I'm very new to Namecoin and tried to to register a domain with name_new d/<name>. I received the tx and rand response which seemed normal. Later (after 12+ blocks) when I did firstupdate and it responded with an error (using windows and I think I had escape issues):

error: {"code":-1,"message":"name_firstupdate <name> <rand> [<tx>] <value>\nPerf
orm a first update after a name_new reservation.\nNote that the first update wil
l go into a block 12 blocks after the name_new, at the soonest."}

So I corrected the escape issues and reissued firstupdate:

error: {"code":-1,"message":"this name is already active"}

And then thinking maybe the original firstupdate took, escape issues and all, I tried an update:

error: {"code":-1,"message":"this coin is not in your wallet"}

I then did what I should have done first and looked up the domain name and found it exists and will expire in 188 days.

So... my questions are:

1) Why did the name_new not inform me it was taken? The Wiki implies using name_new checks for existance:

Or check if your domain if free with the command line (the command line don't do the conversion) :

./namecoind name_new d/<name>

2) Does the .01 fee for name_new just disappear?