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The Internet Technology

Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results 243

Posted by timothy from the now-it-needs-orkut-style-linking dept.
Robert Accettura writes "Network Solutions has updated its whois interface, giving it an interesting new twist. On top of regular info provided, it shows data that appears to be from Alexa, including a screenshot of the homepage (though not terribly recent), as well as looks up your IP, and displays lots of information on it. It even shows the server type, if it supports SSL, DMOZ, Yahoo listing, traffic ranking, and lock status. This comes right after they announced rapid DNS updates. Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?"
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Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results More

Network Solutions Overhauls Whois Results

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  • will they win with the pathfinder...

  • Well, they got the geolocation wrong for my site (Score:5, Insightful)

    by kravlor ( 597242 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:00PM (#9682225) Homepage
    I ran a WHOIS query on my domain, kravlor.com, and it was placed in Chicago, IL, as opposed to Minneapolis, MN! Apparently I'm an e-commerce site, whatever that is, too!

  • Perhaps? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by the_mad_poster ( 640772 ) <shattoc@adelphia.com> on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:00PM (#9682226) Homepage Journal

    Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?

    Maybe. However, my bet is on friendlifying (hey, I just coined a word!) the service for something far more sinister. This wreaks of targetting manadrones with all sorts of feelgood updates that don't serve that much purpose for real geeks...

    Maybe I'm paranoid, but when you're dealing with a group like this, you can't look at it with too much suspicion.

  • WHAT?!? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KimiDalamori ( 579444 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:01PM (#9682231)
    You mean to tell me that these guys are SPYING on me??? =P

  • screenshot of the homepage (Score:5, Informative)

    by powerpuffgirls ( 758362 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:05PM (#9682263)
    Whois.sc [whois.sc] displays screenshot of website homepage at least a couple of months ago.
  • Microsoft announced today that they are launching a competing Whois database, Microsoft Owner.

    Microsoft Owner features an innovative, user-friendly interface that leverages off of the Microsoft setup Wizards.

    To use:

    click on icon for Microsoft Owner.

    Next->Next->Please enter the domain name

    Let's see. How about... www.google.com

    Next->Next->Reboot
    login->Next->done

    www.google.com is Google!

  • Only for NS Hosted Domains (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tonyr60 ( 32153 ) * on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:10PM (#9682298)
    The info appears against my Network Solutions domains, but not my Tucows ones.

    And in some respects the Tucows approach is better. A Network Solutions query shows all my details directly. Tucows requires a query to input a grahpics based password so it is harder to harvest the info.
    • And in some respects the Tucows approach is better. A Network Solutions query shows all my details directly. Tucows requires a query to input a grahpics based password so it is harder to harvest the info.

      It's odd, but Network Solutions required the same thing up until this launched. I guess it was just more cost effective to let people scan the db. I've been using whois.net from the opera command line with much success, but every time in the past year I came across a bloody Network Solutions domain I'd

    • Tucows requires a query to input a grahpics based password so it is harder to harvest the info.

      So what are blind people supposed to do? The TUCOWS Whois interface doesn't seem to provide a way to download the digits as an audio file in Ogg Vorbis format.

  • Fails when no referrer and User-Agent (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheUncleBob ( 791234 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:13PM (#9682309) Homepage
    Tried testing it out through a proxy that strips the referrer and user-agent fields (no tin-foil hat here ;-) ). Just kept giving me 302 redirects back to the same front page

    Just what we need - a fussy site.

  • No .us whois lookup (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Punchinello ( 303093 ) * on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:13PM (#9682313)
    I'm a bit disappointed that you cannot perform a whois lookup on .us domains.

    Doesn't Verisign like the .us people? Were they denied access to the data?

    Register.com lets me do a lookup. Perplexing.
  • a bit of innovation and everything...
    the picture detail on the whois record is cute, although bandwidth wasting, still cute...
  • ...but my comment [slashdot.org] for the last NSI/Verisign story still stands.

    They're going in the right direction, but I still don't trust them nor will I ever use them for domain services.

  • VeriSign and Network Solutions are not the same (Score:5, Informative)

    by darthcamaro ( 735685 ) * on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:14PM (#9682319)
    The poster got this a bit mixed up. The DNS updates are a VeriSign issue...Network Solutions, though once a VeriSign company is a completely seperate company now.

  • Not original... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Yaa 101 ( 664725 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:15PM (#9682323) Journal
    I think they got it from here:

    http://www.whois.sc/

    I use that for quite a while now...

    • When I read the description in the original post, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

      They either bought whois.sc, or got in some sort of agreement with them.

      However, when I went to the whois page listed in the original post at http://www.netsol.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois, this info is not available. What gives?

  • Umm.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kevcol ( 3467 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:23PM (#9682368) Homepage
    How does the submitter expect the geeks to care when we have a shell to get faster results?

