6 ms·

What are you using to determine whether *.io domains are "free" vs "taken"? It seems to be incorrect. http://www.usernique.com/io/x -- "free" http://www

by bdc 14y ago

What are you using to determine whether *.io domains are "free" vs "taken"? It seems to be incorrect. http://www.usernique.com/io/x -- "free" http://www.nic.io/cgi-bin/whois?query=x.io -- The domain is unavailable for use.

trevorah 14y ago
just checking the return code on a GET request. src is on github if you're curious. You're right though, looks like the domain lookups need a bit of work.
- rajivm 14y ago
  You should do a "whois" lookup for the domain. The return code for a 'get' request on the domain has no bearing on its availability -- many parked domains do not even have DNS configured, let alone HTTP.
  - cbhl 14y ago
    I'd be wary of doing automated whois lookups, which might be considered abusive / against terms of service depending on which server you hit.
    - trevorah 14y ago
      Good point. This doesnt sound like a quick fix.
  - trevorah 14y ago
    Very true. This requires a little more work than my current hack. I'll see if there is a whois package for node...
- nwh 14y ago
  The quickest way I've found is to do a DNS lookup, and if that fails, hit the WHOIS.
jschuur 14y ago
Looks like there's some bugs here. Just claimed 'esi' was available on Twitter and GitHub, but it's not.
- cbhl 14y ago
  Hmm. Judging from the way the server.js is written, I'd expect he's being rate-limited, and the server returns free whenever the HTTP call doesn't return 200. Edit: Just to be sure, I threw in a breakpoint on line 18 of generate.js, and set name to my username (cbhl) -- and got a false "free" result for both Twitter and GitHub. The OP might need to be getting OAuth tokens and using the GitHub/Twitter APIs.
  - trevorah 14y ago
    Any tips to sort this out? How are things being rate limited? edit: just realised you meant that twitter/github etc are rate limiting my requests. Bummer.
    - jschuur 14y ago
      Just hit the profile page URL and get the HTTP staus code. If https://twitter.com/ksdhbfslbflsdbs https://twitter.com/ksdhbfslbflsdbs returns 404, it's not available. Not quit the same (a username might be reserved internally), but either way, nobody else can use the name.
      - trevorah 14y ago
        Yep, thats pretty much how it works at the moment (see https://github.com/trevorah/usernique/blob/master/server.js https://github.com/trevorah/usernique/blob/master/server.js). The issue is that the server is sending out quite a few of these hits to twitter, and twitter is smart enough to start reject requests when things get a bit too much.
        nsp 14y ago
        I'm not a node guy, but I found this module for Whois checks - https://npmjs.org/package/whois-available https://npmjs.org/package/whois-available It uses the IANA Whois service, an admittedly cursory look doesn't turn up anything re: rate limits, but you could just do a get request on the root url and only check Whois if it 404s to be safe. http://www.iana.org/whois http://www.iana.org/whois
mijustin 14y ago
Here's another one: says "ece" is available. http://d.pr/i/fiRF http://d.pr/i/fiRF

by bdc 14y ago

trevorah 14y ago

just checking the return code on a GET request. src is on github if you're curious. You're right though, looks like the domain lookups need a bit of work.

rajivm 14y ago
You should do a "whois" lookup for the domain. The return code for a 'get' request on the domain has no bearing on its availability -- many parked domains do not even have DNS configured, let alone HTTP.
- cbhl 14y ago
  I'd be wary of doing automated whois lookups, which might be considered abusive / against terms of service depending on which server you hit.
  - trevorah 14y ago
    Good point. This doesnt sound like a quick fix.
- trevorah 14y ago
  Very true. This requires a little more work than my current hack. I'll see if there is a whois package for node...
nwh 14y ago
The quickest way I've found is to do a DNS lookup, and if that fails, hit the WHOIS.

jschuur 14y ago

Looks like there's some bugs here. Just claimed 'esi' was available on Twitter and GitHub, but it's not.

cbhl 14y ago
Hmm. Judging from the way the server.js is written, I'd expect he's being rate-limited, and the server returns free whenever the HTTP call doesn't return 200. Edit: Just to be sure, I threw in a breakpoint on line 18 of generate.js, and set name to my username (cbhl) -- and got a false "free" result for both Twitter and GitHub. The OP might need to be getting OAuth tokens and using the GitHub/Twitter APIs.
- trevorah 14y ago
  Any tips to sort this out? How are things being rate limited? edit: just realised you meant that twitter/github etc are rate limiting my requests. Bummer.
  - jschuur 14y ago
    Just hit the profile page URL and get the HTTP staus code. If https://twitter.com/ksdhbfslbflsdbs https://twitter.com/ksdhbfslbflsdbs returns 404, it's not available. Not quit the same (a username might be reserved internally), but either way, nobody else can use the name.
    - trevorah 14y ago
      Yep, thats pretty much how it works at the moment (see https://github.com/trevorah/usernique/blob/master/server.js https://github.com/trevorah/usernique/blob/master/server.js). The issue is that the server is sending out quite a few of these hits to twitter, and twitter is smart enough to start reject requests when things get a bit too much.
      - nsp 14y ago
        I'm not a node guy, but I found this module for Whois checks - https://npmjs.org/package/whois-available https://npmjs.org/package/whois-available It uses the IANA Whois service, an admittedly cursory look doesn't turn up anything re: rate limits, but you could just do a get request on the root url and only check Whois if it 404s to be safe. http://www.iana.org/whois http://www.iana.org/whois

mijustin 14y ago

Here's another one: says "ece" is available. http://d.pr/i/fiRF http://d.pr/i/fiRF