The main part of completewhois is complex whois data collection engine, which
use variety of data sources to gather the necessary information. This engine
takes numerous parameters (options) which direct how it collects the data and
from what sources and what "trails" of data are followed.
The main webpage provides easy GUI interface for many of the options, but in
reality all options are passed along to the engine in a standard way. Each
option proceeds the actual query and is of the form "OPTION=SETTING".
The options and main query are separated from each other by either " "
(space) or "#" or "+". There are also some so-called
"MACRO" options which are special pre-defined set of standard options
which can be easily accessed as either "MACRO=macroname" or for
majority of them, this is just "macroname". Please note that all
options, are not case-sensitive, so typing it in lowercase or uppercase is the
same (this is due to the fact that dns domain name system is not case-sensitive
either).
Accessing Completewhois Whois Server
Web: Main website has query form with GUI interface that lists most of the
various options that are described on this page. No direct help is given for how options are named on the
web form, but generally you can easily find corresponding actual
whois option from the list below (in fact options in the list are sorted the way the
appear on the web form to help with this match). On the website
under custom options (or even on the main query line) you can also enter direct
engine options as described on on this list.
Web Reference: Others have asked us if its possible to directly
link to whois server as reference from other website to produce specific query
and we now make this functionality available and you can directly access the whois
cgi and engine as:
'http://www.completewhois.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=YOURQUERY&options=OPTIONS'
where YOURQUERY is actual query and OPTIONS is set of options from the list
below. Since this is url reference we recommend you use "+" to separate different
options from each other, for example:
'http://www.completewhois.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=completewhois.com&options=IANA+DNS'.
Several options can also be listed separately (as GET parameter), these are
"querytype" (parameter is either IP or DOMAIN or ASN or HOST),
"MACRO" (macro name here goes as parameter), "Lookup_Reason"
(parameter here is any text which is simply captured and logged and not used for
actual query processing) and "save" (used without any
parameter).
Also it can be noted that quickest way to reference saved query is simply as:
'http://www.completewhois.com/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=Rxxxxxxxx'
(xxx-s here are in place of saved query reference number - see save retrieve
optons)
Unix: Almost all unix systems come with 'whois' command and
while there exists several variations of this utility to our knowledge all of
them have "-h" command to set whois server. So to access
completewhois.com server you can do 'whois -h completewhois.com query' (or more
complex set is 'whois -h whois.completewhois.com option1=setting option2=setting
.... query'). Various options you can use are all listed below and If you
find particular set of options useful, please let us know and we will consider
creating a macro for it.
Windows/Macintosh/Other: Various whois clients exist. In general just
like in unix, set whois server to whois.completewhois.com and enter all options
as part of your query.
And now here is the list of some of the options the
completewhois engine can understand:
Macros
| OPTION |
SETTING |
Description |
| QUERY_TYPE |
AUTO |
Default setting. Completewhois
engine autodetermines by itself if query is domain, ip or as number or
something else |
| DOMAIN |
Specifies that query is for a
domain |
| IP |
Specifies that query is for an ip
address |
| IP4 |
Equivalent to IP option currently |
| IP6 |
Specifies that query is for IPv6
address |
| ASN |
Specifies that query is an AS
Number |
| HOST |
Specifies that query is for
nameserver/host |
| COMPLETEWHOIS |
Special for when query is for
completewhois internal database. More details are then specified by
DB_COMMAND option |
| DB_COMMAND |
NONE |
Default setting. Nothing special
here... |
| SAVE |
Results of the query are saved in
local database for later retrieval. Database entry# is provided back to
the user |
| RETRIEVE |
Used to specify to retrieve
results previously saved in database |
| RESOLVE_NAMESERVERS |
WHOIS_OR_DNS |
This option is used in domain
lookups and when possible the completewhois engine can try to find an ip
address of the dns nameservers and include that as part of the formatted
results back to the user. WHOIS_OR_DNS is default behavior where first
nameserver is checked in crsnic whois and if not found there then its ip
is resolved by using standard dns |
| OFF |
This means engine will not
resolve nameserver ip |
| DNS_ONLY |
IP address of the nameserver is
always determined by using dns. |
| WHOIS_ONLY |
IP address of the nameserver is
always determined by using whois. If not found, nothing is done. |
| WHOIS_WITH_DNS |
Use both dns and whois to
