Catching A Domain

[retired_member6]

Would a company that only checks for domain availability three times a day, be useless when catching what could be conceived as a popular word/phrase? looking at that DAC thread it would seem to be the case.

 

[tifosi]

Would a company that only checks for domain availability three times a day, be useless when catching what could be conceived as a popular word/phrase? looking at that DAC thread it would seem to be the case.

as useful as a f*rt in a spacesuit...

dac users (well me at least) will check the name 150x a minute on the known drop date.

Stephen

 

[retired_member9]

When I was young...
I wanted to catch 'cab.co.uk' with 123-reg domain watcher system... =)
I desperately waited for the domain to be released and was very disappointed
when 123-reg failed to catch it.

Then I started to learn.. and went to 123 and asked them how often do they query registry?

Surprisingly, I received an answer. Honest answer!
They do query whois 3 times a day! )

Wow! I immediately sent them money back request =)

Then I went to C.Holland and his dropcatcher and before ordering any credits, inquired how often does he send requests in order to obtain names which I'm after..

C.Holland started to play silly bugger, asking me whether I want to also know his credit card number and bla-bla-bla..

It seemed too stupid for me to use his service if he can't answer question that simple. The answer I wanted to get from him "yes, we run requests as often as possible" (and at that time there was DAC already and I knew how often it could/should be).. But, alas, C. wanted to look too smart (what finally made him look exactly opposite)... as his system now loses hard to me and other competitors.

 

[ratboy]

Which would you recommend?

 

[retired_member6]

I've probably been a mug but then having had my account with them for six years I thought they'd do business a little better. I just paid £30 plus VAT for two watchers at 123-reg, then having read the page again it says "we will check for the domain once a day"

Now hoping that was a phrase rather than a promise, I wrote asking them if they meant once a day or once a minute. This was the reply "The domain watchers check the status of the watched domains 3 times a day. If it shows as being available the system will registered it there and then for you."

Has anyone ever caught anything worthwhile at 123-reg or have I just been mugged? How would 123-reg compare to other services if you don't yet wish to buy a £600 nominet and DAC membership. Perhaps a chart could be compiled and made available on this site. I suppose this is where the term watch differentiates from the word catch.

 

[ratboy]

I'd have thought watching it yourself would be more worthwhile than 3 times a day. I'd buy a chimp for £30 and show him how to use the refresh button. :grin:

 

[Admin]

Has anyone ever caught anything worthwhile at 123-reg or have I just been mugged? How would 123-reg compare to other services if you don't yet wish to buy a £600 nominet and DAC membership. Perhaps a chart could be compiled and made available on this site. I suppose this is where the term watch differentiates from the word catch.

Checking 3 times as day is a waste of money, you may as well watch it manually and reg it by hand. Even if you stump up for a Nominet membership and DAC, that is no guarantee of catching anything either, unless you have a fast DAC script you are still only going to get 2nd rate domains.

Domain catching is a fast moving and highly comptetitive business now, it was only last year we manually regged a 3 letter domain (KSU.co.uk) - those days are long gone.

 

[bb99]

Admin's hit the nail on the head.

If you want to catch anything half decent you'll need to use the DAC (and hence need a Nominet membership). The time that elapses between a good name being released and it being registered is often less than one second - nothing but a DAC script is going to do the job*.

Having said that, if you're aware of a name that nobody else is then you stand a good chance of manually catching it. If it's not on anybody else's radar, then by default you'll catch it manually.



* although there are some exceptions in some circumstances.