How to make a WHOIS script in PHP

fabiuz

HI,

I would like to make a PHP script who checks for the availability or not of .com/net/org domain plus .it domains.

Is there around somethig already done ?

I am trying to make it by myself, but I need some infos:

is it possibile with PHP to analizy the
result of the query (to the Internic or
other NIC company) to check for a
particular string (eg. domain available)
and then return a page with only the text:
The domain is available!
instead of all the whole page of the nic
company ?

Thanks for any help about !

theslinky

Hi,

You can start the script off by doing the regular socket connect and read the data. So, for .it domains:

$sd = fsockopen("whois.nic.it", 43 .... other args);
// Check to make sure socket is connected, then issue the following command...
$domain = "nic.it"; // of course you'll set the domain other ways (through html form input -- i suppose)
fputs($sd, "$domain\r\n");
$result = "";
while(!feof($sd)) {
$result .= fread($sd, 1024);
}
fclose($sd);

Now, to check whether it is available:
for .it domains, the WHOIS server responds:
"No entries found in the IT-NIC database".

So scan the $result for the string above and if it is present, then the domain is not taken. Otherwise, it will return a longer result showing more info.

In fact, if you don't care about the additional details, instead of the while(!feof($sd)) loop, replace those three lines with:
$result = fread($sd, 512);

This is because the "No entries found" string will show up within the first 512 bytes of the result. So if all you are looking for is the availability, just check the first part of the result to see if it is taken or not.

hope this helps,
-sridhar

fabiuz

Wow !

Rally thanks for this answer !

I still know so few things of PHP :-(

I have read all your script but I was not able to understand it all.

Where do you find, or where can I find the expression to put in:

$sd = fsockopen("whois.nic.it", 43 .... other args);

what is "43 and other arg" ?

And which are the parameters to use for .com domains ?

What does it means:

$result .= fread($sd, 1024);

and how can I scan the $result variable ?

I was trying something similar, but I don't know which NIC db to check so I were using something like:

http://www2.nic.it/cgi-bin/Maintainer/search.cgi?Object=pippo.it for it domains and

http://www.internic.com/cgi/whois?whois_nic=$search&type=domain
for .com/net/org

and the function I was trying is:

$fp = fopen("http://www2.nic.it/cgi-bin/Maintainer/search.cgi?Object=pippo.it","r");

but I don't know if it works and how to seek inside the page...

Thank you again for any help you can give me !

theslinky

Fabio,

Here is a sample script that would do the job:

<?php

$domainname = "pippo.com";

// First check to see if the domain is a .com/.net or .it
$fp = @fopen("http://www.geektools.com/cgi-bin/proxy.cgi?query=$domainname&targetnic=auto", "r");

if(!$fp) {
print "Error opening URL";
}
else {
// Read the output from the domain query
$contents = fread($fp, 1024);

// Check the output for messages like "Unable to find any information for your query"
if(eregi("Unable to find any information for your query", $contents)) {
	print "Domain is not registered";
}
else {
	print "Domain is registered";
}

}

Basically, it does exactly what you were trying to do with the internic.com URL. But: I'm using www.geektools.com as my source because this site allows you to lookup any domain with ANY extension (.com, .net, .it, .org, .edu, .uk, .de, etc)

So you can replace the print "Domain is (not) registered" part with your own code.

Also, set $domainname to the domain you want to search.

-sridhar

I hope this helps!
-sridhar

fabiuz

Thanks again!

the routin seems perfect and I have undestand something more about php.

Unfortunally I still not understand why it doesn't work :-(

It always says "The domain is registered" like it doen't found the string "Unable to find any information for your query" .

Do you have any idea about why this is happening ?

Thanks

theslinky

Hi,

I think I know the problem. When I did the fread, I only read up to 1024 bytes (1 K😎. But the output of the geektools.com site is more than 1 KB. Increase the 1024 to 10240 (10kb). So the line should look like:

$contents = fread($fp, 10240);

Let me know if this works.

If the current method is too slow, let me know. I can write a small script which will directly contact the WHOIS servers for .it and .com/net/etc domains and check.

-sridhar

fabiuz

MANY MANY MANY THANKS !!

It is perfectly working now!

I think I should buy a PHP manual in order to understand something more about this beautifull scripting language!

Again, really thank !

if I can do something for you just tell me...

eg. .it domains registration or webspace !

Yours

Fabio