Could DNS help solve this?

[Chris Buxton]

On Nov 10, 2010, at 5:53 PM, Sten Carlsen wrote:
> Hi
> 
> This is not a bind problem, not really a DNS problem. I still hope that these might be able to help provide the solution.
> 
> With the growing number of registrars of e.g. .com domains, it becomes difficult or even almost impossible to figure out which whois server you should ask for information about a domain name.
> 
> Could that information be added by the registrar to the glue as e.g. a txt RR, so that RR tells which whois serer to use for the domain?
> 
> I guess that either an RFC or some other standards text would be needed to make this happen and happen in a uniform way.
> 
> I assume I am not the only one feeling lost here?

In addition to the eminently practical and useful suggestion already given (using the command line whois client that comes with most Linux, Mac, or *BSD systems), I'll point out that there are some whois servers whose presence is given by DNS records, specifically SRV records. Some random samples:

$ dig +noall +answer srv _nicname._tcp.de
_nicname._tcp.de.	86389	IN	SRV	0 0 43 whois.denic.de.
$ dig +noall +answer srv _nicname._tcp.us
_nicname._tcp.us.	518400	IN	SRV	0 0 43 whois.nic.us.
$ dig +noall +answer srv _nicname._tcp.mx
_nicname._tcp.mx.	172800	IN	SRV	0 0 43 whois.nic.mx.
$ dig +noall +answer srv _nicname._tcp.au
_nicname._tcp.au.	259200	IN	SRV	0 0 43 whois.ausregistry.com.AU.
$ dig +noall +answer srv _nicname._tcp.co.uk
_nicname._tcp.co.uk.	172800	IN	SRV	0 0 43 whois.nic.uk.

Chris Buxton
BlueCat Networks