There is a page on Verisign's site which is basically an agreement for
access to zone files from them. I would like to know a few things.
First of all, what type of hardware do I need; processing speed, Ram,
Hard Drive etc. etc.. Do I need to have more than one computer/server.
What type of software would I need. What would the cost of the
software be. My reason for wanting the zone files is that I want to
find high quality domain names. I am assuming that this is an absolute
1st step in determining what names are about to expire. Is this
correct? Even if I am incorrect I still want the question answered. My
understanding is that the process would be for me to compare the zone
files from the previous day with the current day to see what the
differences are. Furthermore I think that I would then have to go
through each and every name to see what is available. If correct this
could be very labor intensive. Am I correct? If so, what type of
person could write (I am not technical so if this is the wrong
terminology then please correct me) a script for me. Ideally I would
like for the script to contain every word in the dictionary, as well
as the top searches for a given period of time that I would provide.
If this would be unbelievably expensive maybe something like the
50,000 most popular words along with the top searches. Your thoughts?
Then I would like for the script to take all of the soon to expire
names and compare them to the words in the script, ignore all other
names and when there is a match, kick back a report that lists which
ones match the list, sorted by the number of characters in the word
and then alphabetically, along with the date that each name is set to
expire. If it could be even more technical and have some type of
ranking system showing the popularity of a word or search term that
would be awesome. Finally I need you to point me in the right
direction to find someone that could write this type of script. If you
have EXPERT KNOWLEDGE of how to get further along with being a serious
competitor of the pros in "grabbing domain names" beyond the zone
files then let me know and I will post an additional question for more
money so that you can elaborate. PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER THIS QUESTION
UNLESS YOU ALREADY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I AM TRYING TO DO AND HOW TO DO
IT. I AM NOT INTERESTED IN HAVING SOMEONE THAT WANTS TO RESEARCH THIS
SUBJECT. I HAVE SPENT AT LEAST 500 HOURS RESEARCHING THIS MYSELF, AND
I HAVE AT LEAST 50 PEOPLE THAT WORK FOR ME THAT ARE COMPUTER EXPERTS.
THEY HAVE BEEN UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT THE ENTIRE SOLUTION THROUGH
RESEARCH. I already have a DS3, an entire data center and countless
computers, mainframes, servers, routers, hubs, switches etc. What I
don't have is the knowledge of how to pull this off. Okay, I don't
have all of this for what I am trying to do, but mabye my business
partners and I can come sort of agreement for me to utilize current
equipment from our company for this idea of mine. I say this because I
would like to know what would be a fair assumption (assuming you are
going to answer the full question and want me to post an additional
question so that you can be paid fairly for what I want to know) of
the amount of bandwith I would be using so that they will feel
comfortable that I will not be interfering with our normal business,
and slowing down the network etc. Furthermore I want to know what type
of hardware I would need so that I can come to agreement on that and
be fair with my business partners. Finally I would like to know what a
fair amount of money would be for the bandwidth I would be utilizing
so I can pay for it. Obviously a lot of the last part of this question
is not applicable if you are not going to try and go beyond the scope
of what I asked earlier which only deals with the zone files. In fact
I will make it more clear above at what point the 1st question end and
where the follow up question would begin.
Thanks,
Joel |
Request for Question Clarification by
answerguru-ga
on
13 Jun 2003 14:59 PDT
Hello Joel...nice to see you again!
Your question has definitely sparked my interest, but has also
triggered a lot of questions:
1. First of all, I would like to clarify the types of domain names
that you are interested in performing the aforementioned process on?
If it includes top-level .org domain names, Verisign is no longer the
registry operator for that type, as stated in detail at:
http://www.verisign-grs.com/tld/announce_121002.html
2. Do the zone files list which domains ARE currently taken? In that
case you would be looking at a process that "grabs" reserved domain
names as they expire - this however seems to fulfill just part of your
request.
3. There seemed to be a bit of conflict in what you were saying
regarding how you thought the process would work. On one hand, there
was some discussion of comparing files from consecutive days and
pulling out the differences - this gives me the impression that the
only data available is a set of domains that are currently available.
