From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed Apr  7 09:29:06 2004
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75C6816A4CE
	for <freebsd-isp@freebsd.org>; Wed,  7 Apr 2004 09:29:06 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from skyweb.ca (smtp-1.vancouver.ipapp.com [216.152.192.207])
	by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0895643D2F
	for <freebsd-isp@freebsd.org>; Wed,  7 Apr 2004 09:29:06 -0700 (PDT)
	(envelope-from mjohnston@skyweb.ca)
Received: from [192.168.15.191] ([64.42.246.34]) by smtp-1.vancouver.ipapp.com
	; Wed, 07 Apr 2004 09:27:46 -0700
From: Mark Johnston <mjohnston@skyweb.ca>
To: Odhiambo Washington <wash@wananchi.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Apr 2004 11:27:44 -0500
User-Agent: KMail/1.6.1
References: <20040407160825.GA44406@ns2.wananchi.com>
In-Reply-To: <20040407160825.GA44406@ns2.wananchi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Disposition: inline
Content-Type: text/plain;
  charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Message-Id: <200404071127.44699.mjohnston@skyweb.ca>
X-Country: CA
cc: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: WHOIS Server
X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1
Precedence: list
List-Id: Internet Services Providers <freebsd-isp.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-isp>,
	<mailto:freebsd-isp-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-isp>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-isp@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-isp-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-isp>,
	<mailto:freebsd-isp-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 16:29:06 -0000

Odhiambo Washington <wash@wananchi.com> wrote:
> What is the sane way of doing whois for "any" domain extension
> (.com/.org/.biz, etc)?

As far as I know, you have to keep track of the different servers manually, or 
use someone else's server.  I use the Web-based whois at dnsstuff.com, which 
seems to work with all TLDs, but I wouldn't recommend a web-based one like 
that for high-volume whois'ing.

> Is it sane to think that I can run my own local whois server/interface?
> If yes, I'll appreciate some pointers. It would be nice if I had an
> interface to whois on our website.

I've never tried, but it seems eminently sane to me.  What about Bill 
Weinman's BW whois at http://whois.bw.org ?  It works both as a CGI and as a 
command-line script, and the author maintains a list of TLDs and WHOIS 
servers (http://whois.bw.org/dist/current/tld.conf).  There's also the 
standard Linux whois client, at http://www.linux.it/~md/software/, that keeps 
track of TLDs - I don't know how up-to-date the list is or where it comes 
from, though.

HTH,
Mark