Generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) Registry Agreements

gTLD Registry Agreements establish the rights, duties, liabilities, and obligations ICANN requires of registry operators to run gTLDs.

Proposed TLD Sponsorship Agreement: Attachment 15 (.coop)

ICANN | Proposed TLD Sponsorship Agreement: Attachment 15 (.coop)

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Proposed TLD Sponsorship Agreement: Attachment 15 (.coop)

Posted: 5 November 2001


Public Whois Specification

This Attachment is subject to change by agreement of Sponsor and ICANN during the design process as well as during the IETF standards process. However, the following provides the target architecture and initial functionality. In addition, Sponsor agrees to implement changes to this Attachment specified by ICANN to conform to the IETF provreg working group's protocol specification no later than 135 days after the IETF specification is adopted as a Proposed Standard [RFC 2026, section 4.1.1].

Poptel Whois

The Poptel Whois service is intended as a lookup service for registries, registrars, registrants, as well as for other individuals and businesses that wish to query details for .coop domain names stored in the registry. The Whois system has been designed to be lightweight and delegate more functions to the client so as to provide extreme robustness, availability and performance. This has been done through the use of three load balanced clone servers with network redundancy using a modified RWhois server for simplicity and scalability.

For the initial implementation, RWhois has been chosen due to the benefits of using its own database, named MKDB (Mark Kosters' Database). It is a fairly simple database whose purpose is to scale up well to larger databases. RWhois documentation recently reports that there are 1.9 million records in the RWhois root. The database is designed to be simple to understand and can be manipulated by hand if required. Sponsor has the discretion to migrate to a different database, provided the at least the same functionality is provided.

Additionally, provision for detection of abusive usage (e.g. excessive numbers of queries from one source) has been taken into account. It is not policy to place restrictions on Whois queries, however, Poptel reserves the right to activate abuse countermeasures if necessary. Since the Poptel Whois server is the authoritative source of domain information for .coop only, the service will only contain .coop domains.

Access to the physical systems and data is strictly controlled and managed by Poptel.

Registrars will be able to provide a front-end web interface to the standard Whois service. In addition Poptel will provide a front-end web interface to allow convenient user access to the Whois service via any system with a standard web browser.

Whois Data Management

This draws on the contents of the registry databases. It dynamically generates or deletes Whois records. These are periodically uploaded to the publicly visible Whois Servers.

Whois service features summary

  • Standard protocol accessible over TCP on port 43
  • Consistent format (fields and formatting) for all registrars
  • Near real-time updates, and the ability to change update time easily if required.
  • Extensible field capability
  • Servers return a single response per .coop domain name unless required to hold connection via holdconnection directive
  • Whois service expandable through use of directives
  • Load balanced for high availability, high load
  • Network redundancy for high availability, high load
  • Multiple servers for zero down time maintenance

Whois service data elements

These include:

  • The name of the domain name registered
  • The IP addresses of the primary Name Server and secondary Name Server(s) of the .coop domain name registered
  • The corresponding names of those Name Servers
  • The identity of the registrar
  • The original creation date
  • Date of last modification
  • Contact information for the registrant, administrative, technical, and billing contacts

Whois Queries

The Whois service will work with any RFC 954 compliant Whois client and is designed to be as simple as possible.

For all Whois queries, the client provides a character string for which information is desired and, optionally, directives and object types to control the limit of the search. If neither directives nor object types are specified, the Whois service searches for the character string in the Name fields of the Domain object. Object type controls are available to limit the search to just data in the specified object. Directives controls are available to limit the search or specify partial or full summary output. The "-directive" directives can be used by the client to get information about the directives that the server supports. The response contains the name and description of each specified directive and may be expanded in the future with additional attributes.

Object Type Controls List

Domain: Search only by domain objects. The input string is searched in the Name field.

Contact: Search only contact objects. The input string is searched in the ID field.

Nameserver: Search only nameserver objects. The input string is searched in the nameserver name field and the IP address field.

Registrar: Search only registrar objects. The input string is searched in the Name field.

By default, if no object type control is specified, then the Name field of the Domain object is searched.

