Drop catch alternatives?

[zeekr]

Hi!

Today I was trying to find out if it was even remotely possible to catch a dropping domain by hand. I used my registrar's bulk registration function. I was trying to grab 2 domains in spanish.

I was constantly monitoring it and resubmitting the registration when I saw somebody else's have gotten it.

One of them was grabbed by CLICK REGISTRAR, INC at around 18:21:17 UTC almost exactly. The other one was grabbed by NETREGISTRY PTY. LTD. between 18:40 UTC and 19:08 UTC.

How do these companies do it? ClickRegistrar seem to be a ResellerClub reseller, I don't know about the other one. Do they use SnapNames, Pool, etc.? Any of those services? Are other ways around it?

The time frame for the drops is like about an hour. Is the only way to get one of these domains to hammer the registry in an automated fashion hoping for the best? It seems it would be impossible by hand... :D

Update: I'm seeing now that the name servers used are the same:
Name Server: NS1.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM
Name Server: NS2.INTERIMNAMESERVER.COM

Could this mean that it is the same company also? Or that they just happen to use the same parking company?

 

[kleszcz]

ResellerClub aka directi offers api access.

 

[zeekr]

I know, but do you think that's how they do it?

 

[astroman]

You can hammer VeriSign servers like the bigboys, but you have limited of how many times you can a min and with how many connections. Companies like SnapNames, ClubDrop, Pool, etc. make deals with ICANN certified registrars to increase their limits.

It is possible to beat them, but statistically improbable.

It sounds unfair, but that's the way the market is working towards. At least GoDaddy lets you do a back-order ala wait list style, which VeriSign ultimately wants (but probably won't get).

http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/cover080504.htm has a nice article about how things work.

 

[zeekr]

I've seen that article, I have to read it with more detail though..
What I take from there is that a software like DropShark could help? Is anybody using it?

Do you know where these lists come from?

Thank you!

 

[astroman]

What I take from there is that a software like DropShark could help? Is anybody using it?

DropShark is more like a domain list organizer and will not help you register a site directly, it's main use to just to find premium domain names. I'm working on a similar program with more functionality, but there really is no way to get around beating the big guys at the registration game unless you can get a couple thousand people to "hammer" the system and try and register the domains for you. I was thinking about adding a feature like this to the program, but there are too many legal issues to worry about.