Phil et al. Perhaps I'm off base here, but I thought this was the concept of using shared whois. "The first step in this process is to verify the utilization of at least 80% of the prior allocations. The methods available to show this utilization are SWIP and RWHOIS for ISPs who have assigned addresses to their clients." If you have a FreeBSD system you can install rwhois from the ports collection. See below for example output. Phil Howard wrote:
Roeland M.J. Meyer wrote:
.. trimmed to save bits.
Perhaps a better solution is a distributed SWIP database. Perhaps a SWIP record can be added to DNS to indicate the name of the server to query for detail information by network. It would then co-exist along side the PTR records. Appropriate SWIP lookup clients would resolve for SWIP data in the in-addr.arpa space and then query that server (or servers) for the real data about the network in question.
IPv6 will probably force the issue, anyway, since it opens the door to what will at least today be a nearly infinite address space. Try putting that on few terabytes of Oracle.
Example random query: monet# rwhois 207.10.12.0 Referral Whois (RWhois) spec version 1.0 (InterNIC V-1.0B5) Connecting to [root.rwhois.net] port [4321] -> client default server network:Class-Name:network network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0 network:ID:NETBLK-SPRINT-CF0A0F.0.0.0.0/0 network:Handle:NETBLK-SPRINT-CF0A0F network:Network-Name:SPRINT-CF0A0F network:IP-Network:207.10.8.0/21 network:IP-Network-Block:207.10.8.0 - 207.10.15.0 network:Org-Name:Nysernet/Monroe County Boces #1 network:Street-Address:41 O'Connor Rd. network:City:Fairport network:State:NY network:Postal-Code:14450-1327 network:Country-Code:US network:Tech-Contact;I:JP29.edu network:Created:19960116050000000 network:Updated:19960116153537000 network:Class-Name:network network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0 network:ID:NET-SPRINT-CF0A00.0.0.0.0/0 network:Handle:NET-SPRINT-CF0A00 network:Network-Name:SPRINT-CF0A00 network:IP-Network:207.10.0.0/16 network:IP-Network-Block:207.10.0.0 network:Org-Name:Stellar Communications,Inc network:Street-Address:460 State St network:City:Rochester network:State:NY network:Postal-Code:14514 network:Country-Code:US network:Tech-Contact;I:TS905.COM network:Created:19960122050000000 network:Updated:19960123012455000 network:Class-Name:network network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0 network:ID:NETBLK-NETBLK-SPLK-NYNET3.0.0.0.0/0 network:Handle:NETBLK-NETBLK-SPLK-NYNET3 network:Network-Name:NETBLK-SPLK-NYNET3 network:IP-Network:207.10.0.0/16 network:In-Addr-Server;I:NS310-HST.NET network:In-Addr-Server;I:NS311-HST.NET network:In-Addr-Server;I:NS312-HST.NET network:IP-Network-Block:207.10.0.0 - 207.10.255.0 network:Org-Name:NYSERNet network:Street-Address:200 Elwood Drive network:City:Liverpool network:State:NY network:Postal-Code:13088-6147 network:Country-Code:US network:Tech-Contact;I:BG735.NET network:Created:19951212050000000 network:Updated:19960408160628000 network:Class-Name:network network:Auth-Area:0.0.0.0/0 network:ID:RESERVED-1.0.0.0.0/0 network:Handle:RESERVED-1 network:Network-Name:RESERVED network:IP-Network:0.0.0.0/0 network:IP-Network-Block:0.0.0.0 network:Org-Name:IANA network:Tech-Contact;I:JKR1.EDU network:Updated:19910115210052000 monet# -- From: Joseph T. Klein, Titania Corporation mailto:jtk@titania.net http://www.titania.net voice: +1 414 372 4565 FAX: +1 414 264 6038 "Some of the greatest companies couldn't get funded when they first started, so don't let the bozos get you down: Keep on plugging." -- Guy Kawasaki of Garage.com