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Demys published a good article explaining the whois situation with .ORG domains since PIR has taken over the registry.
From
http://www.demys.net/news/2003/04/22_org.htm
Links:
Public Interest Registry
.ORG Registry WHOIS Help
Afilias
From
http://www.demys.net/news/2003/04/22_org.htm
.ORG THROUGH THICK AND THIN
22nd April, 2003
Confused by queries on .org domain names? Demys explains what's happened to the .org WHOIS service since January this year.
Seasoned domain name watchers may have been wondering what has happened to the .org WHOIS system following the transition of the registry operator from Verisign Global Registry Services (VGRS) to Public Interest Registry (PIR) (see: New .org registry reports smooth transition)
Since then many popular WHOIS clients (programs that can be used to access domain name registration details) have not worked correctly for .org. Even if you ask PIR's own WHOIS service, at whois.publicinterestregistry.net, responses for .org domain names seem to be in a strange format looking like an Afilias '.info-style' WHOIS but with the name field containing the cryptic registrant name 'SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR'. So what's it all about?
Well, it's all part of the migration from VGRS to PIR. VGRS's WHOIS used to provide (and still does, for .com and .net) a very limited form of information reflecting what the registry knew about a given .org domain name. This included the domain name's expiry date but did not include the registrant's details which were held on each separate registrar's system. What the WHOIS clients did was to look up who the registrar was (eg. MelbourneIT, Register.com or whoever), then look up that registrar's system in turn and present the information directly from the registrar.
PIR is moving .org from the 'thin' kind of WHOIS system used for .com and .net (so-called because the registry holds only a limited amount) to a 'thick' system where there will be a central WHOIS which lists all of the information without the need to refer requests to individual registrars. Afilias, PIR's technical partner, already has a thick WHOIS in place for .info, hence the similarity in layout between the .org and .info systems. And the cryptic 'SEE SPONSORING REGISTRAR'? That's PIR pointing you towards the registrar of the .org domain name, pending the data being added in for the new 'thick' system. Underneath the registrant's name field, in the address field, is the whois server for the registrar concerned - the one that 'sponsors' the name with PIR. The registrar's own data for any given .org domain name, when consulted, is as familiar as ever.
So it turns out that the amount of information in the .org WHOIS today is just the same as it was prior to coming under PIR's control - it's just represented a little differently.
PIR and Afilias tell us that the entire .org registry is to be migrated on to a full thick system over the course of this year but that until migration is complete the WHOIS will continue to return thin data.
"In fact," says Heather Carle, Communications Manager for Afilias, "over the next year the Whois will be a mix of both thin and thick data as different registrars make their way through the migration process. Our ICANN contract outlines our timeline for conversion and we expect to complete the entire process by the end of December 2003."
So there you have it. PIR and Afilias reported the first phase of the .org transition as a resounding success. There's every reason to believe they'll get there with phase two through thick and thin, or should that be from thin to thick?
Links:
Public Interest Registry
.ORG Registry WHOIS Help
Afilias
