README
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11##################################################
12# About
13##################################################
14
15Prefix WhoIs displays the origin-as and other interesting information
16related to the most specific prefix currently advertised within the
17Internet's global routing table that corresponds to the IP address in
18your query. This package provides two main components to make this
19possible.
20
21 1) The 'pwhois-updatedb' program downloads the global routing table
22from a router or route-view server of your choosing and stores this data
23in a MySQL database -- approaching 500,000 prefixes, and over 13 million unique
24entries (from some route-views.) With a cron script this
25data can be updated at an interval of your choosing, however we recommend
26not more frequent than every 4 hours (to be considerate of the route-view
27server from which you pull the data). pwhois-updatedb is smart enough
28to merge the data and expire records that are no longer in the global
29routing table, so this provides some limit to the amount of disk space you
30will need.
31
32 2) The 'pwhoisd' server process serves up this information to clients over
33the whois protocol (port 43/tcp). In addition, the pwhoisd daemon supports
34some new query types and output formats including its own internal pwhois
35format, Team Cymru's output format (see www.cymru.com), and RPSL (RFC 2622)
36for further compatibility.
37
38pwhoisd also supports bulk queries for integration with other processes,
39including Layer Four Traceroute (LFT), which is popular with network engineers.
40See www.pwhois.org for more details.
41
42Obviously, any whois client that supports the ability to supply your own
43whois server to query is compatible with pWhoIs.
44
45This package is most useful with our own whois client, called WhoB, and
46associated whois client library, released separately. We encourage the use
47of this client with the pWhoIs server package for the most benefit.
48
49For more information, please visit:
50
51 http://www.pwhois.org/
52
53Once you have your pWhoIs server running, for additional information about
54the features and functions of the server, try executing the command:
55
56 whois -h <your_pwhois_server_ip> help
57
58
59##################################################
60# System Requirements:
61##################################################
62
63The global routing table is large, over 480,000 prefixes at present, and
64in order to achieve fast performance with the server process, this information
65is cached in memory in a patricia tree. BE FOREWARNED: You may require as much
66as 12GB of RAM to run both the pwhoisd and pwhois-updatedb programs if you are
67using a full Internet routing table, not including what is required for your
68MySQL database.
69
70
71##################################################
72# Global pWhoIs Service:
73##################################################
74
75The pWhoIs team and fellow good netizens also maintain a global network of
76pWhoIs servers which provides the best server for answering your queries based
77upon the distance/location of the client from the DNS server you speak with
78(your location on the Internet). This greatly improves the performance of
79the Global pWhoIs service available at:
80
81 whois -h whois.pwhois.org <query>
82
83UltraDNS is used to provide this 'directional DNS' service. To learn more about
84UltraDNS's Directional DNS service, please visit:
85
86 http://www.ultradns.com/
87
88If you would like to host a node in the global pWhoIs service, given you have
89enough hardware resources and bandwidth, please contact us.
90
91
92##################################################
93# Authors:
94##################################################
95
96This software was primarily developed by a small group of security-minded
97individuals, who are concerned about the accuracy and availability of data
98regarding the global Internet routing table. We conduct research into the
99security of the Internet and needed this service for our own research.
100We thought it might be useful to the Internet community as a whole and made
101it freely available in March, 2005.
102
103Some of these individuals are (and special thanks go to):
104
105 Zachary Kanner
106 Victor Oppleman
107 Robb Ballard
108 Rodney Joffe
109 Brett Watson
110 Troy Ablan
111 Sergey Kondryukov
112 Robert L. Thompson
113
114This PWHOIS global service would not be possible without the hosting and
115equipment, and corporate support of:
116
117 PureGig
118 UltraDNS
119 CenterGate Research Group
120 VOSTROM Holdings
121
122##################################################
123# Your Help:
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125
126Like we said, this is free software, developed by people that care about what
127happens on the Internet. We are not paid to do this. If you feel you can
128contribute in some way, we would be happy to hear from you. Please send your
129patches, questions, comments, money, beer, coffee, etc. to pwhois-team@pwhois.org.
130
131