untangling_the_web

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~ Network Whois lookup-input format: IP address
IP address blocks are maintained by ARIN, RIPE, AfriNIC, LACNIC, and APNIC
in separate, non-distributed databases. Formatted Whois data provides a wealth
of registration information. All five Whois databases allow for advanced searches
on fields other than IP address.
~ Domain Name (Whois) lookup-input format: domain name
Checks a domain name against registration records based upon that domain
name's TLD (.com, .uk, .ru, etc.); some automated programs can search some or
all domain name registries at once.
The confusion about domain name and Whois lookups is probably in part caused by
the fact that domain name registration is separate from IP address assignment.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is to consider the following fictitious,
overly simplistic example.
An imaginary Russian company named Moscow Motors wants to register two
domain names: moscowmotors.ru and moscowmotors.com. But Moscow Motors
only wants to use one IP address through its ISP, RT Communications (RTComm)
Network in Moscow. The European Registry, RIPE, maintains the block of IP
addresses handled by RTComm. Next, Moscow Motors goes to Network Solutions,
Inc., to register its moscowmotors.com domain name and to RU-Center, the Russian
top-level domain name registration service, to register its moscowmotors.ru domain
name. Both domain names resolve to the same IP address registered with RIPE.
Now let's say a user runs a domain name lookup against moscowmotors.com. He
finds the domain name is registered with Network Solutions, but when he tries to
look up the corresponding IP address belonging to moscowmotors.com, he finds
there is no network Whois record in the American Registry (ARIN) Whois database.
Why? Because the ARIN Whois database only contains IP addresses assigned to it,
and moscowmotors.com resolves to an IP address in the European (RIPE)
database.
If you would like to see a real-life example of what I've just described, try the
following:
1. Go to Domain Dossier (http://centralops.netlcolDomainDossier.vbs.asp) and
enter the following query:
ripe.net
search on domain whois record and network whois record
2. Look at the IP address for ripe.net: 193.0.0.203
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