  • Alexa Violating Copyrights (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Goo.cc ( 687626 ) * on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:26PM (#9682388)
    So Alexa is an Amazon company and they are making money by taking screenshots of copyrighted material?

    Maybe everyone who has screenshots of their website in Alexa should file a DMCA complaint Amazon. Seems fair to me since Amazon loves bogus patents.

  • Doesn't mention the registrar (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:30PM (#9682412) Homepage
    Note what it doesn't mention - the registrar. The real Whois data has the name of and a link to the registrar. This Verisign thing totally hides the registrar. That, presumably, is the point.

    You have to click on "underlying Whois data" to get the registrar info. At least you still can.

    Registrars are going to be annoyed about this.

    • Ummm...

      I have GoDaddy mentioned all over my Whois lookup result.
      • It's a per-registrar thing. I looked up domains registered via Melbourne IT and DomainSite, and they don't show a registrar. This is because their Whois output doesn't include the registrar name. GoDaddy plugs itself quite a bit in its own Whois output, so you see GoDaddy.

        Verisign isn't showing the registrar link and the registrar name from the common registry database.

  • UhOh (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beaverbrother ( 586749 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:35PM (#9682446)
    What I want to know is why they did away with having the results be returned as an image. Now my email is availible on that site in text format, leaving me suseptible to spam bots that search sites for email addresses.

    • What I want to know is why they did away with having the results be returned as an image.

      Under certain conditions involving government contracts, American companies have to comply with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act [section508.gov], which requires the company's web site to be accessible to people with disabilities. Try retyping a web address from an image if you're blind.

    • Maybe to drum up more business for their new spam blocking service.

      Just pay em some money and they take your MX! Mail is scanned then forwarded on to the real mail server.

      (also a ploy to get you to let them host DNS)

      Definately not a company I'd let store and forward my email....

  • I hate "whois". (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LesPaul75 ( 571752 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:37PM (#9682457) Journal
    I get soooooo much spam because I'm required to have a valid e-mail address in my whois information. Tough tatties, I guess.
    • Yep. I'm "required" to have a valid address in my domain listings, which is of course:

      Uberm00
      N/A
      N/A, Ontario N/A
      Canada

      Oh, and of course my phone number, which you can all reach me on, is (602) 555-5555. Apparently GoDaddy doesn't like a 555 area code and changed it for me :^)
    • I use a tagged and auto-generated email address, which forwards to my real address, for my domain registration. When enough spam starts showing up on the tagged address, I delete it and create a new one. This happens every six months or so.

  • Why the cynicism? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by panaceaa ( 205396 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:38PM (#9682460) Homepage Journal
    I think that this improvement is because Network Solutions charges the most for domain registration and they are trying to provide a better product in order to justify the cost. The added information isn't a major step forward for domain owners, but it does help make Network Solutions seem like a more serious provider.

  • banned! (Score:5, Informative)

    by urban_gorilla ( 691918 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:41PM (#9682475) Journal
    awesome. after one query on our own hostname
    BLACKLISTED: You have exceeded the query limit for your IP address and have been blacklisted. This restriction will be removed in 24 hours.

  • Security (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Seven001 ( 750590 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @10:48PM (#9682511)
    They'll impress me when they PUT SOME FUCKING SECURITY ON THE WHOIS SEARCH. Stupid ass companies like Network Solutions are the reason at least 50% of my spam is sent to a DOMAIN REGISTRATION ONLY email address.

    Would it be terribly difficult to implement a system like whois.sc, where it shows images of your email address instead of text? I think not. I could probably do it and I'm a pretty green PHP coder.

    • Section 508 (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      Would it be terribly difficult to implement a system like whois.sc, where it shows images of your email address instead of text?

      Yes, in the United States, at least. Are you familiar with section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [w3.org]?

      • Section 508 only applies to GOV sites run by GOV organizations.

        To a private individual, it means dick.

        And like other posters said, there are CLI whois clients out there, no need to use WWW at all.

  • wow (Score:2)

    by next1 ( 742094 )
    it's a long time since i've been to the netsol site and my initial reaction after trying this new web whois search is that they are a disgrace.

    my search on my own domain returned links to "snap up" the domain when it expires, "make an offer" on the domain, register the same domain with other extensions (forcing me to now consider buying the other domains if i want to stop that happening).

    and as if those tactics aren't low enough, they also have sitefinder.

    oh and did i mention my email is printed without

  • No more captcha (Score:3, Interesting)

    by KalvinB ( 205500 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @11:03PM (#9682594) Homepage
    They used to require you pass a captcha to get the information about the domain. Oh wait, that's 9 bucks a year and only works for domains registered through netsol now.

    That was nice of them.