retreive results, specify when both are the same and if not, provide both
ip addresses back to user |
| WHOISNSI_DNSOTHERS |
Only "com" and
"net" domain nameservers (where nameserver always has whois
entry in crsnic) are resolved by whois. For all other domains, its always
by dns. |
| COMPLETEWHOIS_AUP |
FULL |
Displays full policy statement
related to how completwhois server and data obtained here can be used on
top of the query results |
| URL |
Displays URL to the policy
statement related to how completewhois server and data obtained here can
be used |
| MULTIPLEDNS_MAXRECORDS |
If particular dns name
(or ip) resolves to multiple records (multiple A, AAA or PTR records),
this options establishes how many of these records are used for futher
queries (i.e. if query whois query on www.domain.com
is requested). Normally just 1 is enough and setting this to large number
may be a problem and can create too many subqueries. |
| MAX_QUERY_LEVEL |
The number specifying
how deep the queries run when gathering data for complex query, i.e. If
options specify to provide whois data on ip of domain nameserver and also
do whois on domain for ip address, the query would can potentially as each
of those would resolve and lead to more domains, etc. This specifies how
many levels deep the parameter to this option should be small integer -
default is 4. |
| whois_servers_info |
DEFAULT |
Partial information (name only
usually) about what whois servers are how were used to get the results is
displayed |
| OFF |
No information regarding whois
servers that were used is displayed, only the data |
| FULL |
As much info as possible is given
- full name of whois servers, query used there, parameters, why this
server was followed |
| whois_servers_displayaup |
OFF |
Where possible, AUP that is often
added by original whois servers that were used to get the data is removed
(and usually replaced with URL specifying where it can be found) |
| ON |
AUP is never removed and whois
data just like original server has provided is displayed to the user |
| ONLY_SPECIFIC |
AUP is removed for all servers
except one that is actually most specific about data being queried |
| include_samequeries |
OFF |
Sometimes data gathering process
involves doing exact same queries (from different data links, i.e. like
same ip block range for nameservers), the received data is only included
in results data once with this option. |
| ON |
Same sets of data is not removed
from the results and everything is returned back to user |
| enable_ip6 |
OFF |
Only support IPv4 (important for
ip address lookups of nameservers and www.domain.com and for other dns
queries). |
| ON |
Support IPv6 ip address (warning:
ipv6 support in this whois engine is very experimental !!!) |
|
DOMAIN QUERY SPECIFIC OPTIONS |
| domain_iplookup_onwww |
ON |
Get ip address of www.<queried
domain> and then provide whois information on that ip address (if
www.<domain> does not resolve, the ip from just <domain> is
used) |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| domain_hostlookup_nameservers |
ON |
Get ip addresses of nameservers
listed in whois as being used by the domain in the query and then provide
whois details for each of those nameservers |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| domain_nameservername_how |
WHOIS |
Get dns server name from whois
data as listed by the registrar |
| DNS |
Get dns server name from whois as
listed in the zone file for that top-level domain. |
| WHOISNSI_DNSOTHERS |
Get dns server name from crsnic
whois for .com and .net domains and from dns for all other top-level
domains. This is default. |
| domain_iplookup_nameservers |
ON |
Get ip addresses of nameservers
listed in whois as being used by the domain in the query and then provide
whois information details about ip of each nameserver |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
whois lookup described above. |
| domain_nameserverip_how |
WHOIS |
Get nameserver ip from whois data
as listed by the registrar, if not available there - use dns. |
| DNS |
Get nameserver ip by doing dns
lookup at the name (see domain_nameservername_how to specify how name is
obtained) |
| WHOISNSI_DNSOTHERS |
Get nameserver ip from crsnic
whois for .com and .net domains and from dns for all other top-level
domains. This is default. |
| domain_whoislookup_abusenet |
ON |
Lookup abuse.net whois
information for domain in the query and add this to set of results |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
whois lookup described above. |
| domain_dnslookup |
OFF |
Don't provide dns information for
any domains. |
| ALL |
Lookup data in dns for any
domain. Several formats for dns information are available - DNSINFO and
DIG. See below about that. |
| NOWHOISSERVER |
Lookup data in dns only for those
top-level domains where no whois server exists for it. |
| DEFAULT |
Default setting. Similar to
nowhoisserver but in addition to those top-level domains for several
additional ones (where whois results are known to often be incomplete),
the dns lookup is also done. |
| dnslookup_type |
DNSINFO |
One of the formats used to
display results of dns lookup. This is similar to output from nslookup
command |
| DIG |
Another format for dns lookups.
