Ripe change to whois

Dear all,

The implementation of the referral mechanism is a new feature of the latest 
release of the RIPE DB software.

The design of this feature was specified some time ago by Carol Orange and 
Wilfried Woeber (please see http://www.ripe.net/meetings/ripe/ripe-27/pres/rout
e/referral/) and discussed in the RIPE db-wg mailing list (please see 
http://www.ripe.net/mail-archives/db-wg/19970501-19970601/threads.html)

According to this proposal the algorithm to be implemented is 

(extracted from the proposal):
***********
Algorithm
---------
If the following query is submitted to the RIPE database:

        whois [flags] xxx.yyy.zz

the algorithm will work as follows:

-------
NAME="xxx.yyy.zz"

until (NAME = "") {
        If object with domain = NAME found,
                If object contains referral (see "Referral" below)
                        forward query (see "Forward" below)
                Else
                        return object
        Else
                Strip(NAME) (xxx.yyy.zz -> yyy.zz, etc)
}


NOTES
-----
1. We move up the tree here, and return the next level answer
if present. If the query requests "tuintje.cwi.nl" (Piet, do you
mind?), they currently get "No entries found ...". In the new
mechanism, they would get:

domain:      cwi.nl
.
.
.
mnt-by:      NL-DOMREG
changed:     hostmaster at domain-registry.nl 19950227
source:      RIPE

Moreover, if the object for cwi.nl contains a referral, the query
would be passed on to the specified server as explained below.

2. The algorithm will be set off by any query which causes a search in
the domain object index. This means any query with "-T domain", or
any general query (no -T flag) with something that "looks like a
domain".
*************

Currently and due to s small desynchronization within the RIPE NCC DB group 
and the fact that the proposal was not clear about a particular point the 
referred query is for the truncated object in the RIPE DB containing the refer 
attribute. We want to modify this so that the query to the authoritative 
server is for the user's initial query and not the result of the truncating 
algorithm. This change will take place either today or tomorrow and a note 
will be sent to the db-wg.

As a side note I would like to stress that the RIPE Database is NOT the source 
of authoritative data for domain objects (although we are happy to provide a 
repository for TLD administrators).
This is UNLIKE the internic whose business is to sell names.

The RIPE NCC is therefore acting according to users directives that were 
discussed and agreed on an open way.

We are happy to hear any comments about this or any other issues regarding the 
DB software and will keep working to suggest and provide users with 
functionality that will help them the most.

Please send any comments to the RIPE mailing lists.

Best regards,
Joao Damas
RIPE DB Group manager
RIPE NCC


 NCC local-ir list Moderator <lir-mod at ripe.net> writes:
 * 
 * I feel this is more appropriate to be discussed on the db-wg.
 * 
 * Mirjam Kuehne
 * RIPE NCC
 * 
 * ------- Forwarded Message
 * 
 * Date: Thu, 26 Nov 1998 19:21:13 +0200
 * To: <local-ir at ripe.net>
 * From: Hank Nussbacher <hank at ibm.net.il>
 * Subject: Ripe change to whois
 * 
 * I may have missed it, but a serious *bad* change has occured to the whois
 * interface. Previously, if I did a check on abcdef.co.il and abcdef did not
 * exist, whois would return an error message.  Now, whois returns the domain
 * and role records for the next upper level domain - i.e. co.il or .il.  Other
 * examples:  zzzz.ac.uk, zzzz.ac.at.  
 * 
 * How did I find out about this?  I received 3 phone calls already in the past
 * 24 hours from users in Israel stating that I personally am registered as
 * owner of hundreds of domains.  They state that being on the board of the
 * ISOC-IL which oversees the registration, I have violated the rules (limit of
 * 10 domains per person - other countries have similar restrictions).  I have
 * tried explaining to them that I am not the owner of these domains.  If it
 * was 1 user, I would assume they didn't read the entry correctly.  But the
 * fact that 3 totally different people have called me to ask whether I would
 * sell certain domain names to them, I can only conclude that the RIPE change
 * is not that successful.
 * People have been used to getting an error message from RIPE, similar to the
 * "No match" one gets from Internic.  When they now get a valid response, they
 * don't bother to check that the response is not for the domain they
 * requested.  There is no error message or error code.
 * 
 * This needs to be rectified (and changes discussed in the future - ignore if
 * it has been mentioned).
 * 
 * - -Hank Nussbacher
 * ISOC-IL board member
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * ------- End of Forwarded Message
 * 
 * 
 *