Thanks so much for this reply! Helps a lot; when one is not in this business, it is hard to imagine the details. Stephanie On 2016-08-24 21:28, Rob Golding wrote:
On 2016-08-24 23:38, Stephanie Perrin wrote:
I too would like to heed Chuck's advice, but have a burning question: Do registries have any way of distinguishing between bots and people, in their citing of stats? If so, how?
Speaking as a Registrar, we can/do, so I'd certainly expect it of Registries: * multiple queries in a very short space of time * regular / consistent queries of the same domains * queries of large numbers of domains from the same ip etc
Most bots are usually pretty obvious - there are the 'clever' and 'responsible' bots/bot-authors/bot-using-orgs that spread load and not normally trying to "hide" who they are, so are given more latitude than others
Abusive levels of whois queries tend to get banned and even a handful of queries from a single source can get you blocked by many registrars and registries for a period
It can be a pain with com/net as the only current way to get the contact details (until the thick-whois project completes) as a gaining registrar is via the losing registrar whois server - some dont work reliably, some block you at very low levels from radar registered ips, lots dont work over ipv6 etc
Hit one recently who blocked you at *4 queries* in 10 minutes - a problem when the registrant was moving over 20 domains !
A lot of whois 'bots' aren't the right/best/appropriate way to get the data they're after anyway - a case of a little knowlege being dangerous - badly thought out drop-catcher type bots being one category that do excessive queries on the same domains which is not proper solution for what they're wanting to achieve
Rob