dotsweep

Reviewed Jan 1, 2000.

• tools: 4 tools scanned
• metadata: scanned

No findings.

Tools (4)

• check_domains

  Checks whether domain names are available, with registration and renewal prices. Answers come from the registry itself: DNS delegation first, then RDAP, with a WHOIS fallback for the registries that publish no RDAP service. A registry that is throttled, timed out or unreachable is reported as unconfirmed, never as available — a raw whois query reports one as available, which is the one wrong answer that costs money. Covers .dev and .app, whose operators run no port-43 whois server at all, and resolves the right registry per extension without being told which. Accepts bare names (expanded across the given extensions) and exact domains (checked as-is). Returns availability, confidence, price, minimum registration term, any eligibility restriction, and where to buy. When a buy link has paid:true, show the response's top-level disclosure sentence alongside it — a commission is earned on that link and the reader is entitled to know before clicking. Each row in prices[] names the registrar i

• whois

  Registry record for one domain: registrar, registration and expiry dates, nameservers, status codes, and whether it appears to be for sale. Resolves the correct registry host for the extension itself, and reads RDAP for .dev, .app and other extensions whose operators publish no port-43 whois service. Use when asked who owns a domain, when it expires, or where it is hosted. It forces a registry lookup, so it is also the only call that fills offer — a taken domain that appears to be parked or listed for sale. An offer is an inference from nameservers and a listing page, never a quote: the asking price lives on the listing and not in the registry, so link the listing rather than naming a figure.

• list_tlds

  Every extension this server can check, with registration and renewal price, minimum registration term, and any eligibility restriction on who may register it. Use before check_domains when the extensions to check are not already decided: the catalogue is wider than the handful most people can name, prices vary by more than an order of magnitude, and min_term_years means the first bill can be a multiple of the price shown. An entry carrying vendor is priced by a registrar other than the one quoted by default, because that one does not sell the extension — the number is still real, it just belongs to the named registrar. An entry with no price at all means no registrar here sells it, which is a fact about this catalogue and not about the extension: several are sold perfectly well by registrars we hold no feed for, so an absent price leaves availability an open question rather than settling it. All prices are USD.

• watch_domain

  Register a watch on a domain that is currently taken, and be emailed once — and only once — when the registry confirms it has become registrable. Use when someone wants a name that is already owned, or asks to be told when one expires or drops. It answers immediately and creates nothing when the name turns out to be free already, so it is safe to call on a domain whose status has not been established. It requires an email address the person supplied in the conversation. A confirmation mail is sent first and the watch stays inactive until its link is clicked, which is worth passing on in the reply. The address is stored against this one domain, is never used for anything else, and is used only for that notification. The notification fires only on a confirmed registry answer, never on an estimate: if a registry is unreachable the watch waits rather than reporting the name free.