Comment Re:for plenty of us (Score 1) 174
> > Speak for yourself. I use whois every day. It's invaluable.
> Really? Can someone elaborate on its usefulness?
1. In comes some spam via email. You look at the IP, and do 'whois ' on it.
Sometimes what comes back is just general ISP data, but often what comes back is
specifics on what company the IP block is registered to, their network CIDR, etc.
Often you can do a forward whois lookup on the company name and find out all of
their other IP address blocks.
2. 'whois ' to find out what DNS servers are authoratative for the domain.
Very useful to know when DNS isn't set up properly for a domain.
3. whois for a domain often lists who to contact in case of abuse.
etc.
There are real uses even for mere mortals.
> Really? Can someone elaborate on its usefulness?
1. In comes some spam via email. You look at the IP, and do 'whois ' on it.
Sometimes what comes back is just general ISP data, but often what comes back is
specifics on what company the IP block is registered to, their network CIDR, etc.
Often you can do a forward whois lookup on the company name and find out all of
their other IP address blocks.
2. 'whois ' to find out what DNS servers are authoratative for the domain.
Very useful to know when DNS isn't set up properly for a domain.
3. whois for a domain often lists who to contact in case of abuse.
etc.
There are real uses even for mere mortals.
