Domain Research Tool... What a piece of crap?

[GUA]

$130, £80GBP

Am I missing the point or is DRT a total piece of crap?

So I have a list of 50,000 domains. I want to get the cream of the bunch. I insert them into DRT. I have a play with all the functions of the software, set it up as i like, and off we go.

- Near every column just shows a ?
- All the auto appraisals are plain crap.
- When i edit my settings to only get overture, and overture with extension, there is only one column: Overture, and the status says 'Checking MSN LP x2,x3,etc' even though I have not selected MSN LP. It then does not return a result for MSN LP...
- It is meant to be quick... yet it kills my internet, and takes over 50 hours to check 50,000 domains (even when it is getting near none of the data). I could look through the whole list myself quicker !

As an FYI, I have the proxies etc all setup, it is not a problem there, and I have a very decent broadband connection.

Ive seen various other complaints about DRT from others. Im just curious as to how I go about processing a refund for this hunk of junk that has wasted hours of my time?

Others thougts?

 

[Theo]

I hear Patty has a super secret piece of software in the works

 

[DN BROKER]

I hear Patty has a super secret piece of software in the works

Thats ODD i had a dream about it! :uhoh:

 

[Tia Wood]

Had you of said it was 50,001 domains, I would say you are probably pushing the limits and I would have advised you to break them up and try again.

But since it's only 50,000 I have no clue why this software is being such a douche for you.

 

[Luc]

Thomas,

I'm the creator of DRT. I apologize for the inconvenience.

1. If each column shows a "?" it simply means you're NOT scanning that metric and its unknown. To select what needs to be scanned (ex: MSN), check mark it in scan settings.
2. The auto appraisal is based on a user specified formula.
3. That's because you're checking msn ad counts (default). Disable that in your scan settings->advertisers tab.
4. If it kills your internet, it means your internet is too slow or your ISP is blocking or slowing down queries

There is a problem with MSN, which is basically that the search no longer exists and now all queries need to be be made to Bing. I'm fixing that now and it should be available shortly.

As a tip, I strongly encourage you to read the help file.

Thanks,
Luc L.

 

[tetrapak]

To be honest I thought I'm alone with this problem. Since I bought it I have only wasted time without any success for getting valuable information. I would too loved to get a refund, it was a waste of money. It can't even remember the settings for the columns or remember the list of my domains.

 

[jdk]

I load lists up to 200,000 in size and have no problems scanning them. I usually only check for availability and then with the smaller lists check certain criteria and then use proxies.

 

[tristanperry]

I load lists up to 200,000 in size and have no problems scanning them. I usually only check for availability and then with the smaller lists check certain criteria and then use proxies.

I only ever use DRT for checking availability, and it's fine for me.

But when I tried scanning for anything else, with or without proxies, I had major trouble.

 

[GUA]

Luc,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

1. OK
2. Is there not a default algorithm? Once you have collected results can you then update the auto appraisal without having to rescan?
3. Ah OK. Done
4. This is still confusing me. I got some sort of message along the lines of 'Bandwith tube limit, will be OK in 30 seconds' after which my power tank of a computer got pretty angry

I assumed that would be the case with Bing.


Finally simply as an FYI, I tried to call you on te number I was given at some point on the DRT website, and I got a disgruntled woman on the other end who didnt sound too happy about the abundance of DRT calls she was receiving. Old number?

Oh, and I have not got this help file which you talk about.. I looked.

When I am being told that md.com is available I am unsure if i can trust DRT.

 

[tristanperry]

4. This is still confusing me. I got some sort of message along the lines of 'Bandwith tube limit, will be OK in 30 seconds' after which my power tank of a computer got pretty angry

Bandwidth choke, but yep, I've had that.

It's an internet connection issue.

In my old area, I could only get up to 2 Mbit broadband. However my ISP was quite good and I could scan up to 50 domains at a time, no problem.

However now I'm in a high quality broadband area, and get 10 Mbit broadband (I can get up to 50 Mbit here, but don't need higher than 10). Having said that, my ISP is crap for bandwidth usage and I get bandwidth chokes every few minutes, meaning I can only scan up to 10 domains at a time!

But yeah, the bandwidth choke is down to the ISP, nothing to do with DRT

 

[jdk]

When you load the proxies you have to test them.

Several months ago I noticed my scanning speed has decreased for some unknown reason. I can only suspect it is my ISP b/c there were no updates for DRT at the time so it couldn't be the software all of a sudden.

Anyone else experience this with their ISP?

Overall, DRT has more than paid for itself from the domains I have found and developed or sold.

 

[GUA]

As of now I am running a scan with just overture, and alta vista TP. Will see what the results are like, and go from there.

One thing I feel obliged to post here is that Luc (owner and creator of DRT) has been very courteous, and extremely helpful with all of this.

It is not very often that you get someone who is actually prepared to stand up, and put in the effort with their product.

Kudos to Luc.

Also if anyone could tell me why my Alta Vista LP is now '*' for nearly every domain, it would be greatly appreciated.

In principle it is a decent piece of software but in reality....

 

[furca]

I use DRT as more of a classification tool than actually scanning anything.

 

[draggar]

I use DRT on a regular basis and have no issues that are related to the program, except the domains I want are never available. :lol:

3. That's because you're checking msn ad counts (default). Disable that in your scan settings->advertisers tab.

You might also want to set it for more connections - 10-20 is good, 25-40 if you have a really fast connection (instead of the default 3-5).

4. If it kills your internet, it means your internet is too slow or your ISP is blocking or slowing down queries

I can vouch that Comcast does in fact cut bandwidth when you use the DRT. It is a real PITA at times, especialy when I want to get it done quickly but I was able to go though about 15,000 domains the other day in less than an hour.

My basic settings:
Scan settings - search engines the following are checked:
Alexa Link / Site Popularity
Availability / Parking Status
Google Term Rank

Scan Settings - threads:
Auto config for cable/DSL
30 max simultaneous connections
15 second timeout (I think the default is 30?)
1/4 second connection interval
10 max retries on connection error (can most likely go much lower if you want to).

Scan Settings - Whois / Availability
Check whois to determine registrar, expiration, and creation date
Only check whois availability if primary method (resolve) failed.