Domain check script!

Posts: 1 · Posted: Sun Jul 25, 2004 6:41 am

is there such thing that when provided a domain name gives all information on transfer details - how long until possible, reasons, past transfers and so on..???

Posts: 1022 · Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2004 11:11 am

I know that such things exist, and im in the process of writing such an application in .NET, but I don't readily know where to get one...

Posts: 42 · Posted: Tue Sep 28, 2004 12:44 pm

You could probably just do whois search on network solutions or other websites. Or else write like perl or php scrtipt that just run the whois command and outputs the results..

Posts: 160 · Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:53 pm

Unfortuneatly whois is not a definitive answer on the availability of a domain, unless you are querying the registrar's whois server that has the domain. Whois servers get their information from other whois servers. Internic is probably the best one though.

Major registrars are a good source for this kind of information though, they usually have whois db's that are fairly up to date. Network Solutions, Tucows, GoDaddy. Most of these however limit the number of whois requests from a client, or have some other interface that makes it difficult to automate grabbing this information.

Even when you register a domain via goDaddy, etc. It is possible that someone may have just beat you to it.

I don't think there is a way to get transfer info/previous ownership information. I can't think of any registrar that provides this information.

Also when a domain expires, most registrars have a policy of holding the domain for a time period, to make sure the domain does not need to be renewed, but to renew an expired domain is usually $$$. And I don't think they publish the actual date the domain will be available. I think this is all to discourage squatters.

The best method to get this information would be to become a reseller for Tucows or other registrar. I believe you need to be incorporated though. Most major registrars have API's for their resellers, to query domain names, register domains, reporting, etc. We are not actually a registrar, but a reseller.

Posts: 27 · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 2:38 pm

Here is a simple script to query a whois server:

Code:

<?
$fp = fsockopen ("whois.networksolutions.com", 43);

if ($fp) {
fwrite($fp, "microsoft.com\n");

while (!feof($fp)) {
print fread($fp,256);
}

fclose ($fp);
} else {
print"Fatal error\n";
}
?>

As you can tell, high volume query is not recommended and allowed.

I also find this website comes in handy for this type of query:
http://www.wizzcomputers.com/indexd.html