Features

WARNING – This project has not been updated since around 2008 or 2009, and is not supported.

Sam’s Whois php script has the following features and options:

Supports all Major Domain Name Tlds

  • Supports all major tlds including: com, net, org, info, biz, us, co.uk, org.uk, de. The tlds supported can be limited to a specific list with one line of code.
  • New tlds can be added and existing ones modified by editing a simple text file.
  • Sam’s Whois Can retrieve the full whois information for .com and .net domains where the registry server only provides basic information. This option to determine the authoritative server and redirect the query to it can be turned on or off.

Easy Installation & Simple Usage

You can have your own whois lookup service up and running on your website just by uploading the files and adding 1 line of code.

The script comes with a heavily documented example scripts illustrating the various options. Full documentation on using and configuring the script is available online.

Check Availability & Clean Whois Output

The script automatically parses the whois data to determine whether the domain name is available or already registered.

Additionally, the script can automatically clean irrelevant text from the whois result (such as the whois server’s terms & conditions) for well-known servers enhancing the clarity of whois lookup results, and this feature can be added for other servers by editing the config.txt file.

Performance and Security Features

Sam’s Whois has two features designed to improve performance and stop abuse of the whois service you provide. Both features are optional.

  • Whois lookup result caching – The script can be set to cache the results of whois lookups for a specified period of time (measured in minutes), reducing the number of queries you need to make to the whois servers for popular domains. You can also give users the option of overriding the cache if they need an up-to-date whois result.
  • Secure code entry – By offering a whois lookup service on your website, you run the risk of unscrupulous users abusing your services by using scripts or software on their own computers to lookup 100’s or 1000’s of domains per minute through your site. This overusage could result in your i.p. address being banned by the registrars. Sam’s Whois provides the option to force users to enter a randomly generated code, displayed as an image, for each whois-lookup they do. This option requires that the gd image module is installed on your server.

Free To Use

Download from GitHub.

Sams Whois script is free to use on your own websites. A link back to this page is appreciated but not required. Sam’s Whois is licensed under the MIT open source licence.