This actually is just interface to results obtained from bind
"dig" command. |
| COMBINED |
This is combination format where
majority of data is from dnsinfo command but dig is used to provide data
on all nameservers (+trace). |
| domain_ianalookup |
ALL |
Provide iana (icann) whois
information regarding top-level domain. This option forces this lookup
this for all domains. |
| NOWHOISSERVER |
Default setting. Provide IANA
whois data only for those top-level domains where the country does appears
to have its own whois server. |
| ianalookup_how |
OFF |
| Do not do whois lookup in iana
server for any domain |
| WEB |
Take iana data from their webpage
(most are cashed locally). Default. |
| WHOIS |
Do lookup in the IANA whois server
(up to year ago they did not maintain it too well, its improving now) |
| multiple_namespace_support |
ON |
Though this fact is not well
known, ICANN is only one of organizations providing certain set of
top-level domains on the net. There are some organizations providing
services for more top-level domains (though these domains require special
dns settings or isp that supports it). Completewhois engine support
several additional namespaces and this option turns this support on/off.
Default is ON. |
| OFF |
No support for additional non-ICANN
namespaces. See above what it is. |
| domain_namespacewhoislookup |
ON |
There is actually whois service
that provides information about each namespace (including IANA) and
provides data on what are ROOT DNS servers for that namespace. This
options allows to lookup in that service and includes those results. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
|
IP QUERY SPECIFIC OPTIONS |
| ip_dnslookup |
ON |
Provide dns information about the
ip address from the rdns server (regarding specifying format - DNSINFO
or DIG see "dnslookup_type") |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| ip_domainlookup |
ON |
Provides domain whois information
based on the reverse dns name of the ip address (if more then one PTR
record exists, all names are queried, so results may take some
time...) |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| ip_whoislookup_cyberabuse |
ON |
Lookup cyberabuse.org whois
information for ip and add this to set of results |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| ip_asnlookup |
ON |
Looks up global BGP table and
provides whois information on ASN announcing most specific ip block which
includes the queried ip address. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| ip_radblookup |
ON |
Looks up information regarding the
specified ip address in the routing database whois server (RADB). The
exact radb server can be specified by using RADB_SERVER option. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| radb_server |
The parameter here is
an exact name of the radb server from which to get the data. Most common
ones can be found in the main whois interface. Do note that RADB servers
often replicate data from each other and so any one should have all data,
so its quite rare that you actually want to choose anything but the
default one. |
| ip_lookupserver
(Please note that this option will also effect how ASN
lookups are done so using it will result in ASN lookup going to particular
RIR whois databases or all of them if you so want) |
AUTO |
Automaticly choose which RIR to
check at about queried ip address (based on data in IANA about ip block) |
| ARIN_FIRST |
Always check at ARIN first about
the ip address and then based on their data check in proper RIR. This is
still default. |
| ALLRIRS |
Check in all RIRs about this ip
address (strongly not recommended) |
| Any combination of ARIN, APNIC,
RIPE, LACNIC and MILLNET (example: ARIN_RIPE) |
Check in the specific RIRs you
want about the specified ip address. Please note that when choosing AUTO
or ARIN_FIRST, the system will already follow links from one RIR to
another to find which one really has the data. So specifying exact RIRs is
rarely useful unless you known exactly what you want. |
| arin_specificrecord |
OFF |
When queried normally ARIN whois
will provide lists of all ip block that would include given ip address.
This option allows to get results as exactly that list without details on
any of the ip blocks. |
| ALL |
This provides detailed whois info
on ALL the netblocks in the list above. This is default option. |
| PARENTBLOCK |
This limits the results to the
details of very top-level ip block (the one directly allocated by ARIN to
ISP). |
| MOSTSPECIFIC |
This limits the results to the
details of the most specific (smallest cidr size) ip block that includes
given ip address. This is usually end-user company using ip block as
specified by the ISP. |
| arin_specificrecord_otherrircheck |
ON |
This allows following on SWIPs
made to other RIRs even if more specific record exists in ARIN. You must
be expert in completewhois to know when you need to enable this as this
function becomes important only when arin_specificrecord is not set to ALL
and ip_lookupserver is not allrirs. Most users can ignore this setting. |
| OFF |
Do not follow to other RIRs when
more specific record is already found at ARIN. |
| arin_rwhois |
ON |
When arin data shows that ISP
runs its own reassignment server (rwhois), check and provide details found
on that server. This is default setting |
| OFF |
Do not provide rwhois details.
