...and while we're on the subject of SWIPs, can I get a pet peeve off my chest - the fact that RADB entries are updated in minutes, yet it takes typically 24 hours or more for a SWIP database change to show up in the servers (and the next day to even determine that the change was accepted by the servers)? Is there any real reason for ARIN to not be able to update the database in near-real-time?
The problem is that none of these organizations have any real incentive to care. They're all "monopolies". For example, recently NetSol updated whois database at 2AM on 6/28/01 and didn't bother to update again until 6PM on 7/2/01. Approx. 112 hours later. There are a LOT of things that depend on whois. But, despite language at icann.org web site that says NSI Registry Agreement (form approved 4 November 1999) 9. Publication by NSI of Registry Data. (A) NSI shall provide an interactive web page and a port 43 Whois service providing free public query-based access to up-to-date (i.e. updated at least daily) registry database data NetSol obviously doesn't give a damn about whether or not whois is up to date. They don't have to. Their lucrative monopoly was recently extended for many more years. Unfortunately I don't know of a simple way that databases like these can be maintained without relying on a monopoly organization doing the actual work. It's just something you need to learn to live with. Nothing described similar monopolies better than Lily Tomlin's memorable character Ernestine the telephone operator: We're the phone company. We don't care, we don't have to.