Alright, so I've just found what I think will be a VERY profitable domain name, expiring on 13th October. Did a WHOIS using GoDaddy and it's confirmed to expire then; however, when it says October 13th, what TIME does it mean? Want to be on hand to snap this one up, thanks
i'm not sure, interesting question though. Have you tried to call godaddy or another big registrar? they would probably know
It expires when the ICANN updates their databases. They'll pin godaddy when they do, and if its on backorder, godaddy's servers will buy it for you within 90 seconds if no one else. I backordered one but godaddy failed to get it. PS: Make sure the domain you're ordering is not fake pr, if you are ordering a pr domain. I got burned on that once
After the expired date in whois there's also redemption period and pending delete before it actually drops.
When is expires is not as important as when it drops. But none of this matters because if it's a decent name, it will be picked up by services that specialize in snatching up dropped names.
So does each registry have their own time schedule to update their database (drop domains)? I wonder how these services such as pool or other domain packordering services get these list of domains that are about to expire. I think that there is some type of service/access that they have to get these lists, because I don't think that they have a list of all domains names and the monitor expiring date and calculate drop date!
All these services are also registrars. The names that are dropping are all available to anyone in what is called the zone file (By Registry--VeriSign controls .com and .net). This has all the information in it you need to know when a name might drop. These companies use this file and hit the VeriSign Servers with constant requests (Millions of Requests at a time) for domains using all their allotted "lines", say 4 per register at a time, But there are only say 500 open lines at a time into VeriSigns Naming servers. ie 120 registers can ping VeriSign's servers with all their allotted lines at once. Problem is that their are more than 120 registers. So these services apply and set up shell registrars, so that they own over 100 registers(only costs about 10K for an application) and try to get all the access lines(500) during the drop. They all compete for the limited number of access lines. As a consequence 99+% of all names are grabbed at release, tasted by these "Drop services" customers and non-performers are put back in line to drop within 5 days at no cost. Oh and those names are then picked back up by other "Drop Services" tasted and likely dropped back in cycling, in limbo for who knows how long, at no cost to the Tasters. If your registar is not a specialist in drop catching, your odds of them asking the Registry at just the right milisecond for them to reach the server and secure the name is tiny at best. If you want the name, request it from all the drop services and you will likely get it (for a fee of course )
After approximately 45 days, it will be dropped and again will be available for registration They have access to zone file. Anybody can apply to get zone file access.