this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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A domain I like has expired, how do I go about registering it for myself? (piefed.social)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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A domain I'd like to use expired a week ago, It's registered at https://www.ionos.com/

It might be a domain other people are after, as it's something like mySurname.net

From my small amount of research, there is a 30 day cooldown period, and then another 30 days before it actually becomes available

I'd like to have the domain how do I go about it? I see there are some services that charge ~80 Euro to jump on it immediately when it's available, but that doesn't sit well with me.

The domain was only registered 2 years ago, and it's likely that nobody else is interested in it.

How do I best go about this?

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[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 40 points 1 week ago (2 children)

The unfortunate reality is that some people will buy anything that expires, on the remote chance someone might be interested. If they're set on doing that there's nothing you can do, they will grab it and block it for at least one more year.

IMHO the best thing you can do is nothing. I mean nothing beyond discreetly checking the domain state in whois. Don't inquire explicitly about the domain. Don't use the WHOIS form on websites you don't trust to exploit such queries into grabbing domains themselves.

You can use whois from the command line (best way). Alternatively, the TLD registry will have a WHOIS form on their official website.

If you don't generate any apparent interest they will eventually let the domain lapse. Check back a year from now.

[–] styanax@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

The number of good domain names being squatted on is too damn high. They'll never see a single one of my shiny nickels, much less a dirty old dime.

[–] MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 1 points 6 days ago

Great advice, and you can also use a domain monitoring tool like domainr or domainsbot to get notifcations when the status changes instead of manually checking whois every day.

[–] tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Contact ionos support and ask what they recommend in this scenario.

Unfortunately, it's entirely possible that some third party domain scraper bought it already and will try to sell it back to you for a premium.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 29 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Thanks, I hope that's not the case, but if it is they can keep it, I'm not going to support those kinds of practices

[–] styanax@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I've been watching a domain name for years (15?) - it is a "funny prop from a niche movie" in the 90s that nobody even remembers and it's length isn't short etc., a name only a real nerd would even know (poilte cough). I've watched this domain pass from squatter to sqatter over the years, it doesn't sell but keeps getting picked up as soon as it expires at the previous squatter. The dotcom domain registry system is completely broken in favour of crony capitalism.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 6 points 1 week ago

The age of the internet really left an impact. My name has an accent in one of the letters, there is no way I'm going to give my kid a name like that, just because Computers. Would have loved to use name.surname more but yea both are common so there are thousands of us, never been able to do that.

[–] tofu@lemmy.nocturnal.garden 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah it would suck. Happened to a webforum I used to be active in after like ten years. We also switched to a similar domain.

[–] TedZanzibar@feddit.uk 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Contacting the registrar is worth a shot and could be your best bet. I recently did a similar thing except the expiring domain was on a pretty obscure country-TLD with only one registrar. They told me how long the grace period was and then I setup a script to check the availability every minute and alert me when it came up.

Probably not feasible with a .com or similar but they might be able to help in some regard. Edit: though having read about drop catching, that's definitely your best bet if it's likely to be sniped!

[–] starshipwinepineapple@programming.dev 19 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Expired domains first can be bought by registrars and then they might sell or auction it off. For instance godaddy will scoop up a lot of domains and auction them off even if it was registered somewhere else first. And unfortunately a surname.tld probably will invite domain squatters to try to get it and then charge much more for it

You can look into something like dropcatch which they will try to get the domain for you before another registrar gets it. Look into their backorder service and just check the timing to make sure they still can try to get it.

Regularly check the whois info (via icann lookup) to see which registrar currently has it which can help you determine if it has gone to an auction.

[–] Novocirab@feddit.org 11 points 1 week ago

I think the general term for this is "domain sniping" or "catching". From this, I also found this paid service, catches.io; can't tell if it or dropcatch is better. They both only charge you when they are successful in catching the domain for you, which is good.

In general, I second the notion that one probably can't get around paying for a professional, paid service, since one is up against professionalized scoopers (godaddy and the like), who have put a lot of optimization (down to the placing of their servers) into trying to get an edge over legitimate buyers and competing scoopers.

[–] 3dcadmin@lemmy.relayeasy.com 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Change your surname to a domain that is available....
Of course I am kidding, but this kind of thing happens a lot, and it just ends up costing money to sort out. If you are happy with that then do it - if not then you will have to hope it becomes available on the free market at some time or see if it comes available in domain auctions as said. It really is that hit or miss, unless you are a Jones or Smith in which case there is zero chance

[–] HolidayGreed@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago

See if the domain is listed on a domain auction site like https://porkbun.com/auctions

IONOS list a few others at https://www.ionos.com/digitalguide/domains/domain-tips/domain-auctions/

I’m unsure at what point after expiry it might land at auction, so may not be a useful route at this early stage.

[–] tjoa@feddit.org 5 points 1 week ago

For me it just worked to register it a day after is expired through my provider that I am always using. I also thought no one will be this fast/that interested and that turned out to be true.

[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Does it need to be that specific tld? There are plenty you can use, like .eu if you're from eu, or .dev if you're a developer etc.

[–] Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 points 1 week ago

All those that I like are taken