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A comment on Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check availability. Parent comment

Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by trevorah on Sunday March 10, 2013 @06:56PM (#5353926)
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.
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Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by rajivm on Sunday March 10, 2013 @07:23PM (#5354033)
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.
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Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by cbhl on Sunday March 10, 2013 @07:35PM (#5354080)
I'd be wary of doing automated whois lookups, which might be considered abusive / against terms of service depending on which server you hit.
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Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by trevorah on Sunday March 10, 2013 @08:08PM (#5354190)
Good point. This doesnt sound like a quick fix.
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Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by trevorah on Sunday March 10, 2013 @07:35PM (#5354081)
Very true. This requires a little more work than my current hack. I'll see if there is a whois package for node...
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Re:Show HN - usernique.com: Generate usernames and check ava... by nwh on Sunday March 10, 2013 @10:30PM (#5354557)
The quickest way I've found is to do a DNS lookup, and if that fails, hit the WHOIS.
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