Daniel - March 16, 2022
How To Safely Scrape ICANN Whois Domain Data
In today's article, we will be showing you how to safely scrape ICANN Whois domain data.
What Is ICANN?
ICANN is an acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. It is a nonprofit organization and American multi-stakeholder group that was incorporated in the U.S. state of California in 1998.
It is responsible for coordinating and maintaining several databases that are related to the numerical spaces and namespaces of the internet. That is, it is an official place where numbers and names regarding websites are stored.
Scraping ICANN Whois Domain Data
Web scraping is the process whereby information is extracted from websites. It can be done by enterprises or individuals using web bots (coding-free automatic web scraper), opening many sessions, manually copying and pasting information, writing a script, or initiating any transactions.
Whois domain data is the contact information - such as name, phone number, email address, and physical address - that owners of websites list for their domain (websites). ICANN is a great source for Whois domain data. This data can be scraped to be used for cold-calling new domains with business services, assembling a database of Whois information, and finding companies in your niche market.
To find information associated with a particular domain on ICANN, go to the website and type in the domain. If the information you are looking for is private, either a generic corporation that hosts the information will be listed or nothing would be listed.
If the information is public then you will find the name and address of a real person. However, applications like ScrapeBox and Atomic Whois Explorer are needed to scrape Whois domain data because ICANN won't let you scrape the data.
How To Safely Scrape ICANN Whois Domain Data
To safely scrape Whois domain data from ICANN, web scrapers (web bots) are used as they work automatically to obtain the data that they have been programmed to extract. However, web bots can be easily detected by the ICANN server and when they do they are blocked.
When requests are sent from an IP address, they go to the server of the ICANN website and when various requests are sent when scraping, the website's defences get triggered by unwanted activity and then your IP address gets blocked.
Since the goal isn't to have your IP address banned or blocked, proxies become a necessity. Proxies are used to avoid getting banned and to scrape large amounts of data quickly. Proxies provide lots of IP addresses that can be rotated.
By rotating your IP addresses, the traffic is reduced and several requests will not be sent from one IP address at the same time.
Whether you are scraping in high volume or less, proxies come in handy. They help to increase capacity and anonymity. They function as in-betweeners and workhorses effectively ensuring that users don't get caught when scraping and they don't have to spend long hours while at it.
Find the perfect Proxy Product.
Best Proxies For Scraping ICANN Whois Domain Data
The best proxies for scraping ICANN Whois domain data are Residential and Datacenter proxies. When plugged into a scraping application like ScrapeBox, you can scrape ICANN Whois domain data securely.
Residential Proxies
These proxies are hard to detect and they are provided by Internet Service Providers. Residential proxies can be shared or dedicated but they are perfect for avoiding getting blocked while scraping ICANN Whois domain data.
Datacenter Proxies
These proxies are usually hosted in the cloud and their IP addresses are computer-generated from data servers associated with data centers. These IP addresses are usually public and shared. Its main advantage is that it is really fast.
Since the goal is to safely scrape ICANN Whois domain data, only reliable residential or datacenter proxies should be obtained.
To achieve this, these proxies should be purchased from only premium proxy providers. We will recommend ProxyRack, a reliable and trustworthy premium proxy provider.
ProxyRack’s proxies support SOCKS protocols which work for scraping Whois domain data from ICANN. It currently has over 140 countries on its proxy network. Its residential proxies have more than 5 million IP addresses and its datacenter proxies have over 20 thousand IP addresses.
ProxyRack Residential Proxies and Pricing:
Private Unmetered Residential Proxies - $65.95 monthly
Premium Residential Proxies - $49.95 monthly
Unmetered Residential Proxies - $199 monthly
ProxyRack Datacenter Proxies and Pricing:
USA Rotating Datacenter Proxies - $65 monthly
Global Rotating Datacenter Proxies - $65 monthly
Static USA Datacenter Proxies - $50 monthly.
Canada Rotating Datacenter Proxies - $65 monthly
Bottom Line
The combination of a quality web scraper and residential or datacenter proxies is all you need to safely scrape ICANN Whois domain data. Most importantly, ensure that they are from a premium proxy provider like ProxyRack.
