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This sucks and I feel for you. But the sad fact is that domain registrars have been doing this ever since domain names became big business in the 90s. As a PSA

This sucks and I feel for you. But the sad fact is that domain registrars have been doing this ever since domain names became big business in the 90s. As a PSA to everyone, you should only ever use whois in a terminal window to see if a domain is available. It's included with macOS, Windows (?), Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use. [Edit: a reply says it's not included in Windows. It seems you can download it free here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/whois https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/whoi...] I guess ICANN's lookup tool (https://lookup.icann.org/ https://lookup.icann.org/) is probably more trustworthy than commercially operated ones; it would be a terrible look for them to engage in this practice. But I always feel much safer using whois in a terminal than any website that can see what I'm searching for.

rozularen 6y ago
Yes, namecheap is also sketchy had some trouble when I tried to renew a domain I bought with them then I tried to transfer it to Google domains to only have it blocked
andylynch 6y ago
I’ve started using rdap first for this kind of thing partly because it works in browser and also because corporate firewalls like to block whois. Having a standardised response format is also really nice.
innocenat 6y ago
> It's included with macOS, Windows, Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use. Is it? I don't think it is included on Windows --- it is available on sysinternal, sure, but not included. (Unless something has changed from when I stopped using Windows)
- mrec 6y ago
  Not by default, definitely. Unless you count via WSL, but WSL isn't installed by default either.
  - CydeWeys 6y ago
    It's not even installed by default in WSL; I had to apt install who is literally earlier today.
xoa 6y ago
I also wanted say "consider whois", but with a few more caveats. First, obviously the whois server you use matters. There is nothing magical about whois that stops GoDaddy from doing the same thing if you query whois.godaddy.com, you still need to talk to someone less likely to engage in this like going directly to InterNIC's, whois.internic.net (still I think under the US DOC, which whatever other flaws it has isn't really scrounging for change there). >But I always feel much safer using whois in a terminal Also as a minor FWIW, there are plenty of simple GUI's (often built-in) on whois as well so someone can just use one of those if they prefer. macOS for example still has some of the old useful utilities included for free including in this case Network Utility, though for whatever reason Apple moved them out of /Applications/Utilities and into /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications (that's also where a pile of other useful ones went).
- saagarjha 6y ago
  Network Utility has been deprecated in macOS Big Sur.
christophilus 6y ago
Namecheap and Dreamhost are both top notch and would never do this.
pronoiac 6y ago
> As a PSA to everyone, you should only ever use whois in a terminal window to see if a domain is available. A month or so ago, I discovered .wang was a TLD, and I immediately brought it up with friends, and we spent some time happily and goofily brainstorming. I'm not sure about the exact count, but after dozens of queries, whois started returning errors for too many requests.
- fsckboy 6y ago
  that's not the whois software or the whois protocol returning that, it's the configuration of the particular nameserver you're talking to; whois software/protocol allows you to specify different nameservers, so you could switch
  - tibu 6y ago
    A who is server and a domain name server are two different things. But back to the topic: who is servers in most cases have some kind of limit per a certain time frame so you don't abuse them.
mratzloff 6y ago
I've never had this issue with Gandi.net. They are excellent.
- tomhoward 6y ago
  I use them for all my registrations. I thought I saw a complaint about them domain frontrunning once, but it surprised me and I didn't see any hard evidence, and it doesn't seem like them. But I'll still always feel safer using whois in the terminal. I've been online too long to trust anyone on matters like this. Besides, whois is right here in my terminal, so it's quicker anyway.

rozularen 6y ago

Yes, namecheap is also sketchy had some trouble when I tried to renew a domain I bought with them then I tried to transfer it to Google domains to only have it blocked

andylynch 6y ago

I’ve started using rdap first for this kind of thing partly because it works in browser and also because corporate firewalls like to block whois. Having a standardised response format is also really nice.

innocenat 6y ago

> It's included with macOS, Windows, Linux or any other OS anyone's likely to use. Is it? I don't think it is included on Windows --- it is available on sysinternal, sure, but not included. (Unless something has changed from when I stopped using Windows)

mrec 6y ago
Not by default, definitely. Unless you count via WSL, but WSL isn't installed by default either.
- CydeWeys 6y ago
  It's not even installed by default in WSL; I had to apt install who is literally earlier today.

xoa 6y ago

I also wanted say "consider whois", but with a few more caveats. First, obviously the whois server you use matters. There is nothing magical about whois that stops GoDaddy from doing the same thing if you query whois.godaddy.com, you still need to talk to someone less likely to engage in this like going directly to InterNIC's, whois.internic.net (still I think under the US DOC, which whatever other flaws it has isn't really scrounging for change there). >But I always feel much safer using whois in a terminal Also as a minor FWIW, there are plenty of simple GUI's (often built-in) on whois as well so someone can just use one of those if they prefer. macOS for example still has some of the old useful utilities included for free including in this case Network Utility, though for whatever reason Apple moved them out of /Applications/Utilities and into /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications (that's also where a pile of other useful ones went).

saagarjha 6y ago
Network Utility has been deprecated in macOS Big Sur.

christophilus 6y ago

Namecheap and Dreamhost are both top notch and would never do this.

pronoiac 6y ago

> As a PSA to everyone, you should only ever use whois in a terminal window to see if a domain is available. A month or so ago, I discovered .wang was a TLD, and I immediately brought it up with friends, and we spent some time happily and goofily brainstorming. I'm not sure about the exact count, but after dozens of queries, whois started returning errors for too many requests.

fsckboy 6y ago
that's not the whois software or the whois protocol returning that, it's the configuration of the particular nameserver you're talking to; whois software/protocol allows you to specify different nameservers, so you could switch
- tibu 6y ago
  A who is server and a domain name server are two different things. But back to the topic: who is servers in most cases have some kind of limit per a certain time frame so you don't abuse them.

mratzloff 6y ago

I've never had this issue with Gandi.net. They are excellent.

tomhoward 6y ago
I use them for all my registrations. I thought I saw a complaint about them domain frontrunning once, but it surprised me and I didn't see any hard evidence, and it doesn't seem like them. But I'll still always feel safer using whois in the terminal. I've been online too long to trust anyone on matters like this. Besides, whois is right here in my terminal, so it's quicker anyway.