In message <Pine.NEB.4.21.0009191513520.24900-100000@server.int.duh.org>, Todd Vierling writ
es:

>The prior server, whois.networksolutions.com is not "standard" either.

Eek. That's definitely far worse than the other two options.

>In case you missed it, domain names were deregulated a while ago.  Netsol
>doesn't "own" the ./.COM/.ORG/.NET registry anymore, even if they currently
>host the root name server database.  ICANN now controls the flow of that
>information.  However, ICANN offers only rwhois service, so a regular whois
>client, which does not understand the rwhois protocol, won't be able to do
>anything useful with it.

Right, I understand that.

>If we want a "standard" whois server, until such time that our whois is a
>bit smarter, it must be whois.internic.net, with no exceptions.  We cannot
>use whois.networksolutions.com in that case either.  The drawback here is
>that whois.internic.net provides no way to recurse to the appropriate whois
>server automatically.

I understand that too. I think we should go back to that, but either way,
whois.networksolutions.com is not tenable...

Perhaps we should ship an rwhois client?

>Blame Erik Fair for starting it, if you wish:  he changed it from
>whois.internic.net to whois.networksolutions.com before the 1.5 branch.
>(Cynical grin notwithstanding.  8^)

Blamed.

--jhawk