Currently Supported Directives

directive:class
description:get meta-information for the class(es)

directive:directive
description:get server allowable directives

directive:display
description:sets/displays the display types

directive:forward
description:server forward boolean

directive:holdconnect
description:hold the connection boolean

directive:limit
description:displays and sets record hit limit

directive:security
description:identify the authentication method

directive:notify
description:tell server of bad referral or data change

directive:quit
description:quit connection

directive:register
description:add/mod/delete record in server

directive:schema
description:get the schema of an object

directive:soa
description:ask server's authority area

directive:status
description:server's status

directive:xfer
description:transfer data from the server

directive:X-date
description:an example of an extended directive

directive:X-pgp
description:The PGP key server gateway

Queries can be made as either an "exact search" or as a "partial search", both of which are insensitive to the case of input string.

An exact search specifies the full string to search for in the database field. An exact match between the input string and the field value is required. For example "poptel.coop" will only match with "poptel.coop".

A partial search specifies the start of the string to search for in the database field. Every record with a search field that starts with the input string will be considered a match.

To initiate partial searches the asterisk wildcard is used "*". For example "pop*" will match with "poptel.coop" as well as "popdot.coop". The Wild card query can be used in the front and/or end of the search string. By default, if multiple matches are found for a query, then full details of all matching results are presented.

The Poptel Whois service also offers boolean operator queries, this consists of simpler combined using the "and" and "or" operators.

Client/Server Session for Query

  • The client connects to the server
  • The server returns the Poptel banner
  • The client sends one or more directives to the server
  • The server returns the response to each directive
  • The client finally sends a query to the server
  • The server returns the query results

The server closes the connection, unless the client has directed not to close the connection.

Whois Output Fields

This section describes the output fields provided for each type of object.

Domain Record: A Whois query that results in domain information will return the following fields from the Domain object and the associated data from host and contact objects. This set of data is also referred to as the Domain Record.

Domain ID
Domain Name
Sponsoring Registrar
Domain Status
Registrant, Administrative, Technical and Billing Contact Information including
  Contact ID
  Contact Name
  Contact Organization
  Contact Address (3 Street Fields), City, State/Province, Country
  Contact Postal Code
  Contact Phone, Fax, E-mail
Names of nameservers associated with this domain
Created by Registrar
Last Updated by Registrar
Last Transferred Date
Additional fields (Registrar specified)
Domain Registration Date
Domain Expiration Date
Domain Last Updated Date

















Nameserver Record:

Nameserver ID
Nameserver name
Currently Associated (true/false)
Nameserver status
IP addresses associated
Sponsoring Registrar
Created by Registrar
Last Updated by Registrar
Last Transferred Date
Additional fields (Registrar specified)








Contact Record:

A Whois query that results in contact information will return the following. This set of information is referred to as the Contact Record.

Contact ID
Contact Name
Contact Organization
Contact Address (3 Street Fields), City, State/Province, Country
Contact Postal Code
Contact Phone, Fax, E-mail
Currently Associated
Contact Status
ENS Identity
Sponsoring Registrar
Created Registrar
Contact Registration Date
Contact Last Updated Date
Last Transferred Date












Registrar Record:

A Whois query that results in Registrar information will return the following. This set of information is referred to as the Registrar Record.

Registrar ID (conforming to IANA registrar-id registry)
Registrar Name
Registrar Status
Registrar Address (3 Street Fields), City, State/Province, Country
Registrar Postal Code
Registrar Phone, Fax, E-mail
Registrar Administrative Contact(s)
Registrar Technical Contact(s)
Registrar Billing Contact(s)







Sample Whois Output

This section provides sample output from the Whois server for each type of Registry Object: Domain, Contact, Nameserver, and Registrar. The output is structured as key/value pairs, which simplifies machine-readability. In the Input section, the quoted string represents the string actually passed by the client to the server in the request packet.

