I went to a site where you can register domain names. On this site I
could back-order a domain name, and when it expires, this site will
try to get me that domain name. I have seen this service offered on
many sites. Anyway, on this particular site they say that approx.
800,000 domain names expire every month, and that many excellent names
become available, but the problem is that the good names are grabbed
by domain name pros that use very fast and sophisticated tools which
give them the edge over everyone else when it comes to "grabbing" the
excellent domain names. My question is what kind of tools would it
take to equal or beat these "pros" at their own game. I would like a
full breakdown of what it is that they use, the type of bandwidth
needed, what it would take to equal or beat their capacity, the type
of person(s) that I would need to hire to make this happen, how much
it would cost up front and ongoing, where I could find these people etc
etc...From what I've read by trying to research this myself, it
seems that they are writing some type of scripts that allow for many
names to be searched at once..I think it has something to do with
analyzing zone files, though I'm not exactly sure what that is...I do
not want the names of companies that I could subscribe to that offer
the ability to grab expiring names...I already know about most of
them...including the ones that offer a limited group to participate in
their service..I want to know exactly how to do it myself.

Thanks,
Joel

Hello joel1357,

Thanks for your question.  The first thing I can tell you is that
there is not an official list of expired domains.  The domain
registration market is now decentralized, and each company in the
business (known as a registrar) maintains its own database of domain
names.  To find out whether a domain will expire, you will need to use
the WHOIS service.  The WHOIS service passes information about a
domain, such as who registered it, contact information, but more
importantly, the date which it will expire.  Each Registrar maintains
its own WHOIS database, and they not include domains in their database
from competing Registrars.  This makes it rather difficult to search
for expiring domains using this method, for a couple of reasons. 
First, you need to know the name of the domain you're searching for. 
Second, if you process more than a few dozen queries against a WHOIS
server in a day, you will most likely be permanently banned from using
it.

The easiest way to get a list of domain names is to acquire the master
Zone Files for the entire internet from Network Solutions.  The form
to do this is here:

Zone File Access Agreement

http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/agreements/zonefileaccess.htm

Of course, without having a way to lookup multiple names in a timely
fashion, or software that can parse and correlate the data, this will
be pretty much useless to you.  As I said above, each Registrar
maintains its own database, so you will have to access each database
individually to find out information about every domain name.  The
Zone File will not tell you which Registrar has ownership of a
particular domain.  Since you will not be able to query the individual
WHOIS servers enough times to make a difference anyway, your only
choice is to enter into an agreement with each individual Registrar. 
You can find a list of Registrars here:

ICANN ACCREDITED REGISTRARS
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

What you are looking for is unrestricted access to their WHOIS
database.  Some may even provide the service of providing you a list
of about to expire domains.  The prices and conditions for these
services will vary;  you'll have to contact each one individually to
find out.

Another way to find out which domains have expired would be to compare
Zone Files, one day to the next.  This method will be inaccurate, as
domains can be dropped from the Zone file for many reasons, however
you will find a majority of those you find gone will be expired
domains.  Of course, each one will have to be checked individually,
though the workload shouldn't be that high day to day.  You will need
a powerful computer to analyse these files as they are enormous.  The
Zone files are written in plain text, so any good file comparison
utility should work.  Here are a few:

File comparison
http://www.simtel.net/pub/winxp/filefind/

File comparison
http://www.thefreecountry.com/programming/filecomparison.shtml

The way the pros work is simple.  They acquire WHOIS information from
the Registrars, and they use custom software to turn that data into
something meaningful.  You could hire someone to write this software
for you;  it should not very expensive as it will not need to be that
complex.  Here are a few:

