Using PHP classes to navigate distributed whois databases (
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Whois services changed radically this year with the introduction
of competition at the registrar level in the .com/.net/.org
namespace and with it the advent of the SRS (Shared Registry System). Find out how to navigate the new whois in your PHP scripts.
When we think of conducting whois lookups we're probably used to that
meaning: querying the Internic database, usually for a domain record for
a .com/.net/.org or .edu domain.
We also knew that there were other whois servers out there, one for
..mil and .int for example, not to mention the ones for the myriad
ccTLD's (country code TLD's) in existence, and we could look up
domains in those TLD's by asking the approprate whois server
about it.
Things changed radically this year with the introduction
of competition at the registrar level in the .com/.net/.org
namespace and with it the advent of the SRS (Shared Registry System).
ICANN set up shop to succeed the IANA and began accrediting other
registrars while Network Solutions split into seperate business units
to handle their registrar operation (which now competes with all the
others, albeit with a nice head start) and the registry, which is
still for all intents and purposes, a monopoly.
After a period of holding out and refusing to sign the ICANN registrar
accreditation agreement, Network Solutions finally did so and as per
the terms of the deal, began redirecting port 43 whois service from
rs.internic.net over to whois.nsiregistry.net on December 1st/1999.
What all this means is that on December 1st, running "whois devshed.com"
stopped looking like this:
InfoWest Global Internet Services, Inc. (DEVSHED-DOM)
1845 W. Sunset Blvd.
St. George, UT 84770
US
Domain Name: DEVSHED.COM
Administrative Contact:
Cosby, David R (DRC4) dcosby@INFOWEST.COM
801.674.0165
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Gifford, Aaron D (AG44) agifford@INFOWEST.COM
435-674-0165 (801) 634-9567 (FAX) 435-674-9654
Billing Contact:
InfoWest Domain Services (IDS2-ORG) dns@INFOWEST.COM
435-674-0165
Fax- 435-674-9654
Record last updated on 06-Aug-1997.
Record created on 06-Aug-1997.
Database last updated on 4-Dec-1999 12:14:06 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.INFOWEST.COM 204.17.177.10
NS2.INFOWEST.COM 204.17.177.20
And started looking like this:
Domain Name: DEVSHED.COM
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NS1.INFOWEST.COM
Name Server: NS2.INFOWEST.COM
Basically, the default whois server ceased to be whois.internic.net (a.k.a
rs.internic.net) which only carried records for domains registered via
Network Solutions or Worldnic, and started to be the registry whois
server which carried entries for all .com/.net/.org domains.
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