On Wed, 22 Jan 2003 21:18:36 +0100 Csongor Fagyal <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
For what it's worth I personally agree that the whois should have an XML component.Yo my friend, drink vodka!
;-)
This was my "cart before the horse" comment.But *NOT* until we creatively address the spammer issue.Well, for me, I do NOT need an e-mail address in the XML DTD, if that makes anti-spammers happy :-) Let's make a new RFC for it or something, it just sooo easy. I don't care if it is SOAP or gzipped XML or whatever, but make it computer-readable. Optionally let the registar modify the e-mails to ******@domain, I don' care, but to parse a changing txt file (basically to achieve nothing) is something I find unacceptable.
Registrar do this *SPECIFICALLY TO PREVENT* automated parsing. Thus if we eliminate the motives for making whois difficult to parse then registrars will make whois parsible. After all making a whois system that give a changing output *IS* more difficult to create and maintain. I'm sure registrars would prefer to output / maintain something simpler.
My quick "free thinking" due to my last email came up with this to address spammer whois mining:Yes spammers will in the end get email addresses. But I firmly believe there is more than enough intelectual horsepower among the internet community to come up with a way to make whois mining intractable .....Maybe:
- for "anonymous" users, limit the number of WHOIS requests to a very small number / IP / day, and change e-mail addresses to ****@domain
- for "trusted" users (well, it is hard to define this... maybe this one is not needed at all), limit the number of WHOIS requests from the same user/day, and include e-mail addresses in the response
1) Part of ICANN contract requires each registrar to locate their whois server, as well as there outgoing whois requests, at specified IP address(s) which the registrar if free to define.
2) Registrars have 5 calendar days to notify ICANN of a change in whois IP(s) -- Thus allowing registrars to perform maintanace, etc., without having to involve ICANN everytime they upgrade / repair their whois server
3) The IP's of *ALL* ICANN registrars are posted on ICANN's web site, perhaps in an area only registrars are allowed to access.
4) Registrars then *KNOW* the IP's of other registrars whois servers and direct their own requests out though the IP's they declare with ICANN (note I'm allowing multiple IP's to be specified for each registrar).
5) End result is that each registrar provides full bandwidth access to all IP's in the ICANN list. All IP's *NOT* on the list get limited whois bandwidth.
End result -- Takes spammers forever to mine the Whois servers and thus they move elsewhere .....
I must say it again, the above idea is just mental masturbation since one of the biggest whois problems is registrars trying to steal each others renewals!
IMHO stealing renewals is the first issue ICANN must be addess.