You may want to try this if you see that you in your query hang, which is
often result of trying to follow rwhois server that does not work and then
system has to wait for timeout which sometimes takes up to 2 minutes |
| EXCEPTSWIP |
Provide rwhois details except
when ip block has more specific swip directly in ARIN records already and
that swips does not contact rwhois server information. |
| IGNORESWIP |
When both most specific swip
exists and information on rwhois server, then only provide details from
rwhois server and do not provide details of more specific swip (opposite
to EXCEPTSWIP option) |
| arin_lirwhois |
ON |
When ARIN whois records point to
another whois server for more details, follow that (these whois servers
are japan nic, brazil nic and about 5 isps like NAC that run whois, even
if the listing says rwhois) |
| OFF |
Do not follow to whois servers
from ARIN whois data. Only follow ARIN swips. |
| ISPONLY |
Follow to whois servers only for
ISPs (but not to country NIC like japan) |
| COUNTRYONLY |
Follow only for country nics, but
not for ISPs (like nac.net) |
| ripe_whoisoption |
OFF |
No special option. Default. This
provides only most detailed record (swip) as per current APNIC default
settings. |
| -l (-L also same) |
1st level less specific match.
See
http://www.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois.pl |
| -c (-C also same) |
1st |
| -LL |
All less specific ("-L"
option at apnic). See
http://www.apnic.net/db/search/all-options.html |
| -m (-M also same) |
1st level more specific details.
See
http://www.apnic.net/db/search/all-options.html |
| -MM |
All more specific ("-M"
option at apnic). See
http://www.apnic.net/db/search/all-options.html |
| apnic_lirwhois |
ON |
When APNIC whois reports that
more details are available at another whois server (for that country
IP registrar), then follow and provide details from that country nic. This
is default. |
| OFF |
Do not follow to other whois
servers based on apnic data (most of the time apnic data already has
partial or full copy, of what is in the specific country whois server) |
| ripe_mostspecific
(do not use this option yet) |
ON |
Provide most specific ip block
record that includes the queried ip block. |
| OFF |
Provide all RIPE records that
include the queried ip block. |
| lacnic_lirwhois |
ON |
When LACNIC data indicates more
details are available at country registrar (brazil nic for example),
follow that and do whois in that country whois server. This is default |
| OFF |
Do not do whois in country whois
servers. |
| NAMESERVER QUERY
SPECIFIC OPTIONS |
| nameserver_iplookup |
OFF |
This is default. Do not provide
any more ip details regarding queried nameserver |
| IPFROM_CRSNIC |
nameserver ip is taken out of
whois entry for that nameserver (from crsnic.net data) and then whois data
is provided on that ip (as with standard ip whois query all options for ip
queries that you can set apply) |
| IPFROM_DNS |
nameserver ip is determined by
dns lookup and then whois data on that ip is provided just like with
IP_FROMCRSNIC described above |
| IPFROM_CRSNICPLUSDNS |
nameserver ip is taken from both
crsnic whois and by doing dns lookup. If they are different whois queries
are done on all the ips and all the data gathered is provided back. |
| nameserver_dnslookup |
ON |
Provide dns information regarding
this nameserver (resolve it to A or AAA records). |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
| nameserver_domainlookup |
ON |
Do whois query on the actual
domain name (i.e. if nameserver is host.domain.com, lookup would be on
domain.com). All the domain options listed above apply for the query. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
whois lookup described above. |
| nameserver_whois |
OFF |
Do not provide whois details
about nameserver |
| CRSNIC |
Provide whois details from
crsnic.net whois server only (NSI records for .com/.net) |
| WHOISBIZ |
Provide whois details from
whois.biz server (nameservers and records from registrar associated with
one or more .biz domain) |
| CRSNIC_WHOISBIZ |
Default. Provide whois info from
both crsnic and from whois.biz server. |
| nameserver_regwhoislookup |
ON |
Do lookup in the specific
registrar listed in crsnic as responsible for the domain and nameserver.
Please note that only few registrars provide any relevant data on host
itself (most don't even have nameserver records in their whois), so
querying domain (see option above) is better option. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
whois lookup described above. |
| nameserver_countrydomains_nsiwhois |
ON |
All .com and .net nameservers
should have whois data in crsnic/nsi whois server. But many of the
country-level domains also have entries in crsnic and this will look it
up. Default |
| OFF |
Don't do whois lookup described
above |
|
ASN QUERY SPECIFIC OPTIONS |
| asn_radblookup |
ON |
Looks up information regarding
the specified as number in the routing database whois server (RADB). The
exact radb server can be specified by using RADB_SERVER option. |
| OFF |
Default setting. Don't do extra
lookup described above. |
|
|
|
