How Safe is doing a whois search?

tajimd · 11-18-2005, 03:49 AM

Generally we do a whois search to find if a domain is free or not . but is it safe to that because in most cases the who is search is done on some kind of domain sellers site who might have installed some script in his whois search which could save all the query made and that domain seller could easily register that domain before the person who is looking for that domain.

Has anyone gone thru this kind of experience.

RJ · 11-18-2005, 03:58 AM

It's been often rumored that some companies monitor WHOIS queries so they can cherry pick names and register them, but it's never been proven. I'd say 99% of these claims are either a case of someone being too slow to register a name that they "thought" was unique enough that no one else would think of it (the Internet is a big place), or simply registrant/registrar error where the name was never available in the first place.

I don't believe any popular registrars or WHOIS sites particpate in WHOIS query monitoring.

Momo · 11-18-2005, 04:22 AM

I was wondering about this too, thank you for your reply, RJ. I guess if I'm really paranoid about it, I should just register the domain name right there and then.

OK · 11-18-2005, 05:02 AM

If your not sure, go to reliable sources. I would trust GoDaddy.com and domain.yahoo.com to not steal a good domain. Although it is possible, they would need 24/7 moniterence of the whois queries, which is very unlikely.

xtremest · 11-18-2005, 05:35 AM

Yeah, i prefer to do whois by some software or at some really big companies sites, like yahoo or godaddy. It's very hard to monitor such a huge number of requests.

ThreeD · 11-18-2005, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by xtremest

Yeah, i prefer to do whois by some software or at some really big companies sites, like yahoo or godaddy. It's very hard to monitor such a huge number of requests.

All domainchecking software connects to external servers where the whois process potentially "can" be recorded. I'm with Ron on this one, I doubt any company would actually put a lot of time and effort into monitoring domain lookups 24/7. Most of the cases when "this" has happened it probably was an error in the whois lookup db.

wasistdas · 11-18-2005, 08:50 AM

For generic TLD I used to use Netsol. I'm sure they dont monitor. I also think that big registrars do not monitor.

Monolith · 11-19-2005, 07:11 AM

It doesnt really make sense from a logistical perspective. Think of the thousands of names people do whois queries on... they arent all premium names. You'd still have to have a human sitting there going through all the whois logs manually to see which queries were for names that actually have a potential value.

xtremest · 11-19-2005, 08:10 AM

The only "right way" is to connect directly to whois servers. i use little console program. It is very quick and useful.

tinggg · 11-19-2005, 01:31 PM

During the India landrush I bought my domains from 2 different registries. After a while I noticed that names I was searching for on one were bought, by usually the same person, on the same day. At first I just thought darn, should have bought it when I saw it was free (this is good advice anyway), but after a while I noticed that this just happened with amazing regularity on this site. I stop using them to search for names. I believe they were checking searches and using this information.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/140908-how-safe-is-doing-whois-search.html

I then did all my searching on registry.in or on DD24 and never experienced this problem - I have found DD24 a very solid, honourable registry to deal with. I like betrollwin.com advice when it comes to .com/net/org/us/biz

Good luck and listen to your instincts.

RJ · 11-19-2005, 01:39 PM

Originally Posted by tinggg

During the India landrush I bought my domains from 2 different registries. After a while I noticed that names I was searching for on one were bought, by usually the same person, on the same day. At first I just thought darn, should have bought it when I saw it was free (this is good advice anyway), but after a while I noticed that this just happened with amazing regularity on this site.

Can you share what names they were?

deu12000 · 11-19-2005, 04:16 PM

I actually believe in the wive's tale of them monitoring the whois searches. I've had lists of great names that were never registered, than a few weeks later all except maybe a few are registered. I think they have some kind of setup where if it's under a certain amount of characters and if it's dictionary words they compile it into an easy to sort through list and then register them. Of course that's just my theory. It's a conspiracy I tell you.

movingconcierge · 11-19-2005, 04:24 PM

I can use an invention analogy to help squash this rumor...

A while ago I had a partner and we would brainstorm on new invention ideas. We came up with a great idea that we had never seen in the market. We thought it was novel and had potential. So, we began our research. Low and behold, when we researched uspto.gov, we discovered hundreds of similar ideas already patented years ago.

The point of this story is: just when you think you've thought of something so novel and revolutionary, someone somewhere has either A) just thought of it too as neccesity is the mother of invention, or B) thought of it years ago and you are just catching up. You really have to think BEYOND the next great idea to the ones not even contemplated yet.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908

I highly doubt that registrars are monitoring whois searches. What may be more realistic is that they have a staff of "thinkers" reviewing the headlines and industry rags looking to beat the rush to the next great thing. That is my two cents...

