why

I want to keep an eye on domains and their expiration dates without signaling that, avoiding middlemen who would like a signal of interest, to front run the purchase, and auction it off.

This is, to me, surprisingly hard to do.

previously

I kept an eye on various domains I’d like to register, if and when they expire. I set reminders on my calendar to check. With grace periods, it gets more complicated: I’ve seen expiration dates over a month ago, but still blocking a registration.

tips

Don’t go to the domain from your browser. If it works, it could signal interest. If it doesn’t work, it’s not definitive; it might not be registered, the webserver could be down, or it’s being used for email, so the webserver was never connected. Going to the whois.com site is better about getting info like an expiration date.

stages

In a handwaving way, the three stages:

1. Before their expirations:
   Monitor a list of domains for expiration dates. This can be somewhat automated, to check weekly or monthly. As that date nears, watch more closely.
2. After their expirations:
   Watching the domains as they lapse.
3. Once they’re available:
   Buy them. (To be perfectly honest, I haven’t gotten this far.)

before the expiration dates

Happily, there’s a solution built for this. domain-check-2 is a shell script that can read a list of domains from a text file, check their expiration dates, and send email if there’s under a certain number of days remaining. It checks using whois, and I think that this method is safe from would-be domain squatters. I give it a list that looks like this, only my domains:

# 2023
pronoiac.org # #me, exp 2023-10-23
mefi.social # #mefi, exp 2023-11-11

# 2027
mefiwiki.com # #mefi, exp 2027-07-05

I’m running it manually, on a weekly basis; I haven’t used the email notification, but looked at the output. The comments, ordering, and exact expiration dates aren’t necessary, but they help me fact-check that it’s working, and they might help my imperfect understanding of the domain lifecycle.

around and after the expiration date

this is much fuzzier

I checked whois (not whois.com) from the command line, and grepped for status or date. If you want to register a domain the day it becomes available, I’d suggest checking the status daily. Knowing when it switches to “pending delete” is important, as that starts a five day timer. Finding that it’s been renewed is another possibility, in which case, update the expiration date in the text file, and go back to step 1.

status	days after expiration	renewable?	website could work
ok	before	yes	yes
renewal grace period	0 to 30* days	yes	maybe
redemption period / restoration grace period	30 to 60 days	yes	no
pending delete	5 day duration	?	no
available	35 to 75, or up to 120 days???

Notes:

Grace period:
probably 0 to 30 days.
It could be lengthened, to 40 or 90 days, or shortened.

Redemption period:
A recovery fee required to renew: $100 to 150. The registrar could put the domain up for auction during this.

Available:
Apparently, usually opens sometime between 11am and 2pm Pacific.

Add grace period:
People and registries can cancel a domain purchase within five days of purchase. This can be used for domain tasting and domain kiting. This means, if the domain of interest was picked up by someone else, watch it for the next week. Maybe they’ll change their mind and return it.

This timeline can vary by TLD, registrar, and registry.

for further research

• Namecheap has an informational page with many TLDs and their grace periods; among other things, it notes that .cm domains – not .com – are sent for deletion upon the expiration date.
• Google Domains, their registrar product, has a lengthy list of domains, and their lifecycles.
  • 2023-06-15 – Alphabet is selling / has sold these assets to Squarespace, I don’t know how long these pages will stay up
• Rather than dig into this – there are hundreds of TLDs now! – I’ll punt and say that you should investigate the relevant TLD.

caveats

Don’t rely upon whois.com after the expiration date; aggressive caching could show out-of-date information. Such as, “pending delete” when other sources show it’s been registered for days.

it’s lapsed, buy it!

Apparently, domains usually open sometime between 11am and 2pm Pacific. Logging into your domain registrar of choice, and having funds available, is a good idea, if you want to act quickly.

Honestly, I haven’t gotten as far as “registering a lapsed domain”. The whois.com caching surprised me. This blog post is partially me gathering context and notes, so as and when the next domain of interest nears expiration, I can make exciting new mistakes, rather than repeat old ones.

Keywords

• Domain expiration
• Domain sniping
• Domain drop catching

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