A domain that I have been eyeing recently expired. I understand that it will go into the redemptionPeriod state for a couple months, then into the pendingDelete state for a few days. My question is, what will happen once the domain is available? I know technically it will be available to register, but is it common that domain squatters will pick it up? Is this where the so-called "domain tasters" come in?

The domain in question has never hosted a site to my knowledge, and also has only been registered for about a year. I think this improves the chances of the domain being available for me to register. Still, I really want the domain, so I'm pondering whether to go for a domain grabber service like snapnames.

Basically, is there a reasonable chance that I will be able to register the domain, or is my only chance to backorder it via snapnames.com or something?

Frost,

If you really want the domain that badly and you feel it may be snapped up before you can get it, then a domain grabber service might be for you.

Never guaranteed to always get the domain, but its worth a shot for sure.

Regards,

Dale Evans
Manager

I have already let it be released without trying a domain grabber service. It was, as I suspected, snapped up by someone (probably automatically), but I am hoping it's just one of those "domain tasters" and that it will be dropped in the next couple days. If I'm completely wrong, I'll try again in a year, because I am not going to lower myself to pay a squatter.

I admit that I'm more than supsicious to those "get it when it's free"...

I have 1 domain, that I thought "i don't need it" and let go past renew period, but then, I thought that maybe it would be fine.
Now, it's been in redemptionPeriod for like 2 months, and I've setup a php script to monitor it's state, and to alert me the hour it's out of that status.

If I can get it at that time, good.
If not, whatever. I'm not paying 280$ to get it back, and I won't pay any squatter either.

All is not so easy as it may seem at first sight.

Originally Posted by annylurk

All is not so easy as it may seem at first sight.

What? Was that last night's fortune cookie message?

Anyway, it turns out that the domain was "tasted" for 5 days, then dropped. The bad news is that it was picked up by someone else before I was able to. Oh well, I suppose I don't really have to have it..