This is a release of the Referral Whois (RWhois) server developed by the Network Solutions, Incorporated, Directory Services group. The documentation for RWhois will continue to be updated to reflect enhancements to RWhois. Additional documentation will be available throughout the evolution of RWhois and as RWhois is deployed on a larger scale.

This server is a reference implementation of the server side of the RWhois protocol, first described in RFC 1714. This server attempts to implement concepts and practices in accordance with version 1.5 of the protocol, described in doc/rfc2167.txt. This server should work on most versions of UNIX.

The primary difference between this server and previous versions is the treatment of authority areas. The server now supports multiple authority areas and is more strict in its management of those authority areas. The inclusion of multiple authority areas has forced a marked change upon the location and usage of the rwhoisd configuration files. Please see the operations guide (doc/operations-guide.txt) for further information. See the doc/UPGRADE file for notes on upgrading from the 1.0 server.

RWHOIS can be downloaded from here or from the following links: