At 20:19 3/23/99 -0500, Nick Bastin wrote:
I would suggest forcing people to register to use the whois database. Make it open to anybody, with free registration, but require registration. Then restrict users to, say, 250 queries per day, which would radically slow the pace of mining, allow most people more queries than they would ever use in a 24-hour period, and would make it hard to resell the service. Now, you'd probably need some kind of exception program whereby with proper authorization, or something, certain users would have the 250 query limit eliminated, but at least you'd know who they were, and if they abused it, cut them off.
That's a pretty good idea. It works for hundreds of other sites, why not for WhoIs? Require a password (to help avoid account theft), but keep it free. "Small minds can only contemplate small ideas".....Unknown Dean Robb Owner, PC-EASY (757) 495-EASY [3279] On-site computer repair, upgrades and consultations Read my game reviews/columns in SimOps on WWW.TheGamers.Net