Experimental Cross-Registrar Whois

Currently it seems that there is no single authoritative WHOIS. Rather, each registrar keeps its own data of its own registrants. This makes it difficult to figure out whether a domain is truly available for registration, so we've rigged up a search system to simultaneously query all operating testbed registrars for information about a given domain.

The system is totally experimental -- perhaps it has bugs we don't know about, it's certainly a little sluggish, and the formatting still leaves something to be desired. We may not keep it up in the long term, but at least for now we think it may be helpful.

The script currently searches Network Solutions and Register.com. Melbourne IT will be added shortly.

See also http://swhois.net and http://domainia.org

Send comments about the script, interface, or concept in general to Ben Edelman. In particular, if you know of any other Testbed Registrars that are already accepting registrations and have WHOIS data available about their registrations, please send details.

Note that this system is now obsolete. Up-to-date alternatives include Uwhois.