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RED CIENTIFICA PERUANA                             WHOIS-S
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>Can someone tell me what is WHOIS server?

By my definition, it's a server that provides directory information in
response to TCP queries on port 43, in a manner roughly analogous to
the DDN NIC whois service described in RFC 954.

There's also a separate WHOIS service supported on some BITNET nodes.
Information about this can be found in the file "BITNET SERVERS",
obtainable from LISTSERV hosts. Look for the section "LISTSERVs which
will accept the /WHOIS command:".

>Is there any CATALOG exist on the network?

There's a list of Internet whois servers available via anonymous FTP
in

   sipb.mit.edu:/pub/whois/whois-servers.list

It currently includes 91 servers in 14 countries.

This file also has some information on accessing these servers.

>Can I try to find my friend if I only know his name and location roughly?

Yes, whois servers are among the useful resources for such attempts.

>X-Envelope-to: infonets@DEARN.BITNET
>X-VMS-To: IN%"infonets@dearn"
>Date:         Wed, 15 Jul 1992 18:26:00 N

The address info-nets@think.com should be used, rather than
infonets@dearn. The latter address only reaches a subset of INFO-NETS
readers, and I (for example) do not ordinarily see the messages sent
there.

Matt

.