Namebio - No longer allowing free searches?

[NickB]

Just got the below message after trying a search......

Search is Not Allowed
We are no longer processing this search for free users due to massive abuse. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you want to run this search you will need a paid membership. Thanks for your understanding.


@Michael - looks like a few (or more) idiots have ruined it for everyone then?

 

[Michael]

Believe me, if it comes to bots, scraping, or even anti-scraping I've thought about it for the better part of a decade. We have some really advanced anti-scraping measures already, but it's very hard to compete with a botnet. Someone who has one of those is already in the top fraction of one percent of scrapers.

 

[pchip]

I had a clue but had no clue that bots could be this bad. The botnet having access to thousands of random IP's is the difficult one for me. I would have thought you could block the IP but that obviously won't work for that one, especially when they only use it once, Yikes! I'll have to think about that one again.

Thanks Michael for posting your thoughts and insights into this issue, much appreciated!

 

[johnn]

Guys,
If you are going to use Namebio then please subscribe and support Michael.
He has one wife and a couple kids that he need to support.

The only thing that I get free in my life are viruses.

 

[premkumar]

Ok, here's where we stand now. I've implemented a CAPTCHA that you'll only see once every 24 hours, and only when visiting the homepage (and eventually the details pages, i.e. namebio.com/sld.tld). When you solve it, it should take you back to where you were before you were whisked away.

I also restored the searches that the attacker was doing for free users. No more popups or workarounds. That is assuming this actually works and the attacker doesn't have a way around the CAPTCHA, which frankly wouldn't surprise me. We'll give it a few days and see if the site gets crushed any more, but please don't be mad if we have to go back to something more intrusive. The site actually loading is the top priority.

@NickB - If given this update you no longer want the membership, let me know and I'll refund you 100% as soon as possible. Sorry you felt like you had to do that for the site to be usable, even though it was only for two or three really specific searches. Maybe wait a few days to make sure we stick with this solution.

Hopefully this is acceptable for everyone, and the attacker doesn't have a way around it, so I can go back to actually being productive instead of playing cat and mouse.

For those of you who are members, as long as you're logged in you won't have to solve the CAPTCHA.

Botnets can solve simple captcha and but some captchas like google captcha they may need capctha solving services which charge like $2/$3 for every 1000 captcha(such service use human from developing countries typing captcha ), What make capctha difficult 1. they have to code for captcha handling, 2. the more captcha you have for searches botnet have to spend more money. in that case its easy to buy paid API service from you than using botnet. so add captcha for each searches.

And finally thanks for Namebio service.

 

[Ostrados]

@Michael I am sure that the most frequent Namebio users are NP members, so I suggest offering NP members a discounted membership and I am sure many will subscribe. Epik for example gives special prices and fees to NP members.

 

[cornell]

Fees too much

 

[tonyk2000]

The service should not be available for free. Plain and simple. A domainer who needs it - he will pay. I see no need to use it, but, should I change my mind someday - then I will subscribe. Enduser should not be able to see the data. By providing the data for free, namebio is doing is a disservice to the industry. Wholesale prices is not something public, and should never be disclosed...

 

[Michael]

@Michael Why don’t you add a free plan and restrict certain actions to logged in users only?

Sorry, forgot to mention, we actually do have a free plan. If you register and validate your email you get 150 results per search instead of 100. Not a huge deal, but doesn't take a lot of effort to sign up.

@Michael I am sure that the most frequent Namebio users are NP members, so I suggest offering NP members a discounted membership and I am sure many will subscribe. Epik for example gives special prices and fees to NP members.

I've always hesitated to do coupon codes because once the field is there, I think a lot of people won't sign up unless they're able to find a coupon. Which leaves us having to run promos pretty much 365. Plus the coupon would spread outside of NP, so that would basically just be changing our prices. I'll give it some thought though.

Fees too much

Not if you're using the site correctly. If you are, there's no way it can't earn you an extra $5/mo by helping you avoid a bad buy, jump on a good opportunity, or price your name better. Have you looked at the annual plans? They're 50% off.

The service should not be available for free. Plain and simple. A domainer who needs it - he will pay. I see no need to use it, but, should I change my mind someday - then I will subscribe. Enduser should not be able to see the data. By providing the data for free, namebio is doing is a disservice to the industry. Wholesale prices is not something public, and should never be disclosed...

That's why we leave the sales under $100 private. End users rarely find the site, but I assure you it is a good thing when they do. If they don't know you paid $350 for something what do you think they're assuming you paid? The answer is reg fee, I promise you. They weren't assuming you paid $5k, they probably don't even know domains can sell for that much.

I've actually sent end-users to the site to show them how much I paid to get them to increase their offer, it almost always works unless they just can't afford it.

 

[blogspotter]

pportunity, or price your name better. Have you looked at the annual plans? They're 50% off.



That's why we leave the sales under $100 private. End users rarely find the site, but I assure you it is a good thing when they do. If they don't know you paid $350 for something what do you think they're assuming you paid? The answer is reg fee, I promise you. They weren't assuming you paid $5k, they probably don't even know domains can sell for that much.

I've actually sent end-users to the site to show them how much I paid to get them to increase their offer, it almost always works unless they just can't afford it.

Plus, add the fact that you had to buy 100 domains to make 2-3 sales per year

 

[King]

The service should not be available for free. Plain and simple. A domainer who needs it - he will pay. I see no need to use it, but, should I change my mind someday - then I will subscribe. Enduser should not be able to see the data. By providing the data for free, namebio is doing is a disservice to the industry. Wholesale prices is not something public, and should never be disclosed...

So many "is" in your response.. and honestly, there should be a free taste of the service, plus there are ads to compensate. Almost everything out there has a free version, just enough to keep someone using it but not enough where a serious user would want to not pay at all. This is pretty much how every app or automated service is. I doubt many end-users know about namebio, heck I didn't even know about it till a few months after I joined this forum.

 

[HotKey]

My word!! What is it, classified information, like top-secret level stuff now being held over at NB? Give me a break, when it takes me 10 minutes to get through the captcha, I'm out of there. Click all the planes.. I click all the planes.. click all the trains.. I click all the trains.. click the click and then blink twice, clap yours and 10 jumping jacks.

 

[Michael]

My word!! What is it, classified information, like top-secret level stuff now being held over at NB? Give me a break, when it takes me 10 minutes to get through the captcha, I'm out of there. Click all the planes.. I click all the planes.. click all the trains.. I click all the trains.. click the click and then blink twice, clap yours and 10 jumping jacks.

If you want to send me a screen recording I’ll be happy to take a look. We’re getting slammed by bots more than usual lately so I had to throw up the CAPTCHA unfortunately. I’ve never experienced what you described though, I just recorded this:

 

[HotKey]

If you want to send me a screen recording I’ll be happy to take a look. We’re getting slammed by bots more than usual lately so I had to throw up the CAPTCHA unfortunately. I’ve never experienced what you described though, I just recorded this:

Ah that's gentlemanly, thx. It's probably fine, was just venting. Would see user-wide fuss if it was a problem. Personally couldn't get past it at all, will try another time. On desktop.