[consult] ARIN staff input on WHOIS Query Result Limits

The suggestion to remove the 256 WHOIS query results limit was referred 
to the consultation process in order to determine if the current limit 
presents a problem for many in the community.

ARIN currently does not track the frequency that WHOIS responses are
truncated. If ARIN were asked to track and report on this number, the
results would include both valid uses of WHOIS and questionable uses of
WHOIS. Absent a judgment-based analysis of the queries, the results 
provided would not correlate to the actual number of users impacted by 
the 256 response limit.

ARIN rarely sees requests from people asking for expanded WHOIS queries 
for organizations and their associated resources such as the ones that 
Heather mentions. If we had to give an approximate number for those 
received within the last year, it would probably be less
than 5 requests.

The discussion period has been extended one week so that anyone with
information to share regarding current experience with the limit may 
speak up.

Regards,

Member Services
American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)