The newer versions of Domain Punch Pro and Watch My Domains ISP split the domain name search part and the domain name management part into separate tabs.

So, to search for available domains, you should use the Finder tab.

The domain name finder first checks if a domain has a valid A (DNS) record to check if the domain is registered or not. If it doesn’t find a valid IP address, it will do a whois lookup. This minimizes the number of whois lookups and also increases the speed of lookups. Also, this method will appeal to people who are paranoid about their domain name searches.

The Problem

This method will not work if you use OpenDNS for your DNS or if your ISP automatically resolves all domain names.

The Fix

You can fix this problem by adding the OpenDNS IPs to the invalid IPs list. To find the IP to add, lookup  an obviously made up (unregistered) domain name like, for example,

8tu4ri7xfb1werghty.com

Please see the screen shot below.