DropLister · 11-19-2005, 04:31 PM

i dont worry about that, it uncommon, and would be troublesome for a registrar to comb through whois queries all the time. I do however think that ovterture search site are active in this

Australia · 11-19-2005, 04:32 PM

i dont use buydomains.com to register or search anymore and i have had several suspicious things happen to me using thier services in the past. i am transfering 800+ domains away next year.

beware of buydomains.com

i would like to say more but wont at this stage.

JoshHendo · 11-19-2005, 04:32 PM

About if whois returns a name avaliable or not, I use www.whois.ws, and on that it does a seterate check to see if domains with the same body though different extensions to what you searched for. Most of the time I can trust that. About what -RJ- said about cherry picking, I wouldn't think that most whois searches are monitored, becuase 1, they would have 1000's of domains to go to, and if they made a script to register all avaliable ones, they will be registereing allow. 2, I am sure people would notice if some domain names they searched for, that were good and avaliable, were all sudenly taken by the same company, and it would be even more suspect if it was a company linked with the whois service you used.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908

-Josh

RJ · 11-19-2005, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by tinggg

During the India landrush I bought my domains from 2 different registries. After a while I noticed that names I was searching for on one were bought

It's called a landrush for a reason. :-)
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908

Originally Posted by deu12000

I've had lists of great names that were never registered, than a few weeks later all except maybe a few are registered.

See that's the thing. A great name doesn't stay unregistered. Someone else will find it and register it.

It's easy to research and find out if there is a conspiracy to monitor whois queries. Just look at the WHOIS data and see if you can make any connections between the registrants of all the names that were registered from your list.

DOMiNIC · 11-21-2005, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by tajimd

Generally we do a whois search to find if a domain is free or not . but is it safe to that because in most cases the who is search is done on some kind of domain sellers site who might have installed some script in his whois search which could save all the query made and that domain seller could easily register that domain before the person who is looking for that domain.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908

Has anyone gone thru this kind of experience.

When I first started searching and registering domains I had this experience with GoDaddy. At the time I suspected foul play, but in hindsight I think I was just to slow to register the two Domains in question.

Since then I have searched availability of tens of thousands of domains at Whois.sc and NetworkSolutions. I have thousands of available domains stored in my records from months ago that are still available so Ifell confident that both Whois.sc and NetworkSolutions play fair.

I think the real dirty business is in 'drop names' and one day soon the evidence will be exposed.

KrizG · 11-29-2005, 06:08 PM

I've had some weird experiences with domains I checked if were available using domaininspector. I would generate a big list (100's) of domains, and check them to see if some where available, then sort them out and pick the ones i thought were good ones, I would save the list and open it again a few days later when I had enough money or time to register the ones I wanted, and then surprise!!!
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908
Many were gone, yes I know if a good domain is available it won't be for long, but some of this domains were two word domains or even three word, some not so good ones at all, and what was even weirder was that many of those domains were then register by the same two companies, either Spiral Matrix or Iholdings.com , at least over 35 of domains I wanted and did a whois for are now register with one of them companies, and believe me, that's a lot to be just a coincidence I think sometimes, especially when some of those domains weren't very realistic domains per say.

Has something similar to this happened to anybody involving those two companies?

Regards.

wildbest · 11-29-2005, 06:21 PM

LOL. These companies have saved you quite a lot of money. Believe me!

KrizG · 11-29-2005, 06:25 PM

What you mean wildbest? Why you say that> Very interesting on that comment of yours.

RickyG · 11-29-2005, 08:05 PM

http://namepros.com/showthread.php?t=143997

dongan · 11-29-2005, 10:20 PM

I always go with the big babies, Yahoo and GoDaddy. They would't benefit by watching the queries.

tajimd · 11-29-2005, 10:42 PM

You never know even these big babies . can bring u in trouble. Always keep your side safe

DomainPump · 11-29-2005, 11:04 PM

Originally Posted by tajimd

Generally we do a whois search to find if a domain is free or not . but is it safe to that because in most cases the who is search is done on some kind of domain sellers site who might have installed some script in his whois search which could save all the query made and that domain seller could easily register that domain before the person who is looking for that domain.

Has anyone gone thru this kind of experience.

Its not safe with DIRECTNIC aka Kenyatech in business. Not at all. I just found two more domains that I searched on back on 26-Nov which were registered and these were names which I baited them with. I was away from my PC in another state and on a different ISP using a WHOIS from a registrar I dont normally use.

