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I would like to ask why every time I try to request to these whois servers I always get a time out error:

  • whois.nic.website
  • whois.nic.tech
  • whois.nic.name
  • whois.nic.xyz
  • whois.nic.store
  • whois.nic.site
  • whois.nic.online
  • whois.nic.design
  • whois.nic.fun
  • whois.nic.ink
  • whois.nic.host
  • whois.nic.art
  • whois.nic.name
  • whois.nic.coop
  • whois.nic.wiki
  • whois.nic.love
  • whois.nic.press
  • whois.nic.fans
  • whois.nic.realty
  • whois.nic.dhl
  • whois.nic.storage
  • whois.nic.kred
  • whois.nic.basketball
  • whois.nic.rent
  • whois.nic.tickets
  • whois.nic.gent
  • whois.nic.observer

These whois servers are all based on IANA and ICANN when I try to search for the whois servers for those TLDs.

Here is a screenshot when I try to get the whois data of a .tech link All the other whois servers return the same time out error. Whois error for .tech

Thanks for your answers

Rogin Neil
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  • isn't it because they are captcha protected? – Liam Aug 13 '18 at 15:32
  • if you try to query from the web, yes it is captcha protected. but I am trying to make a query using tcp connection with port 43 and it's always time out – Rogin Neil Aug 13 '18 at 15:55
  • Why would they have captcha on the web site but then allow TCP queries? Wouldn't make any sense. – JJJ Aug 14 '18 at 08:44
  • So you're saying I can't make a TCP query if the site is captcha protected? So I tried this: I accessed whois.net.kyoto, which is working when I try to make a TCP query, and upon accessing the link to browser, I need to input captcha before clicking 'Submit'. – Rogin Neil Aug 14 '18 at 08:54
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    The entire purpose of a captcha is to prevent automated queries. Why would they even try to stop web queries if they leave a much simpler method open? There must be some query limit you're reaching – I tried a couple of those servers and they all worked. – JJJ Aug 14 '18 at 09:03
  • Working for me aswell via port 43, the query limit is likely. Tried it with `whois.nic.love`. Interesting thing I found though is that by default my machine is trying a IPv6 connection to `2a04:2b00:119::c:62 43` that runs into the timeout aswell. `119.252.181.62 43` works like a charm. – Tobias K. Aug 14 '18 at 09:17
  • Is this also the cause whenever I try to telnet the servers, it always fails? – Rogin Neil Aug 14 '18 at 09:24
  • Now all these servers works like magic. – Rogin Neil Aug 15 '18 at 13:57
  • @JJJ port 43 whois for gTLDs is an ICANN requirement – Patrick Mevzek Aug 18 '18 at 15:14

2 Answers2

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Per ICANN requirements all of these gTLDs need to have a port 43 whois server.

However:

  • they are all rate-limited, as they are all abused
  • even if they reply nowadays due do GDPR and ICANN temporary solutions the output may be significantly redacted, specially for the contacts part (the output format is also a requirement coming from ICANN, so registries have little place there to deviate)
  • as observed in comments, these whois servers also need to be available under IPv6 from ICANN requirements if I remember correctly, but IPv6 connectivity (both on your end and the server end) may be vastly different from the IPv4 one.

The rate limiting is the most probable case and is easy to detect, if you try from another IP address and even better from another IP block. I just tried a few right now and they work, so either your access is rate limited/blocked for any reason (like previous too high volume of requests) or you just hit a period where they were not available for some reason (less probable as you hit different registries, even if most of your list are handled by CentralNic, there are some by Neustar or others).

Since your question is not really a programming question at this stage, maybe by explaining more why you need to query, in an high volume it seems, all of these whois servers, one would be able to give you better advices.

Also about

Is this also the cause whenever I try to telnet the servers, it always fails?

whois is a very simple protocol and basically just an exchange over TCP/43 so using a whois client or doing telnet on port 43 is exactly the same thing, and will get the same results based on whatever rate limiting or blocked access you are hitting at that moment.

Patrick Mevzek
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Try:

$whoisserver = 'whois.verisign-grs.com';
$domain = 'name.com';
$port = 43;
$timeout = 10;
$fp = @fsockopen($whoisserver, $port, $errno, $errstr, $timeout) or die("Socket Error " . $errno . " - " . $errstr);
fputs($fp, $domain . "\r\n");
while(!feof($fp)){
    $out .= fgets($fp);
}
fclose($fp);

The service URL: http://akan.online/name.com

nico robin
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  • Welcome to Stack Overflow ! It would be nice to explain as well what was causing the initial issue and to explain how your answer solves it – GMB Dec 08 '18 at 02:57