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They do, but the nameserver pairs aren't unique and there aren't that many combinations (2500, apparently). It would be easy enough to automate the creation of
by explain 3y ago
They do, but the nameserver pairs aren't unique and there aren't that many combinations (2500, apparently).
It would be easy enough to automate the creation of accounts until you have an account for every nameserver pair, then start serving on unclaimed domains.
- kentonv 3y agoIf the nameservers are already pointing at Cloudflare when you try to set up an account, Cloudflare will ask you to set a different pair of nameservers. I learned this when I was transferring a whole bunch of domains over, and I noticed it kept asking me to use the same nameservers. So I started setting the nameservers in advance of trying to import the domain into Cloudflare, to save a little time. And then... Cloudflare started asking me to use different nameservers, and wouldn't serve content until I did. So even if you create 2500 accounts trying to claim the same domain, I suspect it will never give you the pair that's already configured, and therefore you won't be able to claim it. I also suspect it won't give any two accounts the same nameserver pair. (I'm a Cloudflare employee but my knowledge above is only based on my observations as a user; I don't work on this part of the system. I have no idea what actually happened to OP.)
- leoh 3y agoRight. This would be my hypothesis. Something really bad happened here, imo, and I am really boggled as to why the heck it would happen. It's possible that if you create enough accounts, you'll get one where the pair of nameservers will coincidentally line-up with some domain's nameserver configuration.