This proves they are gaining access to all WHOIS searches. Kenyatech/Directnic needs to be shut down now.

If you dont believe me, read on:

http://namepros.com/showthread.php?t=139596

http://namepros.com/showthread.php?t=143881

as well as:

http://www.proparanoid.net/hijack.htm

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/dec...d2005-0607.html

http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%2...es%22+complaint

http://www.rootfest.net/squatters.html

http://www.komonews.com/stories/40223.htm

http://www.rederon.net/category/noldc/
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908

http://www.conspiracycafe.net/index.php?showtopic=1733

11-18-2005, 03:49 AM	THREAD STARTER #1 (permalink)
tajimd Account Closed Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Nepal Posts: 409	How Safe is doing a whois search? Generally we do a whois search to find if a domain is free or not . but is it safe to that because in most cases the who is search is done on some kind of domain sellers site who might have installed some script in his whois search which could save all the query made and that domain seller could easily register that domain before the person who is looking for that domain. Has anyone gone thru this kind of experience.

11-18-2005, 03:58 AM	#2 (permalink)
RJ NamePros Webmaster Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 12,930 Follow @DomainBuyer	It's been often rumored that some companies monitor WHOIS queries so they can cherry pick names and register them, but it's never been proven. I'd say 99% of these claims are either a case of someone being too slow to register a name that they "thought" was unique enough that no one else would think of it (the Internet is a big place), or simply registrant/registrar error where the name was never available in the first place. I don't believe any popular registrars or WHOIS sites particpate in WHOIS query monitoring. __________________ @DomainBuyer facebook

11-18-2005, 05:02 AM	#4 (permalink)
OK NamePros Regular Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 460	If your not sure, go to reliable sources. I would trust GoDaddy.com and domain.yahoo.com to not steal a good domain. Although it is possible, they would need 24/7 moniterence of the whois queries, which is very unlikely. __________________ Oleg

11-18-2005, 08:50 AM	#7 (permalink)
wasistdas Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Ukraine Posts: 1,585	For generic TLD I used to use Netsol. I'm sure they dont monitor. I also think that big registrars do not monitor. __________________ The Official Dead End Place: WWW.TODEP.COM. The best search engine ever. WWW.NULLSEARCH.COM For Sale: EnjoyArcade.com, Arcadoid.com

11-19-2005, 07:11 AM	#8 (permalink)
Monolith NamePros Regular Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 265	It doesnt really make sense from a logistical perspective. Think of the thousands of names people do whois queries on... they arent all premium names. You'd still have to have a human sitting there going through all the whois logs manually to see which queries were for names that actually have a potential value. __________________ Dathorn Internet Services - $13.95/mo = reseller acct w/ 4gb HD, 60gb BW, cpanel, WHM, SSH, unlimited domains Dissent

How Safe is doing a whois search?

some perspective...

Beware of Buydomains.com

My 2 cents

11-18-2005, 04:22 AM	#3 (permalink)
Momo Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 2,299	I was wondering about this too, thank you for your reply, RJ. I guess if I'm really paranoid about it, I should just register the domain name right there and then.

11-18-2005, 05:35 AM	#5 (permalink)
xtremest NamePros Regular Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Moscow Posts: 220	Yeah, i prefer to do whois by some software or at some really big companies sites, like yahoo or godaddy. It's very hard to monitor such a huge number of requests.

11-19-2005, 08:10 AM	#9 (permalink)
xtremest NamePros Regular Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Moscow Posts: 220	The only "right way" is to connect directly to whois servers. i use little console program. It is very quick and useful.

11-19-2005, 01:31 PM	#10 (permalink)
tinggg NamePros Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 191	During the India landrush I bought my domains from 2 different registries. After a while I noticed that names I was searching for on one were bought, by usually the same person, on the same day. At first I just thought darn, should have bought it when I saw it was free (this is good advice anyway), but after a while I noticed that this just happened with amazing regularity on this site. I stop using them to search for names. I believe they were checking searches and using this information. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/140908-how-safe-is-doing-whois-search.html I then did all my searching on registry.in or on DD24 and never experienced this problem - I have found DD24 a very solid, honourable registry to deal with. I like betrollwin.com advice when it comes to .com/net/org/us/biz Good luck and listen to your instincts.

