### Adding Whois Servers

A Whois server that responds to the specific queries (called the Whois queries) used to determine the availability and ownership of a second level domain name. Each Whois server can report only on information in a single registry's or registrar's database. Therefore, a result of "no match" for a domain name Whois query does not necessarily mean that a domain name is available, but just that it was not found in the database being queried.

You can form a list of Whois servers in Parallels Business Automation - Standard and after this bind each of top level domains to one of more Whois servers.

When adding or configuring a Whois server, please take into account that the whois configuration form includes special fields for both query suffixes and prefixes and patterns to insert into a Whois response.

Using the query prefix and suffix

Normally the query prefix box should be left blank. However for com and net domains the proper query prefix is domain and it is required.

The query prefixes are also useful for Whois servers that require special options. For example, to manage German domain names with umlauts, the following query prefix is required:

-T dn -C ISO-8859-1

Please visit the registrar web sites for details on similar options supported by different whois servers.

Using the patterns

Some Whois servers' responses may be rather extensive and seem to be a little bit ambiguous. As a result, it can be difficult to understand whether a domain is taken or not at the first sight. To facilitate a response understanding, you can mark a Whois server response with a simple phrase (i.e., a pattern) both in case a domain is taken and available. The screen form provided in Parallels Business Automation - Standard for Whois server configuration allows labelling either the positive or a negative Whois response, but not both. For example, you decide to add a pattern to a "domain is taken" responses. The Parallels Business Automation - Standard then looks through the message and if a pattern is found, understands that a domain is taken. If a pattern was not found, the Parallels Business Automation - Standard understands that this is not the "domain is taken" response, and since there are only two variants (yes/no), understands the response as "domain is available".

To add a Whois server:

1. Select the Whois Servers tab and click the New Whois Server button.
2. Fill the form that appears on the screen:
   1. Enter the the name of the Registry or Internet coordination center that provides the Whois services (e.g., InterNIC, ARIN, etc.) into the Title field. The Whois server will be referred by this name in Parallels Business Automation - Standard.
   2. To register the HTTP whois server check the Use http protocol box. The specific features and requirements for HTTP whois search are outlined later in this guide.
   3. Type the domain name of the corresponding Whois server (e.g., whois.internic.net, whois.arin.net, etc.) into the Whois server field.

   Optional parameters to be included into the whois query string:

   1. Enter the number of port the Whois server listens the whois queries into the Port field.
   2. Type the whois query prefix into the Command prefix field (see comments about prefixes earlier in this topic).
   3. If the Whois server is responsible for only one TLD, then you can check the Drop TLD in request box to specify the domain name without the TLD suffix in the whois query string.
   4. Both for registration and transfer select the Whois server response to "label" and type the pattern that will facilitate "understanding" of the Whois server response for Parallels Business Automation - Standard:

      Use the "domain not available" pattern. The Whois response in case a domain is taken. Note that you can use the %domain% placeholder to include the actual domain name into the pattern. For example, you can type: Domain "%domain%" is taken.

      Use the "domain available" pattern. The Whois response in case a domain is available. Similarly, you can type: Domain "%domain%" is available.

   5. In addition, you can optionally specify a pattern for a domain expiration date response format. Pattern for expiry date can contain any text and the following placeholders:

      %dd% - day of month (one or two digits)

      %mm% - month, represented as one or two digits

      %mmm% - month, represented with letters

      %yyyy% - year, represented with 4 digits

      %hh% - hour (one or two digits)

      %ii% - minutes (one or two digits)

      %ss% - seconds (one or two digits)

      Each placeholder may appear only once in a pattern. The year (%yyyy%), for month (%mm% or %mmm%), and day (%dd%) placeholders must be used in any patterns. Placeholders for hour, minutes and seconds are optional.

      Examples:

      Expiration Date: %dd%-%mmm%-%yyyy%

      Renewal date: %dd%-%mmm%-%yyyy%

      Paid-till: %yyyy%.%mm%.%dd%

3. Click the Update button.

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