Detail information about Whois server reply

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6349191

  •  27-10-2019
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Question

Background

Today I want to test how WHOIS query and response protocol works, I read some information on Wiki and start writing code. After 5 minutes I have complete and working code, but I have some questions what I want to share with you.

Code

Here is a simple code that makes requests to the given whois.iana.org url and get replies from it. For example here I make a request for vitobrothersoft.com and get reply. Now the main question is not how this all works it is understandable for me. While Testing this part of code I change request domains whois.iana.org, com.whois-servers.net, whois.verisign-grs.com and in some ways the replies were same in some ways no. You can see example of reply bellow.

#include "stdafx.h"

using namespace System;

#define PORT 43

int main(array<System::String ^> ^args)
{
    System::Net::Sockets::TcpClient^ client = gcnew System::Net::Sockets::TcpClient("whois.iana.org", PORT);

    if( client != nullptr ) {

        System::String^ formatedDomain = "vitobrothersoft.com" + "\r\n";
        System::Text::Encoding^ ascii  = System::Text::Encoding::ASCII;
        array<System::Byte>^ byteUrl   = ascii->GetBytes(formatedDomain);

        System::IO::Stream^ stream = client->GetStream();

        // Write formatted URL to stream.
        stream->Write( byteUrl, 0, formatedDomain->Length );

        System::IO::StreamReader^ streamReader = gcnew System::IO::StreamReader( stream, System::Text::Encoding::ASCII );

        Console::Write( streamReader->ReadToEnd( ) );
    }
}

Reply Example

[Querying com.whois-servers.net]
[com.whois-servers.net]

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

   Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM
   Registrar: RESERVED-INTERNET ASSIGNED NUMBERS AUTHORITY
   Whois Server: whois.iana.org
   Referral URL: http://res-dom.iana.org
   Name Server: A.IANA-SERVERS.NET
   Name Server: B.IANA-SERVERS.NET
   Status: clientDeleteProhibited
   Status: clientTransferProhibited
   Status: clientUpdateProhibited
   Updated Date: 26-mar-2004
   Creation Date: 14-aug-1995
   Expiration Date: 13-aug-2011

>>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 02:23:52 UTC <<<

Question

I want to know

  1. Whats the difference between different services (urls) ?
  2. How many values can come for Status (clientDeleteProhibited, clientTransferProhibited, clientUpdateProhibited) ?
  3. I Need full information about every field of reply text
Was it helpful?

Solution

Referance

OTHER TIPS

whois.iana.org is root whois server, it returns whois server of zone that you specified, e.g. for .com, .net, .us, .ca etc; for each of this zone whois server is different and the trick is that reply text/format about domain info is not the same everywhere. See response format for google.us and google.ca as example:
http://domain-records-lookup.com/whois/google.us
http://domain-records-lookup.com/whois/google.ca
Also there is rfc3912 for whois that may be helpful for you.

Please have a look at these 2 other answers of me that will give you further information on your first point:

For status values, it again depends on the TLD, but for gTLDs please have a look at: https://www.icann.org/epp with a full list of statuses and explanations.

As for the explanations of each field, again this depends on the TLD, but for gTLDs you will find answers here: https://www.icann.org/rdds-labeling-display

For other TLDs you will need to search for documentation on the relevant registry website.

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