Anyone noticed that Verisign have changed their whois server recently (or not so recently)? It’s been bugging me for a while cos when I’m doing whois lookup, all I get is the abbreviated info form like this:

[adam@dyn89 ~]$ whois -n microsoft.com
[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[whois.verisign-grs.com]

Whois Server Version 2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: MICROSOFT.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://domainhelp.tucows.com
Name Server: NS1.MSFT.NET
Name Server: NS2.MSFT.NET
Name Server: NS3.MSFT.NET
Name Server: NS4.MSFT.NET
Name Server: NS5.MSFT.NET
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 10-oct-2006
Creation Date: 02-may-1991
Expiration Date: 03-may-2014

Well I finally updated my jwhois.conf to include the following lines in the server-options section

"whois\\.verisign-grs\\.com" {
whois-redirect = ".*Whois Server: \\(.*\\)";
}
Wahoo! now I get useful whois data:

[adam@dyn89 ~]$ whois microsoft.com
[Querying whois.verisign-grs.com]
[Redirected to whois.opensrs.net]
[Querying whois.opensrs.net]
[whois.opensrs.net]

Registrant:
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
US

Domain name: MICROSOFT.COM

Administrative Contact:
Administrator, Domain domains@microsoft.com
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
US
+1.4258828080