Querying Large Number of Whois Records?

Mailman List Mirror (Read Only)
1

I’m sure that someone has already been asked by someone on this list, so please forget the duplicate request…

Anyway, we are looking for a way to query a large number of Whois Records. We have a perl script that does a really great job of this (Feed it IP Address’s, it give you back whois records), but, ARIN’s Whois server appears to be configured that after 50 or so queries in quick succession, it will kill our connection (Which actually makes sense because of the potential load we or other people might put on it).

So, I was wondering, is there any good method of queuing large number of Whois Records, or possibly setting up a caching whois server?

Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!
Spencer

2

Spencer,

In the last 12 months or so, the ARIN membership passed a measure allowing
those with "bona fide" research needs to petition ARIN directly for bulk
WHOIS information.

I cannot seem to find information on this policy directly on ARIN's
website, and thus it may not be properly documented.

I strongly suggest sending an e-mail to hostmaster@arin.net and engage in
a discussion with them about your needs.

/david

3

Spencer,

I found the minutes for the ARIN meeting at which the proposal I was
referring to was passed. I think my last post mis-represented the policy,
so here are the minutes for your enjoyment:

Policy Proposal 7 (Bulk copies of ARIN WHOIS DB) | Presentation

Richard Jimmerson stated the policy proposal and moderated the discussion
that followed.

It is proposed ARIN provide a bulk copy of WHOIS output, minus point of
contact information, on the ARIN FTP site for download by any organization
that wishes to obtain the data providing they agree to ARIN's acceptable
use policy that would accompany the data.

An attendee commented that as long as the proposed policy retains the
minus POC language, that he had no objections.

There was further discussion about how the AUP would be agreed to. The
language of the current proposal states that the AUP would be attached to
the data and that an individual who downloaded it would agree to the AUP
by default. One attendee expressed that they felt the requestor of the
data should physically sign the AUP and that ARIN should keep this
documentation on file.

The attendees of the meeting were asked if they supported the policy
proposal, as written.

Yeas: majority
Nays: 2

4

For what purpose?

Doug