Softforces
http://www.softforces.com/consulting.htm

Palsol
www.palsol.com

Elance
www.elance.com

You will most likely not be able to get WHOIS information from all of
the Registrars, so you will only have access to a portion of the
market.  There isn't any effective way to cheat that I have found. 
The costs associated with starting a business like this do not seem
prohibitively expensive.  You would need to do the following, at the
least:  Buy a domain, have a webpage designed, have your domain
hosted, pay for custom software, pay for WHOIS access, have an
internet connection, get a business license, and advertise your
services.  Aside from the unknown costs associated with the WHOIS
database access, you could do the rest for under a thousand dollars,
certainly.  As for hiring an employee, you would need to find someone
who enjoys working with databases;  ie, the manipulation of repetitive
data.  The technical knowledge required would not be high, and could
easily be taught.  The bottom line here is that if you can get access
to the WHOIS databases of the various Registrars, you will be on equal
footing with anyone who offers this service.  The remaining part of
the equation would be the clever manipulation of that data.  Here are
some links which offer additional information on this subject:

Internet Geography Project
http://www.zooknic.com/

WhoisNotLite
http://www.chami.com/whoisnot/lite/

BetterWhois
http://www.betterwhois.com/

Expired Domain Search Tools
http://www.drname.com/inlink/index.php?&t=sub_pages&cat=99

Expired Domain Scripts
http://onlyscripts.com/browse.php?cat=130

Whois.net
http://www.whois.net

Search Terms:  whois, all whois, registrars, registrars expired,
"expired domains", "expired domain software", zone file apply, network
solutions

Search Method:  www.google.com

This answer is a work in progress until you are satisifed.  Please do
not hesitate to ask for clarification as needed.

watershed-ga

Hello,

   I'm not sure I agree with you here, watershed. What you have
described is OK for the first part of the process, finding expiring
domains, although I certainly don't think you can get away with it for
under $1000. If you want to build the system on your own, you cannot
rely on "expiring domains" lists distributed by someone else. You will
have to do a daily comparison of the zone files for, say, all
unrestricted gTLDs. This requires a pretty fast connection just for
downloading the files, and fast computers, possibly a server cluster,
to compare the files, apply filters to the results, and present them
in an organized form for the final human review.
   The second part is even harder: grabbing the domains. There is no
sure way to grab a dropping domain, but you can improve your odds.
Aside from the commercial services that we all know (SnapNames, etc),
you can build your own system. If you want to be at the same level or
above the big grabbing companies, you need a very fast connection, API
access to multiple registrars, and even more servers (in addition to
the ones on the first part). Or, if you are really serious about it,
you could apply to become an ICANN registrar yourself, and use all
your allocated access for this purpose.
   I've heard of "enthusiasts" who have basements full of servers
crunching zone files, and a couple of T1's for downloading the files
and hammering the registrars. And I'm not even talking about those
Korean companies whose only purpose is to grab domains for resale.
   Finally, Joel, if you're serious about this (I believe you are,
since you've been asking about it for some time), you should first
take a look at the WLS (wait listing service) that NSI is planning to
implement. There's been heavy opposition to it, but they might still
go ahead with it. I suspect that Afilias (.info) and NeuLevel (.biz)
will also implement some kind of method to avoid the "expiring domains
race" on their systems. You could find yourself with a useless system
if they do.
   Cheers :)

Well, my main point is that most of those methods are fruitless. 
Comparing the Zone Files will not be effective if you don't have
unrestricted access to the WHOIS databases.  Domains drop off the Zone
for more reasons than expirations:  you can never be 100 percent sure
that a domain that is there one day and gone the next is expired.  You
will have to check them all individually against WHOIS.  I believe
something along the lines of several thousand domains expire every
day;  you won't be able to check even a percentage of those without
getting banned from the databases.  You must enter into an agreement
with the Registrars to run a business like this, unless you're
cheating or doing something illegal.  You won't need multiple T1's
unless you're running a successful business and expanding your
horizons.  The Zone files are not that large;  I believe the .com one
is about 350 megs compressed.  You will need a powerful computer to
analyse these files as they decompress to something like 3 gigs.  The
smart thing to do would be to chop them up into smaller pieces.  It
would definitely be useful to have a few UNIX servers with powerful
hardware to do this, but if you're on a budget you could do it on a
high end PC with DSL or Cable.  Most of the work you need to do is
tedious, but not expensive.  The expensive part will be trying to
compete for customers with everyone else.  To be better and faster
than the other guys will not be a realizable goal until you really get
into this and see what makes sense and what doesn't.