    Ben

    • Probably got sued (Score:2, Informative)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      They used to require you pass a captcha to get the information about the domain

      And then one of the following probably happened: either somebody with less than perfect sight sued NSI under some sort of Americans with Disabilities Act, or Hewlett-Packard "gently reminded" NSI of U.S. Patent 6,195,698 [uspto.gov]. (Read More... [everything2.com])

  • Traffic Rank? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SunBug ( 31218 )
    Does anyone know what the Traffic Rank means? My company's site is listed as a 2, slashdot is a 1. Lowest I can find is a 4. Lots of sites have a Not Available rank.
  • who noticed slashdot's traffic ranking was #1?

  • Interface? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by qtp ( 461286 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @11:10PM (#9682647) Journal
    Stll looks the same to me:

    localhost:~$ whois slashdot.org
    NOTICE: Access to .ORG WHOIS information is provided to assist persons in determining the contents of a domain name registration record in the PIR registry database. The data in this record is provided by Public Interest Registry for informational purposes only, and PIR does not guarantee its accuracy.

    This service is intended only for query-based access. You agree that you will us

    (snip)

    I don't know about this being intended to court the geeks, as any actual geeks would be rather unlikely to use a web interface to do a whois query.

  • Woah.. Backorder (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hotzeyboy ( 725567 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @11:19PM (#9682673)
    I checked out my domain, which I'm scared to give the name of now and at the top of the page is the following

    Certified Offer Service - Make an offer on this domain

    Backorder - Get this name when it becomes available

    Similar Names - See suggested alternatives for
    this domain

    In addition a sidebar has all the other
    tld .net, .org etc ...

    Excuse me? I don't mind getting legitimate offers to purchased this domain but they seem to be offering services to encourage squatters to either steal it (when the registration expires)
    or to grab similar sounding names so they can profit off typos? Whose brilliant idea was this?
    • Insightful my ass.

      At least verisign (maybe others) will suspend your domain before it's released but after it's expired. If you forget to renew it all year and don't notice that it's expired then you gave it up on your own will, it's not stolen. It also helps get your domain back from squatters. The .com version of my domain has changed hands 3 times to 3 different squatters. If it was worth the $10+registraion cost to get it backordered I'd probably have it by now.

      The similar names are stupid, not typos.

  • The REAL point of this... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by CXI ( 46706 ) on Monday July 12, 2004 @11:43PM (#9682782) Homepage
    The real point of this is to get people to go to the site, realize all the crap they are starting to publicly offer to spammers about you, and force everyone to purchase private registration.

  • Just to save themselves the minor pain of providing a decent user-interface for their domain registration.

    Really. Despite the fact that they're 3 or 4 times more expensive than some of their competitors, a lot of people would still stay with them if trying to do business with them wasn't like trying to give an enema to a herd of feral cheetahs.

    steve
  • I figured I'd try the new web interface out. Entered in our main domain, and well...

    I noticed that the one weak link for the company I'm contracting to, that's on my list to fix (one of the reasons I'm here now), namely the domain name stuff...was actually in the MIDDLE of being compromised. They seem to have just kidnapped our corporate domain, and were on their way to our actual product site. Not all our domains are with NSI (thank god), but the fact I lucked out and checked it by fluke is damn scary.
  • Looking at their results for a whois on my domain, I found something rather stupid. I clicked on the DMOZ results (hey! I didn't know someone put me in there...) and discovered that they convert DMOZ urls to all capitals. Wonderful. This is highly unlikely to work on a majority of websites... case matters in URLs!

    • Re:DMOZ urls capitalized?! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by EJB ( 9167 )
      Yup. I found the same. And since our site runs on Linux on a case-sensitive file system, it doesn't work.

      Maybe we need to tell verisign that "domain name" is not the same as "URL" and are defined in completely different technical specifications.

      ("domain name" is case-insensitive, but the path of a URL is most definitely not. And it's not even as if the majority of web servers are running on Windows, luckily, so that can't be the reason for the error)

      - Erwin
  • A domain I sold 6 weeks ago is still listed to me.

  • Perhaps they are trying to win over the geeks before they turn on sitefinder?

    Not withstanding the fact that no one will be won over by anything V*r*sign/N*tw*rkSolutions do if they bring back S*tefinder, they do not acknowledge their use of ODP (DMoz) data (even on the detailed ODP listings page--which contains only ODP data and which N*tw*rkSolutions even claim the copyright for). I do not know whether they are illegally copying the other data (e.g.: Yahoo's) but "pirating" information released under a

  • IE for Screenshots (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BarefootClown ( 267581 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @01:05PM (#9687941) Homepage
    Did anybody else notice that whois.sc is using IE (or IE libraries) to take the screenshots? I took a look at my flight school [flight-instruction.com]'s web site, and the center pane was misaligned; this is due to a CSS bug in IE that I've not yet worked around. I also took a look at my homepage [barefootclown.net], and it rendered one of the transparent PNGs on a grey background (with the normally-invisible black text clearly visible--it should say "If you can read this text, click 'about this site' to find out why!" "About This Site" is a page that talks about IE bugs.). It should be noted that I'm looking at whois.sc with Moz, so the rendering issue isn't here; also, the screenshot image is a JPEG.

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