.uk domain name list (next best thing to the zone file)

[hughesey]

I've seen quite a large number of people looking for a copy of the last .uk zone file (from ~2003). Whilst I have a copy of this file from back then, the value of this is negligable as so many new domains have been registered, and so many no longer exist.

So what's the next (or the) best thing then?

There's domain name lists available at http://viewdns.info/data/ for a number of different ccTLD's including .uk. These lists are of valid, registered domain names and are custom built and all domains validated in May 2011.

In the example of the .uk list, it contains many more domains than the last available zone file.

Hope this is useful to everyone!

 

[Systreg]

You have just joined, you've made 2 posts in the last few minutes and posted the same link in each post, some would call that spam, I know I would.

[edit]

Post edited to reflect an error I made suggesting the domain was registered in China 5 days ago, that was the .com version of the domain that the who-is served up for me instead of the .info

 

[hughesey]

I'm not sure where you're getting your information from, but the domain wasn't registered in China, and it was registered a lot longer than 5 days ago!

Domain ID: D31400642-LRMS
Domain Name:VIEWDNS.INFO
Created On:03-Feb-2010 07:39:07 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com Inc. (R171-LRMS)

Apologies if this is considered spam, I posted here because I thought this information would be genuinely useful for domainers interested in the .uk namespace.

 

[Systreg]

I was just about to post again whilst you were posting, on rechecking, for some reason, who-is look up gave me the .com details instead of .info, it's the .com that is chinese and registered 5 days ago

Nevertheless, it still comes across as spammy purely by nature of joining and making 2 posts straight away, and posting links each time.

 

[hughesey]

I can certainly understand! I've still yet to post in the introductions forum as I'm waiting the thread creation limit timer to expire so I can post there .

 

[wb]

"These lists are of valid, registered domain names and are custom built over a period of time."

What length of time? Chances are it's already going to be out of date with many domains in it which are no longer registered.

 

[hughesey]

The current list (v001) was compiled and validated in May 2011.

 

[bensd]

What format does the data come in?

 

[hughesey]

The list is a text file in unix format. The only difference between unix format and DOS format is lines are ended with just LF instead of CRLF. If you're using windows, I suggest opening them in anything but notepad and you should be fine.

Sample:

0--0.co.uk
0--lll.co.uk
0--mm.co.uk
0-0-0.co.uk
0-0-7.co.uk
... etc.

 

[tifosi]

First thing, in your terms and conditions for the UK list you have stated that you have 'intellectual property rights' to the data.

For .UK domains you certainly DO NOT have this. Nominet have sole rights to this data.

Expect Nominet to come down on you like a ton of bricks!!

S

 

[hughesey]

Hi tifosi,

The clause was more to suggest that the lists should not be re-sold etc. We have change the terms as we certainly do not want to cause any issues with nominet or other registrars.

The cost of these lists represents the effort taken in generating them. These aren't purely 'take a larger list of domains and resolve for .uk'. A lot more work has gone into these (and continues to) in order to strive for the most complete dataset possible.

 

[inbound]

I have done some research on the list and have to say it's lacking in some ways but is well worth the price (£6).

It's difficult to build up a complete list of .co.uk domains and this isnt a bad attempt.

As it's easy to find the most popular .co.uk domains I did my research on 486 domains that I own, a couple of hundred have sites on them (6 pages or more) and all of the chosen domains bar a couple have low to zero known quality inbound links (hence should be trickier to find - I define quality as a site known by google and in the same niche as the site linked to and with pagerank on the linked from page).

Here are the results:

12 of 18 of sites with more than 5 quality inbound links were in the list
12 from 27 where 2 to 5 quality links are known are in the list
9 of 33 where 1 quality link is known were in the list
34 of 118 linkless sites were found
61 of 290 domains with holding pages and no inbound links were in the list

It should be stated that Search engines (Google and Bing) had identified almost all of the domains with links going to them but also struggled badly on linkless sites/domains.

 

[hughesey]

Hi inbound.

Thanks for the feedback. We are constantly working to improve these lists and when new versions are available, they will be made available via the same page.

 

[philipp]

It's difficult to build up a complete list of .co.uk domains

It really isn't difficult to compile a good list, you know. This has been discussed ad nauseum on AD.

P.