Beta WHOIS v0.3 Released

[ginny listman]

ARIN has release Beta WHOIS version 0.3. This version has updated many of
the known bugs, as well as implemented some new features. For full
details, review the WHOIS Beta website at:
    http://www.arin.net/tools/whois_update.html

Although, the help screen has been written, displaying it has not been
implemented in the software. There are some differences from the WHOIS
document that was posted to the list in March. I have included it below. I
encourage everyone to read it, discover the new features of WHOIS and give
it a test.

Ginny Listman
Director of Engineering
ARIN

********************

ARIN's WHOIS service provides a mechanism for finding contact and registration
information for resources registered with ARIN. ARIN's database contains IP
addresses, autonomous system (AS) numbers, organizations or customers that are
associated with these resources, and related Points of Contact (POC).

ARIN's WHOIS will NOT locate any domain-related information, or any information
relating to military networks. Please use whois.internic.net to locate domain
information, and whois.nic.mil for military network information.

Many operating systems provide a WHOIS utility. To conduct a query from the
command line, the format is:
  whois -h hostname identifier e.g. whois -h whois.arin.net <query string>

To obtain a more specific response, you may conduct a search by using certain
flags. Many of these flags can be combined to indicate the desired output.
Flags must be separated from each other and from the search term by a space.
Your results will vary depending on the refinements you apply in your search.
Listed below are the flags currently available; you may only use one flag from
each flag-type in a query (i.e. one record type, one attribute, etc.).


Query-by-record-type:
---------------------
To limit your query to a specific record type, include one of the following
flags:
      n       Network address space
      a       Autonomous systems
      p       Points of contact
      o       Organizations
      c       End-user customers


Query-by-attribute:
-------------------
To limit your query to a specific record attribute, include one of the
following flags:
      @<domain name>     Searches for matches by the domain-portion of an email
                         address
      ! <handle>         Searches for matches by handle or id
      . <name>           Searches for matches by name

Searches that retrieve a single record will display the full record. Searches
that retrieve more than one record will be displayed in list output.


Display flags:
--------------
To modify the way that the query results display, include one of the
following flags:
      +       Shows detailed (aka 'full' output) display for EACH match
      -       Show summary only (aka 'list' output), even if single match
              returned

The + flag cannot be used with the sub-query feature described below.


Record hierarchy:
-----------------
Records in the ARIN WHOIS database have hierarchical relationship with other
records. To display those related records, use the following flags:

      <       Displays the record related up the hierarchy. For a network,
              display the supernet, or parent network in detailed (full)
              format.
      >       Displays the record(s) related down the hierarchy. For a network,
              display the subdelegation(s), or subnets, below the network, in
              summary (list) format. For an organization or customer, display
              the resource(s) registered to that organization or customer, in
              summary (list) format.


Wild card queries:
------------------
WHOIS supports wild card queries. This feature is only supported as a trailing
character option. To take advantage of this append the query with an asterisk
(*). This can also be used in combination with any flags defined above.


Other helpful hints:
--------------------
To guarantee matching only a single record, look it up by its handle using a
handle-only search.  In the record summary line, the handle is shown in
parenthesis after the name.

When using a handle to conduct a search for POC information, be sure to add
the -ARIN extension.

Queries that return more than 256 results will stop displaying data after the
256th result. You may want to narrow your search criteria or add flags to your
query to limit the results.

To search on an individual's name, you may enter the last name, or to further
restrict results, use the last name and first name, separated by a comma. For
example: Smith, John.