Enjoy unlimited access to all forum features for FREE! Optional upgrade available for extra perks.

How to build a specialist drop list?

Discussion in 'Drop catching Domain Names' started by FCP, Jul 31, 2008.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. FCP

    FCP Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2006
    Posts:
    89
    Likes Received:
    1
    What method do people use to build their own drop lists?
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

    Joined:
    1999
    Messages:
    Many
    Likes Received:
    Lots
    IWA Meetup
     
  3. monaghan United Kingdom

    monaghan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 2007
    Posts:
    2,126
    Likes Received:
    78
    depends what you are after, basically you want to find as many words / domain names as possible, filter the crap and pupm them through the DAC and that's your list. People spend quite a lot of time preparing this sort of thing, so don't expect too many detailed replies.

    Alternatively you can buy weekly / monthly drop lists from many of the members here.
     
  4. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    I've done my own for years but if the paid options were available back when I started I would have paid for the lists instead - its a pain in the ass!

    Grant
     
  5. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    I do believe you can buy the 'zone' file or UK equivilent of 2 million domains/records (o0o deja vu) for about £50 and then run your own queries on that. Getting so much easier aint it heh.

    Remember that it will be out of date within minutes tho, and prob already a week out of date anyway, that takes care of pre-reg names.
     
  6. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    That's the easy part, the pain in the arse is wasting your time/dac allowance scanning 2 - 3 million domains.

    Grant
     
  7. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    Obtaining the data, getting it into a DB and then querying it, to extract the data you want is the harder bit to me, mess up that query and your server is Jelly, mess up a calculation and your chasing ghosts. The mount of info in each record would be a major factor too.

    If i had Dac access I wouldnt waste is on this anyway, more than 1 way to a skin a cat :)
     
  8. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    indeed, pay £xx a month and get decent lists emailed to you :)

    Grant
     
  9. aquanuke

    aquanuke Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 2005
    Posts:
    2,040
    Likes Received:
    42
    What good is 2 million names the current UK db is well over 6 million registered.
     
  10. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    Grant, how can you be sure the list hasnt been cherry picked?

    Aquanuke, I don't know what the list contains, I just saw one a day or so ago for £50 that said 2 million records. I thought would be more than 6 million, as the people on this forum alone prob total 1% of that.

    I assume such a file would only have X many months worth of domains maybe the ones that are expiring in the next year ? Until someone who has bought the file says whats in the file, I can't tell ya :)
     
  11. monaghan United Kingdom

    monaghan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 2007
    Posts:
    2,126
    Likes Received:
    78
    Even a fairly basic MySQL config will handle a few million records, import from plain text format (or any other format) is not that difficult (if you're on a Linux / Unix platform you'll have awk and other text processing tools to automate any pre-load data prep)
     
  12. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    You can't I guess. If you buy your list from Dale (droppings.co.uk) he doesnt catch himself so has no reason to cherry pick it - also if someone was selling cherry picked lists it would be business suicide if it got out.

    Grant
     
  13. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    Sorry I didnt mean for me personally, I meant that seems like it would be the hardest bit for most people. (previously posted as a problem for someone who was probably using this very file).
     
  14. aquanuke

    aquanuke Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 2005
    Posts:
    2,040
    Likes Received:
    42
    I can say that list is based on the last .uk zone file about 4 years ago which is about 2.2 million and its not very good. Save your money not worth £50, you can d/l it free quite easily.
     
  15. FCP

    FCP Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2006
    Posts:
    89
    Likes Received:
    1
    In theory would you create a list of domains (from what ever source) and hit the DAC. Will this respond letting you know if the domain is available, registered, suspended? Is it easy to put this information in a file?
     
  16. grantw United Kingdom

    grantw Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 2005
    Posts:
    4,694
    Likes Received:
    93
    In all seriousness, if you don't know how to get the data into a list/database and then write the code to query the data I would honestly pay for the droplists.

    Grant
     
  17. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    I would put that info into a database.

    If you have php/asp query the dac/whois2 with your source data and then put the results into destination database. You can then query your results easier and have your system automatically run off the destination database. Saves running the data up and down if its all on the server there and then.

    I agree with Grant, buy the list, DropSystems list looks pretty good ad its set by day, so easy reference, and includes upto 15,000 names a month too.
     
  18. monaghan United Kingdom

    monaghan Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 2007
    Posts:
    2,126
    Likes Received:
    78
    You could save the DAC reply to a file, but I'd have thought putting the reply in a database would give you more flexibility than flat file and then you can do things like

    select * from domain_list where drop_date = tomorrow

    so you can pick which domains you want to catch tomorrow.

    Take a read of Instructions for Use to see what you can do with the DAC
     
  19. Darren

    Darren Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 2008
    Posts:
    2,248
    Likes Received:
    31
  20. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    The one I saw was http://www.****************/ukzonefilesforsale.html I wasnt sure about posting the link since it maybe a rule breaker but I guess admin type person can delete it if if it is :)

    It says upto date.

    Best guess is it covers 3-6 months of expiring domains.

    Someone asked about databases of 2million records about a week ago my guess is they are using this, so maybe worth asking them what exactly it stores as in domain name, create date, expirary date, updated, status etc etc.
     
  21. Skinner

    Skinner Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jul 2008
    Posts:
    4,616
    Likes Received:
    140
    Well that answers the question and I was right about it being against the rules, I thought it would be but it was one of them sites where I was 50/50 :)
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.