Monitoring Domain Availability

Question

How can I write a tool to monitor domain name availability? In particular, I am interested in monitoring availability of a domain which is in PENDINGDELETE (or REDEMPTIONPERIOD or REGISTRY-DELETE-NOTIFY or PENDINGRESTORE or similar ) status after its expiration date.

Any suggestions or more information about the PENDINGDELETE and similar status are also welcome (what is the time frame till which it can remain in this status, etc. I usually don't see a fixed pattern or even consistent correlation with expiration date and this status).

Answer 1

You should look into how GoDaddy has built there tool, http://www.godaddy.com/domainaddon/domain-alert.aspx.

You probably do a whois on each domain someone is interested in on a server and then post that information to a web page.

Also, for more information on what PENDINGDELETE is, checkout http://www.domainpunch.com/support/articles/domainstatus.php.

Answer 2

If the domain is registered at registrar A and registrar A offers a "domain name watch and buy" service, use their service. If the registrar does not offer such service, one of the best options (as far as people reporting seeing a greater chance of success) is snapnames.com