[ssac-gnso-irdwg] IANA's new WHOIS server can support IDN

[Steve Sheng <steve.sheng@xxxxxxxxx>]

See: http://blog.icann.org/2010/05/test-iana-whois/


 *   New format. The first thing that one would notice comparing the output is 
that we have adopted a new RPSL-style output format. It is a more predictable 
format that is commonly used by other WHOIS services, and also is easier to 
parse with a predictable "key: value" format.
 *   IDN support. We've improved the IDN support in this WHOIS server, so that 
we accept both the ASCII-based wire-format (i.e. prefixed with xn--) and the 
Unicode presentation format (encoded in UTF-8) as arguments to the WHOIS 
server. For IDNs, we return both formats in the result, with the U-label under 
the domain: key, and the A-label under the domain-ace: key.
 *   IP addresses. One of the great new features is IP address support. We 
maintain the global address space for both IPv4 and IPv6 and maintains the 
authoritative top-level delegation of address blocks. You can now query for any 
IP address and either get the top-level allocation (e.g. to a Regional Internet 
Registry), or its reserved status. This works for AS numbers too.
 *   Referrals. When a domain name or an IP address block is delegated to a 
more specific registry (i.e. either a top-level domain registry, or an RIR), 
and we have information on a WHOIS server that has more specific information, 
we'll first return a refer: key and the WHOIS server with the more specific 
information. This effectively allows you to query IANA's WHOIS service for any 
domain, IP address or AS number to determine the best place to look.

Warmly,
Steve