Whois Record - Last updated - Why is this?

[Playdo]

I'm looking at getting a certain .co.uk URL when it becomes available. I've been looking at the Whois record.

The strange thing is, it says that it was recently updated but the renewal date hasn't changed at all.

Eg. Whois record for url.co.uk - 123Reg. Imagine that the renewal date said 01-March-2011. This makes it a month after the last update of 08-Feb-2011.

Why wouldn't the Renewal date have changed if it says it was recently updated? Could it have not been updated?

 

[Dave1975]

Hi Playdo,

Firstly, welcome to DF.
Secondly, there's no guarantee a domain will become available.

The last updated date is simply that, the last time the domain was updated, it could be contact details, registrant details, nameservers, etc, etc.

So, moving on you have the renewal date. Depending on the registrar (the service the person used to register the domain) they will receive a flurry of emails before that date to remind them the domain is expiring and to renew. IF they fail to renew before that date the domain then becomes suspended, and enters the drop cycle, at this stage they can still renew the domain.

If they still fail to renew, then the domain will be released after 92 or 99 days of the renewal date, and become available to register once again.

But, it's still not simple, there's a host of public & private drop catchers checking domain drop lists everyday, so if this domain takes their fancy then they could book it in and be making repeat requests to 'drop catch' the domain, this can occur within split seconds of it being made available again.

So as you can see any domain is a long way off becoming truly expired, if you want to PM me the domain I can take a look for you & give more specific advice.

Hope that helps,
Greg