Domain Record:

Input:

whois "domain test.coop"

Output:

Domain ID: 400032
Domain Name: TEST.COOP
Sponsoring Registrar: SAMPLE
Domain Status: ACTIVE
Registrant ID: CNT-1002
Registrant Name: A .TEST
Registrant Organization: TEST COMPANY COOP.
Registrant Address1: ADDRESS1a
Registrant Address2: ADDRESS1b
Registrant Address3: ADDRESS1c
Registrant City: ADDRESS2
Registrant State/Province: ADDRESS3
Registrant Country: ADDRESS4
Registrant Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Registrant Phone Number: +0000 0000 0000
Registrant Facsimile Number: +0000 0000 0000
Registrant Email: A.TEST@TEST.COOP
Admin ID: CNT-1003
Admin Name: A .TEST
Admin Organization: TEST COMPANY COOP.
Admin Address1: ADDRESS1a
Admin Address2: ADDRESS1b
Admin Address3: ADDRESS1c
Admin City: ADDRESS2
Admin State/Province: ADDRESS3
Admin Country: ADDRESS4
Admin Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Admin Phone Number: +0000 0000 0000
Admin Facsimile Number: +1 202 533-2970
Admin Email: A.TEST@TEST.COOP
Tech ID: CNT-1004
Tech Name: A.TEST
Tech Organization: TEST COMPANY COOP.
Tech Address1: ADDRESS1a
Tech Address2: ADDRESS1b
Tech Address3: ADDRESS1c
Tech City: ADDRESS2
Tech State/County: ADDRESS3
Tech Country: ADDRESS4
Tech Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Tech Phone Number: +0000 0000 0000
Tech Facsimile Number: +0000 0000 0000
Tech Email: A.TEST@TEST.COOP
Billing ID: CNT-1005
Billing Name: A .TEST
Billing Organization: TEST COMPANY COOP.
Billing Address1: ADDRESS1a
Billing Address2: ADDRESS1b
Billing Address3: ADDRESS1c
Billing City: ADDRESS2
Billing State/Province: ADDRESS3
Billing Country: ADDRESS4
Billing Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Billing Phone Number: +0000 0000 0000
Billing Facsimile Number: +0000 0000 0000
Billing Email: A.TEST@TEST.COOP
Name Server: DNS0.NIC.COOP
Name Server: DNS1.NIC.COOP
Created By: REG-42
Last Updated By: REG-43
Last Transferred By: REG-44
Created On: May 5, 2001
Expires On: May 5, 2003
Updated On: May 5, 2001






























































Contact Record:

Input:

whois "contact CNT-1002"

Output:

Contact ID: CNT-1002
Name: A.TEST
Organization: TEST COMPANY COOP.
Address: ADDRESS1
City: ADDRESS2
County/Province: ADDRESS3
Country: ADDRESS4
Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Phone Number: +0000 0000 0000
Facsimile Number: +0000 0000 0000
E-mail: A.TEST@TEST.COOP
Currently Associated (true/false): T
Contact Status: ACTIVE
ENS Identity: COOP-0010
Sponsoring Registrar: REG-42
Created On: MAY 5, 2001
Updated On: MAY 5, 2001
Transferred On: July 25, 2001
















Nameserver Record:

Input:

whois "nameserver DNS0.NIC.COOP"
or
whois "nameserver 10.10.10.10"

Output:

Nameserver ID: 400032
Nameserver name: DNS0.NIC.COOP
Currently Associated (true/false):T
Nameserver Status: ACTIVE
IP Addresses Associated: 10.10.10.10
Sponsoring Registrar: REG-42
Created By Registrar: REG-43
Last Updated By Registrar: May 5, 2001
Last Transferred Date: May 5, 2001
Additional fields (Registrar specified)








Registrar Record:

Input:

whois "registrar SAMPLE"

Output:

Registrar ID: REG-42
Registrar Name: SAMPLE
Registrar Status: ACTIVE
Registrar Address 1: ADDRESS1
Registrar City: ADDRESS2
Registrar State/County: ADDRESS3
Registrar Country: ADDRESS4
Registrar Postal Code: ADDRESS5
Registrar Phone: +0000 0000 0000
Registrar Fax: +0000 0000 0000
Registrar E-mail: AN-OTHER-TEST@REG.COOP
Admin Contact: CNT-1010
Admin Contact:CNT-1011
Tech Contact: CNT-1012
Tech Contact: CNT-1013
Billing Contact: CNT-1014














Prior draft:

30 October 2001


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