data to DNS servers (which is why Verisign had to provide free of charge access), they are just creating artificial barriers using this security through obscurity thing to think that they are doing a good job protecting data.

So far the best way that came to my mind was to actually buy list of emails off spammers and retrieve domain names from it, it should work but I am not keen on helping spammers out :-/

[jmccormac]

Building a .uk list is not exactly a tough thing to do but it is a tedious thing. The .uk zone has approximately 4 Million domains of which probably 60% are in active web use.

Regards...jmcc

[Shak]

Lord Majestic

no offence intended mate.

but i just looked through my emails of October 2003, where we discussed the same issue, and I asked you to call me for the DB back then.

surely you cant be that keen to get hold of it, or you would have called.

?

Shak

[Lord Majestic]

surely you cant be that keen to get hold of it, or you would have called.

No I was not at the time... sorry Shak :(

The reason I posted was to see if there are any official sources (supposed to be Nominet), similar to that of Verisign who do provide zone files free of charge, that I may have missed.