Whois check - This works, but any suggestions

jenni

Like a number of other users on this forum, I needed to be able to check whether a domain name is registered. (I didn't need any registration info...just "yes" or "no".)

There are a lot of posts about this, but I didn't see any full-fledged examples. So, I am posting this as a starting place for anyone who has been in my shoes.

It comes from a post located here. http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fsockopen.php

I only need it to work for .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz extensions. If anyone has any suggestions or is using a better method, it would be great if you'd post it.

<?
//Get only domain and extension (no [url]www.[/url] or sub domains)
$domain=eregi_replace("http://","",$domain);
$domain=eregi_replace("www.","",$domain);
$domain = trim($domain);
//Check domain function
function checkDomain($domain){
	if (!empty($domain)) {
	   $fp = fsockopen("whois.networksolutions.com", 43, $errno, $errstr, 30);
	   if (!$fp) {
		 $info="";
	   } else {
		 fputs($fp, "$domain\r\n");
		 $info="<pre>\r\n";
		 while (!feof($fp)) {
			 $info.=fread($fp,128);
		 }
		 $info.="</pre>";
		 fclose ($fp);
	   }
	}
	return($info);
}
//Perform query
$info=checkDomain("$domain");
if(empty($info)){
	$errorMessage="There was an error connecting to the whois database.";
}elseif(eregi("$domain",$info) and !eregi("Not found: $domain",$info)){
	$registered="yes";
}else{
	$registered="no";
}
print("$domain is registered - $registered<br><br><hr><br>");
print("$info");
?>

jenni

Doh! Ok...so it worked for a few hours. I guess I need to find a server that doesn't mind me using thier whois info. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it.

dalecosp

On the main site, one of the most recent "tips" deals with this. IIRC, there's an older one, too.

The new one uses system commands in UNIX via the PHP CLI. It works well (heh, I wrote it...forgive shameless self-promotion please). The other is more like yours, based on fsockopen.

As for servers, here's the more/less "official" list.

#define NICHOST         "whois.crsnic.net"
#define INICHOST        "whois.networksolutions.com"
#define DNICHOST        "whois.nic.mil"
#define GNICHOST        "whois.nic.gov"
#define ANICHOST        "whois.arin.net"
#define LNICHOST        "whois.lacnic.net"
#define RNICHOST        "whois.ripe.net"
#define PNICHOST        "whois.apnic.net"
#define MNICHOST        "whois.ra.net"
#define QNICHOST_TAIL   ".whois-servers.net"
#define SNICHOST        "whois.6bone.net"
#define BNICHOST        "whois.registro.br"
#define NORIDHOST       "whois.norid.no"

And I guess I'd better include this:

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1980, 1993
 *      The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
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 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
 * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
 *    must display the following acknowledgement:
 *      This product includes software developed by the University of
 *      California, Berkeley and its contributors.
 * 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
 *    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
 *    without specific prior written permission.
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 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
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 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
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 * SUCH DAMAGE.

jenni

Thanks for your reply...I'll give it a go. :-)

AstroTeg

Have you thought about using host, dig, or nslookup?

dalecosp

Originally posted by AstroTeg
Have you thought about using host, dig, or nslookup?

Good point, and an even better one is that we should have read jenni's post more carefully. Even the 'whois' servers say that just because you can't find a result on a name doesn't mean it hasn't been registered. But, probably 'whois' is the closest to top-level. If there's no "whois", then the whole 'Net is in trouble; one poor DNS admin somewhere can mess up a call to "host" or "dig".

However, jenni, in order to not hit the whois servers so hard, you might have your script try "dig" or "host", or even "nslookup" prior to trying whois. Generally, in shell, if I wanna know if a name's available, I don't try 'whois' first, 'cause 'host' is less strain on the system(s)....