Check existence of a domain

[Veightman]

I have been searching high and low for info to get started on this. Basically what i want to be able to do is check as best as possible, whether or not a domain exists/has been registered.

First i wrote this:
<?php
$fp = fopen("http://www.".$url_to_check."/", "r"); //var from form
if (!$fp) {
echo "Domain exists";
} else {
echo "Domain doesnt exist";
}
fclose ($fp);
?>

Great, worked like a charm till i happened upon a domain that was recently suspended but not yet available to buy.

What im thinking is that if a domain exists in any degree ie: live, parked or just exists but not available to buy, there must be a better way of doing this. Maybe checkdnsrr() ??

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

[sijis]

I think what you are looking for is somehow querying a WHOIS server.
I don't know much about WHOIS but i believe that is what can give you taht information. Now I don't know where you can find WHOIS servers, if they are setup that way or its just a huge txt file with data... but my point is to look into whois and see if that gives you any results.

hope that helps.

[trooper]

For a good whois script goto matts scripts

HTH

GM