11-19-2005, 04:16 PM	#12 (permalink)
deu12000 Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 1,452	I actually believe in the wive's tale of them monitoring the whois searches. I've had lists of great names that were never registered, than a few weeks later all except maybe a few are registered. I think they have some kind of setup where if it's under a certain amount of characters and if it's dictionary words they compile it into an easy to sort through list and then register them. Of course that's just my theory. It's a conspiracy I tell you. __________________ Low Priced Turnkey Websites , Free Forum Software , Electronic Cigarettes Wholesale and Dropshipping , Find your Future Home

11-19-2005, 04:24 PM	#13 (permalink)
movingconcierge Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 2,266	some perspective... I can use an invention analogy to help squash this rumor... A while ago I had a partner and we would brainstorm on new invention ideas. We came up with a great idea that we had never seen in the market. We thought it was novel and had potential. So, we began our research. Low and behold, when we researched uspto.gov, we discovered hundreds of similar ideas already patented years ago. The point of this story is: just when you think you've thought of something so novel and revolutionary, someone somewhere has either A) just thought of it too as neccesity is the mother of invention, or B) thought of it years ago and you are just catching up. You really have to think BEYOND the next great idea to the ones not even contemplated yet. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908 I highly doubt that registrars are monitoring whois searches. What may be more realistic is that they have a staff of "thinkers" reviewing the headlines and industry rags looking to beat the rush to the next great thing. That is my two cents...

11-19-2005, 04:31 PM	#14 (permalink)
DropLister Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: .ma.us Posts: 1,880	i dont worry about that, it uncommon, and would be troublesome for a registrar to comb through whois queries all the time. I do however think that ovterture search site are active in this __________________ Military Domains Wanted

11-19-2005, 04:32 PM	#15 (permalink)
Australia Account Suspended Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Sydney Posts: 404	Beware of Buydomains.com i dont use buydomains.com to register or search anymore and i have had several suspicious things happen to me using thier services in the past. i am transfering 800+ domains away next year. beware of buydomains.com i would like to say more but wont at this stage.

11-19-2005, 04:32 PM	#16 (permalink)
JoshHendo Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 1,092	About if whois returns a name avaliable or not, I use www.whois.ws, and on that it does a seterate check to see if domains with the same body though different extensions to what you searched for. Most of the time I can trust that. About what -RJ- said about cherry picking, I wouldn't think that most whois searches are monitored, becuase 1, they would have 1000's of domains to go to, and if they made a script to register all avaliable ones, they will be registereing allow. 2, I am sure people would notice if some domain names they searched for, that were good and avaliable, were all sudenly taken by the same company, and it would be even more suspect if it was a company linked with the whois service you used. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908 -Josh __________________ :bingo: :kickass: :lala: :notme: :great: :gn:

11-29-2005, 06:08 PM	#19 (permalink)
KrizG NamePros Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 137	I've had some weird experiences with domains I checked if were available using domaininspector. I would generate a big list (100's) of domains, and check them to see if some where available, then sort them out and pick the ones i thought were good ones, I would save the list and open it again a few days later when I had enough money or time to register the ones I wanted, and then surprise!!! ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=140908 Many were gone, yes I know if a good domain is available it won't be for long, but some of this domains were two word domains or even three word, some not so good ones at all, and what was even weirder was that many of those domains were then register by the same two companies, either Spiral Matrix or Iholdings.com , at least over 35 of domains I wanted and did a whois for are now register with one of them companies, and believe me, that's a lot to be just a coincidence I think sometimes, especially when some of those domains weren't very realistic domains per say. Has something similar to this happened to anybody involving those two companies? Regards.

11-29-2005, 06:21 PM	#20 (permalink)
wildbest Account Closed Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 166	LOL. These companies have saved you quite a lot of money. Believe me!

11-29-2005, 06:25 PM	#21 (permalink)
KrizG NamePros Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 137	What you mean wildbest? Why you say that> Very interesting on that comment of yours.

11-29-2005, 08:05 PM	#22 (permalink)
RickyG Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Boston Posts: 1,532	My 2 cents http://namepros.com/showthread.php?t=143997 __________________ Brand new BlackBerry forum, help support a fellow NP'r This site STINKS!!

11-29-2005, 10:20 PM	#23 (permalink)
dongan Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: www.mercuryminds.com Posts: 2,044	I always go with the big babies, Yahoo and GoDaddy. They would't benefit by watching the queries. __________________ MercuryMinds - Professional X-Cart Design, X-Cart Development, X-Cart Customization Services MercuryMinds - X-Cart addons, modules

11-29-2005, 10:42 PM	THREAD STARTER #24 (permalink)
tajimd Account Closed Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Nepal Posts: 409	You never know even these big babies . can bring u in trouble. Always keep your side safe

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