Re: Merging RRP and Whois

[George Belotsky <george@register.com>]

Paul:

The RRP already includes Whois-style functionality.  One must be able
to view information on objects (domain names for now).  It is also
clear that the Whois will need a more advanced protocol than what
exists today.

In the future, a more comprehensive solution will be required.  With a
little thought now, the RRP, with its extensibility and authentication
features, can grow to be that comprehensive solutions.  End users and
other entities will then use the protcol also, not just registries and
registrars.  Alternatively, the RRP could become isolated as the
comprehensive solution develops, thus placing it firmly on the path to
deprecation.

It would not take too much effort to simply use the Whois-like
features (perhaps with a little extension) of the RRP to provide Whois
services to end users.




On Wed, Jan 24, 2001 at 11:39:16AM -0500, Paul George wrote:
> Fair enough, thanks for the info Randy.  But I think my question is still
> valid.  Does "whois" have a valid place in a generic regsitry/registrar
> protocol?  Will ALL registration systems need "whois" functionality?  Okay,
> if they don't need it, then they don't have to implement that part, but that
> could be said for a million other little bits of functionality.....  Even
> though I think of any right now, I'm sure someone else can. :-)
> 
> The fundemental question is :
> 
> Is 'whois' an integral part of a protocol that is intended to provide a
> means for the registration of objects?
> 
> IMHO, I think it is not.  And I hope we can move forward on this soon.
> 
> Paul
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Randy Bush [mailto:randy@psg.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 11:31 AM
> To: Paul George
> Cc: ietf-provreg@cafax.se; ietf-whois@imc.org
> Subject: RE: Merging RRP and Whois
> 
> 
> > Isn't whois simply a means of looking up Internet domain name
> > information?
> 
> no it is not.  while the domain indu$try uses he protocol, many others do
> too.  and they have just as legitimate claims to its functionality as the
> domain exploition indu$try.
> 
> randy
> 

-- 
-----------------------------
George Belotsky
Senior Software Architect
Register.com, inc.
george@register.com
212-798-9127 (phone)
212-798-9876 (fax)