[db-wg] running in whios-circles...?

Frank Habicht via db-wg <db-wg at ripe.net> wrote:
>
> so on my self-hosted MTA I got an email [unsure about good intentions,
> thus checking origin] from 82.156.114.62
>
> Whois directed to ripe, ripe said it's iana, iana said it's ripe

Yes, but it's a bit more subtle than that.

I have hacked a bit on FreeBSD's whois client, and the way it handles
cases like this is to start off with whois.iana.net as the authority for
IPv4 /8 allocations. IANA says (amongst other things):

whois:        whois.ripe.net

which is a common format for a whois referral.

So, ask whois.ripe.net, which says (amongst other things):

netname:        NON-RIPE-NCC-MANAGED-ADDRESS-BLOCK

In the context of the IANA referral, that line means the address block has
been transferred out of the RIPE region, but RIPE's whois server will not
tell you which other RIR to ask. (ARIN provides referrals in this
situation; AfriNIC says which RIR to try in comments rather than as a
formal referral.)

So FreeBSD whois tries the other RIRs in turn, starting with ARIN, because
ARIN is often more knowledgable/informative than the other RIRs,
especially for legacy allocations. But ARIN doesn't know about this block
and just provides a referral to RIPE:

ReferralServer:  whois://whois.ripe.net

So next guess APNIC, which it turns out does know about this address
block.

I have complained before that RIPE's whois server ought to provide proper
referrals when the database has information about which RIR is responsible
for an address block.

Tony.
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