PHP whois client function

abstract 
This article contains PHP implementation of whois client (as a function ae_whois), which may be used to request domain information from specified whois servers
compatible 
  • PHP 4.0 or higher
  • PHP 5 or higher

Whois protocol (defined by RFC 3912) is probably one of the simplest internet protocols.

In fact, whois client should open TCP connection to port 43, send query, send CR-LF ("\r\n" constant) and then receive response. Here is the source code:

source code: php
<?php 
function ae_whois($query, $server)
{

    define('AE_WHOIS_TIMEOUT', 15); // connection timeout
    global $ae_whois_errno, $ae_whois_errstr;

    // connecting 
    $f = fsockopen($server, 43, $ae_whois_errno, $ae_whois_errstr, AE_WHOIS_TIMEOUT);
    if (!$f) 
        return false; // connection failed 

    // sending query    
    fwrite($f, $query."\r\n");

    // receving response 
    $response = '';
    while (!feof($f))
        $response .= fgets($f, 1024);

    // closing connection 
    fclose($f);

    return $response;
}
?>

As you can see, function takes two arguments: whois query and whois server. Function returns server response (if everything was fine), or 'false' constant(that means connection failed). fsockopen error code and error string are written to global variables $ae_whois_errno and $ae_whois_errstr.

You can also change connection timeout by modifying AE_WHOIS_TIMEOUT constant.

Usage example: getting information about domain 'iphone.com'

source code: php
<?php 

// copy-paste function ae_whois(see above) here 

echo ae_whois('iphone.com', 'whois.verisign-grs.com');
?>


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내말을 믿지않고 나를 따르지 않으면 지옥,
나는 하늘나라(우주)에 사느니라.

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