However, you also mentioned that you could also obtain information
about domains that were about to expire. Which of these sets of
domains (if not both) are available through the zone files? If both,
are you planning on tracking both "types" of opportunities?
4. You gave the impression that these zone files are available daily -
is it your intention to run this process daily or perhaps wait and run
it every few days? The value of daily runs needs to be assessed
further and a cost-benifit analysis derived. We want to optimize this
such that you aren't interfering with the hardware use of your
company's resources.
5. When you say "what type of hardware do I need..." are you asking if
there are any minimum requirements to access Verisign's server to
access zone files? If so, the answer is no, there is not such
requirement. If you are talking about the hardware requirements to
pull off the type of application you are envisioning, please see my
comments in the next section.
I also have a few comments regarding a few things you have mentioned:
1. I believe the process of tracking zone files is the best way of
"extracting" top-level domain names, however there are certainly some
questions as to *how* this will be done (since this is more of a
design/implementation issue I will not get into that at this point).
2. Since the type, size, and format of these zone files are not known,
little can be said regarding the hardware requirements. There is also
the factor of how fast you need this done - I would suspect that the
data in these files take up a huge amount of space though at this
point it is undefined. If you have any information regarding the size,
data format, and file format of these zone files please provide that
information as it is critical to assessing your requirements.
3. Regarding your question "I think that I would then have to go
through each and every name to see what is available. If correct this
could be very labor intensive. Am I correct?": Keep in mind that this
is a large amount of data that will take significant time to process
(although there's the obvious relationship between the data that needs
to be processed and your system's processing capabilities). It could
very well be the case that while your program/script is collecting the
"newly available/soon to be available" domains in a file, someone
could go and reserve that same domain before you get the chance to see
the available names and reserve what you want.
4. A cross-reference with a dictionary of popular words/search terms
is possible, yet it will add time to processing and complexity to
development. I'm not sure if your intention is to develop an
application which will generally retrieve the "best" domains or if you
have a specific niche in mind. The mention of character comparisions
makes me shudder, however, when I think of the additional processing
that is required for something that (in my previous experience) has
yield only moderate accuracy. If you could lend some insight on that
it would be appreciated :)
5. A ranking system has both pros and cons. The main pro is the fact
that you can quickly identify, based on whatever criteria you
identify, the most valuable domains that are/will be available and
move quickly on them. The main con is that it will again use
significant time/resources to complete if your criteria is even
moderately complex.
6. The use of corporate resources seems to be a grey area at this
point - to fully ensure that your business partners agree to share
hardware/network resources for doing this, you will need to gather
some data regarding available capacity (more concern placed on the
performance of your network depending on the load that it is currently
carrying). Of course, depending on how you want to transfer data (ie.
at a capped speed running all night vs. full speed for a relatively
shorter period of time) will also have an effect on the network. The
most important thing here is that transfers be scheduled so that they
don't coincide with company-related network use too extensively
(essentially the goal here is to use idle bandwidth wherever
possible).
7. I thought I would tackle the "cost of bandwidth" question as well -
it is somewhat of an industry standard to charge for bandwidth based
upon an estimated total data transfer required per month. Sometimes
the speed also plays a factor, whereby the owner of the bandwidth
would allow more data to be transferred given that the speed would be
capped at a specific level. I am hesistant to nail down a dollar value
at this point considering that you have a special business
relationship with the owners of the network, and also because
bandwidth costs are typically made on a sliding scale (ie. cheaper
cost per gigabyte as the total amount transferred increases). We would
need the estimated size of the data files to be transferred and how
often a "run" of this program would occur.
8. Lastly, I just wanted to express my interest in writing this
program/script OR providing some more detailed consulting services to
help you and your staff design and implement this application
effectively. We can certainly discuss this further if you are
interested.
I'm sure you will agree that this can quickly become a very big and
complex project, and so I have posted my response as a clarification
as I believe I would need to write a 100 page book to fully cover
everything. Of course, I know you must be interested in some things
mroe than others so I am looking forward to your responses. If I have
satisfied your question please let me know and I will post this as an
official answer :)
Cheers!
answerguru-ga
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