Domain availability check

1 Availability engines

2 Netim as availability engine

3 Improve Core Whois by using our DAS

3.1 Redefine availability check settings

3.2 Make a try

3.3 About premium domain names

Availability engines

The way domain availability checkes are performed in Hostbill is defined at Settings > System Settings > Domain settings, tab Lookup settings

For each extension, several availability engines are available:

Core DNS
Searches are performed by querying the DNS but this is not a reliable solution. If domain names are registered without nameservers or if it is a reserved term, the domain will be detected as available. However it is the only way for extensions that do not have whois.
Core Whois
Searches are performed by using WHOIS servers directly. This is the default method used by HostBill installations. The search is fast however it is not reliable due to the fact that:
- Deleted domain names in redemption or quarantine status are sometimes no longer displayed into the whois whereas it is still unavailable
- Registry reserved/blocked domain names are sometimes not displayed into the whois
- Some ccTlds don’t provide a whois or respond very slowly
- Some ccTlds have implemented rate limiting per minute, per hour or per day
- The domain name syntax is often not managed by the whois server
- WHOIS doesn’t make a difference between regular domain names and premium domain names
Domain registrars
Searches are performed by a domain registrar module who implements its own rules (premium support, suggestion support, ..).

Netim as availability engine

Our module supports all HostBill functions to be defined as availability engine.

If you are able to see netim_com in the availability engine dropdown list, select it for all extensions you are selling with Netim.
If you don’t see our module in the list, select Core Whois and improve it with the use of our DAS

Improve Core Whois by using our DAS

NETIM provides a Domain Availability Service over HTTP. In order to implement it you will need to redefine the Core whois definition as follow :

Redefine availability check settings

Select Core Whois as availability engine and keep the default settings

You can also define here the minimun / maximum lengh accepted for the SLD. Take a look at the extension documentation to know the accepted range.
Edit the availability check settings

Enter in Server host / Query URL the following value
```
https://www.netim.com/bin/das-whmcs.php?login=XXXX&password=YYYY&domain={$domain}
```
Replace “XXXX” by your reseller ID.
Replace “YYYY” by your DAS password.
Enter in Test string the following value
```
: AVAILABLE
```
Don’t forget the leading : caracter

Make a try

https://www.netim.com/bin/das-whmcs.php?login=XXXX&password=YYYY&domain=yourdomainname.com

About premium domain names

As HostBill doesn’t manage premium domain names through Core whois, our DAS will return a not available result preventing you to sell them without the capacity to honor the order.