Andy Linton wrote:

My apologies! I'm using the RIPE whois client and it never returns when I type:

whois -h whois.domainz.net.nz lionra.net.nz

although it's quite able to talk to other whois servers around the planet.

OK, I was kinda intrigued about this one. So I downloaded the RIPE stuff and had a play. It seems that the RIPE whois terminates its query with a single LF, not CRLF as as the Domainz server is expecting. From tcpdump: 17:02:01.058956 toyunix.zl2tnm.gen.nz.62311 > www-wlg.domainz.net.nz.whois: P 1: 16(15) ack 1 win 17520 4500 0037 d189 0000 4006 7d4c c0a8 0102 ca2e a012 f367 002b 3d2b 3c24 0827 44dd 5018 4470 cec9 0000 6461 6564 616c 7573 2e63 6f2e 6e7a 0a (for those who don't read hex, that's <ip-header> <tcp header> "daedalus.co.nz\n" No "\r". I suspect the Domainz server is waiting for the CR not the LF. I'm amazed. I didn't think it was possible to screw up the whois protocol, much less have an outfit like RIPE do it. From RFC 954: PROTOCOL To access the NICNAME/WHOIS server: Connect to the SRI-NIC service host at TCP service port 43 (decimal). Send a single "command line", ending with <CRLF> (ASCII CR and LF). Receive information in response to the command line. The server closes its connection as soon as the output is finished. Anyway, I'll pop a note to the developers suggesting that they accept any control character as the terminator for the query string. The right thing to do is of course to fix the RIPT whois client. Just change: print WHOIS_S $string, "\n"; to print WHOIS_S $string, "\r\n"; in src/whois.pl and re-install. (mutter mutter Perl hackers mutter mutter) -- don --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog

"Robert Gray" wrote:

It's not BUFFOONZ but RIPE who's out of step with the rest of the world. I should have known ;)

Well, in this case, the RFCs are on Domainz's side, not RIPE's. Not to mention every other whois client on the planet which sends CRLF at the ends of their queries, as required by reputable network protocols the world over. Andy Linton writes:

"Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send"

Indeed, hence the suggestion that it be made to terminate on any control character. But I suspect that there are higher priorities at the moment than making the whois server talk to non-compliant clients. (It's not my code.) -- don --------- To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog