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Basic Operation

How does Domain Name Analyzer check domains for availability? Can I use my own whois proxy?

Domain Name Analyzer works by querying whois servers that listen in on port 43. This is the standard way of checking domain names. Domain Name Analyzer will not connect to the web based lookup tools provided by registrars. This is because

• This will make the software dependent on the output format of third party services.
• Registrars do not approve of software tools that connect to their web resources.

If you have your own proxy server that uses port 43, you can configure DNA to use it.

Domain Name Analyzer v4 supports using DNS queries to minimize the number of Whois lookups. This is done by avoiding whois lookups for domains that appear to have a website.

If you wish to know more about the whois service, please see our knowledge base articles on whois.

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Can I use Domain Name Analyzer for bulk lookups?

You can use Domain Name Analyzer to quickly lookup a large number of domains for availability.

You should be aware that most whois servers restrict the number of connections and lookups from a single computer. This means that you should be very careful while looking up a large number of domains at high speeds. Here is a useful article that deals with high speed lookups.

For every whois server you can specify the connection interval between two consecutive queries and also the number of simultaneous connections. This will allow you properly configure the lookups and ensure that you don't violate any of the terms and conditions of a registrar.

Domain Name Analyzer Pro v4.0 supports availability lookups with minimum number of whois lookups. This eliminates whois lookups on domains that have a website.  

Some registrars offer a high speed available/not available lookup option. Domain Name Analyzer fully supports such options.  You will need to configure it to use the special modes. For an example, please see high speed domain availability check for AU and NL domains.

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What is the 'Maximum simultaneous connection' setting in the whois server setup dialog? Have you put a limit on the number of lookups?

There is no limit on the number of domains you may lookup.

It simply means that DNA will make only the specified number "simultaneous" connections to the whois server. If you make a list of 500 or 1000 domains, DNA will check all of them but will make sure that no more than the set number of connections are made to the whois server at any time. This prevents flooding the whois server. 

The number of simultaneous connections and the connection interval (interval the software will pause between the lookups) is very important. If you are not careful you could end up being banned by whois servers. So it is always better to set the number of connections low and connection interval high. Please read this article for more details.

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Can I configure the whois servers? Can I add other whois servers?

Yes, you can. Simply select a domain name within the list in DNA pro and right click. Now chose the "Data Extraction Settings" menu option.  You can use the popup menu to configure the whois server for that domain. Please see whois lookup configuration.

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Which is the best WHOIS server for COM, NET ORG domains?

You can try the following whois servers.

• whois.crsnic.net

• rs.internic.net

• whois.nsiregistry.net

• whois.internic.net

Whois.crsnic.net is normally the fastest server. 

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I get lots of errors while doing a lookup.

or

Domain Name Analyzer was working fine till yesterday, now I get too many lookup errors.

Domain Name Analyzer checks availability of domain names by simply connecting to a whois server and then sending a query to it. At times the whois server may not respond to queries. If this happens too often Domain Name Analyzer will stop retrying and display a too many errors message.

We some times get emails from users saying that the software used to work properly but suddenly has started showing too many errors. Please understand that most times this is nothing to do with the software. The problem is due to busy whois servers (very common whenever a large number of domains are about to expire), network connections or a whois lookup restriction at the whois server. Also please be aware that the most common reason is that too many people are looking up domain names creating heavy load at the whois server. These problems mostly go away after a few days.

Here are some suggestions that may be useful.

[1] The configured WHOIS server probably may not be responding or may be very busy. If the problem is for Com, Net or Org domains, you can try changing the whois server. Try a different server. Also check if your Internet connection is fine. Some times this could be due to local problems at your ISP.

[2] You may also get errors due to the WHOIS Server refusing to connect. This happens if you are submitting too many queries simultaneously. Specify appropriate connection settings.

Important: Our strong suggestion is to set your connection interval to 12 or 15 seconds and number of simultaneous connections to just 1.

[3] See if you are getting errors only for domains that are registered through some registrars (happens when the registrar's whois server is down). 

[4] As already mentioned else where you should also be aware that most whois servers restrict the number of connections and lookups from a single computer. This means that you should be very careful while looking up a large number of domains at high speeds. Please read this knowledge base article on the subject.

[5] The last possibility is that Domain Name Analyzer has encountered a whois record it is unable to interpret. This happens when a whois server makes changes to its output format. Simply send us a sample domain name that has the problem.

[6] You may also want to read: domain whois lookups not working?

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I am unable to check a domain again after successfully retrieving information from the WHOIS Server once. How can I check the domain again?

Select the domains you wish to lookup by clicking them in the list (to select multiple domains you need to hold the ctrl-key down while clicking).  Now use the "Lookup > Lookup All (with options) menu to bring up the Lookup settings dialog. You can now do a selective lookup for domains whose whois data is older than a specified time interval. Set it to 0 (or whatever number of minutes you wish to use) and proceed.

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