Whois Abuse?

**deist** · 08-23-2002, 03:43 PM

It seems to be getting increasingly more difficult to get whois info on a domain - the registrars seem to be refusing to give each other information... often a whois search on register.com or nsi.com (and other sites) will time out, or come back stating that the registrar of the name in question is refusing further requests from the site you are on ... I guess verisign started doing this first and pissed everybody off? Just used whois on nsi.com for a domain registered at namescout.com and it came back stating information could not be shown due to "whois abuse" (ie receiving too many queries from nsi?)... why can't everyone just share and share alike, is there really that much bandwidth involved?

**deist** · 08-23-2002, 03:46 PM

This isn't so much a problem for those in the know, but as people who want those interested in our domains to contact us, the more barriers registrars put in the way of accessing our whois info the less likely we are to make new contacts either for development or transfer.
Is there a site out there which consistently gives whois info without timing out?

**mole** · 08-23-2002, 04:04 PM

http://www.domainwhitepages.com is okay I guess.

**Who-Wiz** · 08-23-2002, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by deist
Is there a site out there which consistently gives whois info without timing out?

Almost?

\\ Wiz //

**pixelman** · 08-25-2002, 12:53 AM

I also have problem when I use whois at Snapnames.com.

The thing is that the whois database is really a gold mine for the spammers. They can get millions of contact and e-mail from there. Even Verisign can't resist to do so...

**mole** · 08-25-2002, 01:01 AM

Even Verisign? Verisign once got into a furor by leasing their contact information out to buyers.

**GypsyBee** · 08-25-2002, 04:24 PM

Hi all,

Stay tuned for DotComster.com by our very own DotComster.

In the meantime, you can use the Great Whois engine which searches all the registrars for various TLD's.

www.DotComster.com

**Whois-Search** · 08-25-2002, 05:24 PM

www.whois-search.com is the only whois you need

**devolution** · 08-25-2002, 05:24 PM

Well, I might have said it before, but DROE (Domain Registry of Europe) are the worst offenders for this.

They got all our addresses from the OpenSRS Whois database. (Tucows).

**NameBox** · 09-02-2002, 09:03 AM

Originally posted by devolution
Well, I might have said it before, but DROE (Domain Registry of Europe) are the worst offenders for this.

They got all our addresses from the OpenSRS Whois database. (Tucows).

I agree with you there, DROE sends me junk mail constantly, and mostly at domains kept at OpenSRS. Nothing so far for domains at eNom, etc.

09-02-2002, 02:11 PM

DROE is an eNom reseller. Imagine how pissed eNom would be if their other resellers were complaining about DROEs predatory email practices instead of just having other registrars complain about it.

DROE appears to have mined the whois database and agressively targetted non-eNom registrations with their predatory marketting practices - it's as simple as that.

By the way, if you look at eNom's TOS, they reserve the right to sell your contact information to third party marketting companies. It will be interesting to see what happens if they choose to do this. GoDaddy has the same language in their TOS. OpenSRS will never contact your customers or sell your information.

-t

**NameBox** · 09-02-2002, 03:55 PM

Unfortunately, for resellers, OpenSRS just isn't cost competitive given the superior eNom feature set.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but how can you compare the enom feature list to OpenSRS's simple dns management ...

**Whois-Search** · 09-02-2002, 07:20 PM

Snapnames.com advise customers to use our www.whois-search.com when there's is not working

**NameBox** · 09-02-2002, 07:38 PM

Originally posted by Whois-Search
Snapnames.com advise customers to use our www.whois-search.com when there's is not working

Yet another blatant plug of your service. Surely, one plug/spam/advert PER THREAD should be enough ...

**Who-Wiz** · 09-02-2002, 07:46 PM

Originally posted by NameBox
Yet another blatant plug of your service. Surely, one plug/spam/advert PER THREAD should be enough ...

I think its one per page per "whois related" thread.

I did want to ask, Whois-search, do you guys prevent whois abuse on your website? While it makes it a bit easier to link directly to a whois record (having query's come in through the query string), it does open you up to having someone spider whois records through your website and abusing your bandwidth.

Just a concern of mine, I wasn't sure how you guys deal with it.

~ D.

**Whois-Search** · 09-03-2002, 11:14 AM

That snapnames.com quote is a fact not spam

Yes I have number of ip banning features in my admin

**Who-Wiz** · 09-03-2002, 04:18 PM

Originally posted by Whois-Search
That snapnames.com quote is a fact not spam
Yes I have number of ip banning features in my admin

Just kidding!

Not addressing pixelman, I think your post missed the point where that didn't seem a little like a non-sequitar after your first response to the thread.

Best,
~ D.