On 3 May 2005 at 23:52, E B Lund wrote:
> Registrant View tab
>
> Registrant Information
> Whois Server Version 1.3
>
> Aborting search records found . . .
>
> MICROSOFT.COM.WAREZ.AT.TOPLIST.GULLI.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.WANNDOODOO.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.SUX.BUT.PYROFREAK.ORG.RULEZ.AND.DIOXTECH.NET.DELETED.GANDI.NET
> MICROSOFT.COM.SMELLS.SIMPLECODES.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.SHOULD.GIVE.UP.BECAUSE.LINUXISGOD.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.RAWKZ.MUH.WERLD.MENTALFLOSS.CA
> MICROSOFT.COM.COM.OHMYGODITBURNS.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.LIVES.AT.SHAUNEWING.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.IS.NOT.AS.COOL.AS.SIMPLECODES.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.IS.IN.BED.WITH.CURTYV.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.IS.GOD.BECOUSE.UNIXSUCKS.COM
> MICROSOFT.COM.IS.A.STEAMING.HEAP.OF.(deleted to remove bad words)
> yada yada yada.
>
> So, what does this all mean?
>
> And, as long as I am asking, frequently I get registrant information
> such as QWEST.NET.STIRLINGSHINE.COM and QWEST.NET.EMT-INDUSTRIES.COM
>
> Does any of this information really provide the average user with any
> useful information?
There are several different flavours of "whois" databases available on the
Internet. MacAfee's product is attempting to query the DNS registration
databases to determine who has paid to list a specific domain. In some
contexts, this could help you determine who to complain to about
inappropriate network traffic (although I think abuse.com is a better
resource for that...).
For whatever reason, they've coded this feature to look up all registered
domains which BEGIN with the domain name found associated with the traffic
in question. This might occasionally be a useful choice, but domains which
END with that string are more likely to actually belong to the same
enterprise.
So what it means is that lots of people have chosen to express opinions
about corporations by tossing a few bucks to any of the domain name
registrars, and the way MacAfee wrote their code finds those registrations.
No, it's not particularly useful in cases like this.
David Gillett
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