PC> The FreeBSD whois client "knows" this as well. For any TLD, you can use
PC> a whois server a ${tld}.whois-servers.net. For example:
Yeah, it's pretty trick. How it works is neat as well. If you look
at the source for whois.c you'll see
#define QNICHOST_TAIL ".whois-servers.net"
so if you do
% whois joe.us
it will use us.whois-servers.net which returns a CNAME:
i.e.: us.whois-servers.net. 10M IN CNAME whois.nic.us.
So basically whois-servers.net (centergate.com) just needs to keep their
*.whois-servers.net CNAME records up to date and it's like magic.
It would be nice if
% dig @udns1.ultradns.net whois-servers.net axfr
worked.
-joe
