diff --git a/rowbot b/rowbot
index ebda271..2cbba88 100755
--- a/rowbot
+++ b/rowbot
@@ -274,6 +274,7 @@ on_001() {
 
   ping_pid=$!
   nick=${params[0]}
+  registered=yes
   who "$nick" %%uht,42
 }
 
@@ -375,6 +376,14 @@ on_376() {
   debug %s "${params[1]}"
 }
 
+on_433() {
+  info "somebody is already using %s" "${params[1]}"
+
+  if [[ $registered = no ]]; then
+    nick "${nick}_"
+  fi
+}
+
 on_473() {
   error "%s: %s" "${params[1]}" "${params[2]}"
 }
@@ -469,6 +478,11 @@ who() {
 
 ping-handler() {
   ping "row your bot gently down the stream"
+
+  if [[ $keep_trying = yes ]]; then
+    info "trying for %s again" "$desired_nick"
+    nick "$desired_nick"
+  fi
 }
 
 trap ping-handler ALRM
@@ -664,6 +678,20 @@ hook_post_PRIVMSG_control_panel() {
   fi
 }
 
+hook_post_433_alternick() {
+  if [[ -z $desired_nick && $registered = no ]]; then
+    desired_nick=${params[1]}
+    keep_trying=yes
+  fi
+}
+
+hook_post_NICK_alternick() {
+  if [[ ${params[0]} = $desired_nick ]]; then
+    keep_trying=no
+    info "obtained nick %s" "$desired_nick"
+  fi
+}
+
 ###
 # driver
 ###
@@ -673,6 +701,7 @@ trap ping-handler ALRM
 if [[ $reload = yes ]]; then
   privmsg "$RELOAD_TO" done.
 else
+  registered=no
   nick "$nick"
   user "$ident" "$realname"
 fi