

Ask HN: Favorite domain availability checker? - saiko-chriskun

So my favorite domain name checker is down: www.domai.nr<p>The top google results for others were actually pretty crappy. Works fine for the really common tlds but that&#x27;s about it. What does everyone else use?
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liviudm
I use the whois command utility which is available by default on any Mac. If
you're using Linux it is usually installed by default, but not always.

To install it on Ubuntu:

apt-get install whois

or on CentOS:

yum -y install jwhois

On Windows you can download it from here: [http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/sysinternals/bb897435.asp...](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-
us/sysinternals/bb897435.aspx)

To use it, simply type on the command prompt:

whois domainname.com

I find this approach much faster and easier than using a website that
essentially does the same thing. Not to mention that there were rumours a few
years ago that some of those websites are capturing what you're searching for
and register the most interesting domain names hoping they will sell them back
to you.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Liviu

