Deleting Domain Names

[dcmginc]

I have a question that I haven't found the answer to yet...

Is there a normal pattern that a domain name will go through when the original owner decides not to renew it? There is a domain name that I would like to get when it drops. When I first noticed this name had expired the expiry date on the whois said August 4th. I was hoping that within 30 days it would drop. On September 4th I noticed the the expiry date had changed to August 21st.

I thought this was rather strange.. but what do I know about the process of a domain name about to expire. I thought I would try to find out from the Pros. Anyone got any info for me?

 

[.edu]

I really don't think that is possible. Renewals only come in 12 month additions so unless the registry did something then your whois record probably had an error when you were viewing it.

 

[MissFlora]

I encountered that problem with pending delete domains too. They're already on the 6 days pending delete period yet they can be renewed by the same company under the same name. It is very weird how they do that.

 

[dcmginc]

Well I'm glad that it wasn't just me. I really thought I was losing my mind. So how long after the expiry date should it be before it drops?

 

[Dave_Z]

I encountered that problem with pending delete domains too. They're already on the 6 days pending delete period yet they can be renewed by the same company under the same name. It is very weird how they do that.

I wouldn't exactly say "renewed". But it's odd because, ideally, pending
delete domains have already reached the point of no return.

Here's the famous domain life cycle link:
https://www.snapnames.com/deleteprocess.html

I speculate someone at the Registry must've pulled some fast ones but
at a greater cost. Of course, I can't prove it. :hehe:

dcmginc, I'd say that's a system error on the registrar's part. That does
happen from time to time.

 

[evenflow]

I am having similar issues. For me, I am getting conflicting expiration dates and information from multiple whois lookups.

A related question is how can a domain be listed as "Registrar Hold" but have a 2005 expiration date?

 

[dcmginc]

Here's the famous domain life cycle link:
https://www.snapnames.com/deleteprocess.html

Is there a way to tell what status the name is in? Expired would be simple by just the date, but what about Pending Delete? How can you find out if its at that stage yet?

 

[Dave_Z]

Is there a way to tell what status the name is in? Expired would be simple by just the date, but what about Pending Delete? How can you find out if its at that stage yet?

Simple, just check the Registry of that extension. Here are the WHOIS
registries based on their respective extensions:

.COM/.NET - http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois
.ORG - http://www.pir.org/whois_search/
.INFO - http://www.afilias.info/whois_search/
.BIZ - http://www.whois.biz/

Look at the line which says "Status" or something to that effect. That'll
tell you what state the domain name is in, be it Redemption Period, Pending
Delete, etc.

 

[dcmginc]

Thanks for the links davezan!

The name is a .com and I took a look. Now I have another issue that seems very odd! It has the status listed as 'active' and the expiry date for 2005. But, if you go to dotster (name was registered through here) and do a whois you will see that it expired. If you go to the site you get a page that says the name has expired. I've also used 3 other companies like netsol.com, godaddy.com and internic.ca to view the whois on different occasions. They all show the expiry date of August 2004.

Has anyone else ever had something like this happen before? Very strange!

 

[Dave_Z]

Thanks for the links davezan!

The name is a .com and I took a look. Now I have another issue that seems very odd! It has the status listed as 'active' and the expiry date for 2005. But, if you go to dotster (name was registered through here) and do a whois you will see that it expired. If you go to the site you get a page that says the name has expired. I've also used 3 other companies like netsol.com, godaddy.com and internic.ca to view the whois on different occasions. They all show the expiry date of August 2004.

Has anyone else ever had something like this happen before? Very strange!

Aside from registrars paying for every domain name registration or transfer,
they also pay the Registry to maintain it while trying to get it renewed. The
Registry then autorenews the domain name for just one year whether or not
the registrar where the domain name is last registered is able to secure a
renewal payment for it.

If the registrar is unable to get a renewal payment from its customer for the
domain name during the so-called "grace period" (when the domain name has
expired), the registrar will have it deleted from its side, the domain name will
fall into the Registry's ballcourt, and the Registry will refund the registrar for
it.

You can find out more about it here: http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois/faq.html. But here's a quote from the site itself:

Why is the Registrar requesting that I renew my domain name when the Registry Whois expiration date shows that it has been renewed for one year?
When a domain name reaches its expiration date and is not renewed by the registrar, the Registry system performs an auto-renew on the domain name. The auto-renew extends the expiration date for one year whether or not the registrar has received payment from the registrant. For example:

Example.com is set to expire on March 27th, 2003. The following events will occur:

If the registrar does not renew this name with their registry prior to March 27th, the Registry will auto-renew the name for one year; even in cases where the registrant has not renewed the registration with their registrar.

The Registry auto-renews domain names the day after they expire. Therefore, on March 28th, the Registry will auto-renew the domain name for one year on March 28th.

On March 28th, the new expiry date will now read March 27, 2004.

The registrar then has 45 days during which they may delete the registration and receive a credit for the registry fee.

A good way to verify if your name has recently been auto-renewed is to do the following:

Check the Last Update Date field in whois. If this field states that your domain name was Last Updated the day after it expired, your name was probably auto-renewed.

Call your registrar.

Hope this helps!

David ;o)

 

[n3m]

ive been using www.freewho.com for any whois/drop lookups.
its a great tool - infact i havent found a better one!
the drop date shown on freewho looks to be the day before it actually drops - but that might be because im in the UK (maybe)

 

[dcmginc]

Hope this helps!

You bet that helps! That's a huge help and explains a lot of what I've seen on this name and on other names. So, if 45 days is the time frame I should notice some changes (pending delete status) on the 6th of October since it shows that it expired on the 21st of August. This waiting stinks! :]