Domain dropped but not able to register

[Satanclaus]

I've noticed a couple of times now that a domain drops (e.g. whois shows it doesnt exist), but unable to register it (atleast through eNom). I've noticed this happening with .org's mostly, but today I encountered a .com with a similar issue. eNom showed it as unavailable, but godaddy allowed me to register it anyway. Is this a perculiar issue with eNom (intentional delaying or broken api) ? The .orgs dropped in the past weren't reggable at any registrar. Some insight would be welcome.

 

[amoeba]

This appears to be normal for .org ever since PIR took over the registry. I've noticed that the whois server starts showing "Not Found" sometime after midnight EST, while the domain doesn't become available to register the afternoon of the following day.

In my experience, though, the .com and .net registry whois server is pretty much real-time with regards to domain availability. I haven't seen a delay like the one you're describing. Maybe it's caching at the registrar; I know GoDaddy caches availability data.

In general, whois shouldn't be used to check domain availability; the best way is to get a shared line to the registry to check programmatically (I assume that's what you're doing with your eNom account). In fact, some registrars put this notice explicitly: "LACK OF A DOMAIN RECORD IN THE WHOIS DATABASE DOES NOT INDICATE DOMAIN AVAILABILITY".

 

[realtimeregister]

PIR works as follows (my memory is a little faded here).

Accredited registars can lookup wich domains are going to be dropped.

The day it drops, between 13:15-14:15 UTC accredited PIR registars can try to register the domain name on a first come first served basis.

If it is not registered then the domain name willbe released for registration later on.

However the WHOIS will show the domain name available on that day it becomes available. That it hasn't dropped yet is just annoying.

 

[Tippy]

GoDaddy often shows names as being available when in fact they arn't. Did you get the name after all via GoDaddy or did they send you a failed email shortly after?

 

[Satanclaus]

GoDaddy often shows names as being available when in fact they arn't. Did you get the name after all via GoDaddy or did they send you a failed email shortly after?

I got it. That was the surprising thing. The eNom API consistently showed it was unavailable. It was a traffic domain too, I guesstimate 6-10k uniques per month.

 

[realtimeregister]

In theory a zonefile update could cause a delay and Enom's Database did not release the domain yet.

This is pure speculation on my side.

However if you are able to register the domain name thru another Registrar it is obvious that they are losing money this way.