Registrar WHOIS server

This is a server that can be queried directly for a specific WHOIS record for a domain using the -h switch from the command line:

whois -h whois.easydns.com packtpub.com

There are a few reasons you may need to do this. Some WHOIS clients do a reasonably good job of figuring out which WHOIS server to query. Sometimes, for factors outside of their control, such as a change in WHOIS output format, this doesn't happen.

Furthermore, with the flood of new top-level domains ("new TLDs") now coming out, there are sometimes cases where a new TLD's WHOIS server has not yet been added to various WHOIS lookup tools. Each new TLD must operate a WHOIS server accessible on port 43, using the hostname whois.nic.<tld>.

From a command line WHOIS lookup, you would then use the -h switch. For example, if the hot new TLD everybody wants a piece of is .blargh, you would use this:

$ whois -h whois.nic.blargh example.blargh