WHOIS command not returning useful information?

dns whois domain-name nameservers
Cory picture Cory · Mar 30, 2011 · Viewed 8.7k times · Source

Nowadays, whenever you use WHOIS command doesn't return any usefully information. I usually have to go to Godaddy, Dnsstuff or other services to get the data. I understand the reason is mostly due to spamming.

I was just wondering how other services get this data. Do they use different type of WHOIS command?

Answer

Blrfl picture Blrfl · Mar 30, 2011

Bare-naked whois stopped returning complete records when Network Solutions was no longer the only place to register domains. Now it functions more like DNS, where something gives you a place to look for authoritative information, and you have to go look there if you want it.

To wit:

% whois stackoverflow.com
[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[whois.verisign-grs.com]
   ...
   Domain Name: STACKOVERFLOW.COM
   Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
   Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
   ...

% whois [email protected]
[Querying whois.godaddy.com]
[whois.godaddy.com]
...
Registrant:
   Stack Overflow Internet Services, Inc.
   1010 Disk Drive
   ...etc...

The other services are in the business of registering domains and get their information from their domain registrants.

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