PHP Script That Finds The Registrar of Any Domain Name

Question

The only lead on this I could find was this link:

http://ephp.info/scripts/find-domain-registrar-script

Which I see no way of downloading the actual script.

Does anyone know of anything similar to this?

You CAN download the mentioned script. Its source cen be found here: https://code.google.com/p/php-find-domain-registrar/source/browse/trunk/index.php — Dzhuneyt, Apr 26 '13 at 10:53
you could build your own API/script with this website: http://whois.domaintools.com/ — Joel Harkes, Apr 26 '13 at 10:57
@TommyCoffee The link you provided has a link to the Google Project page (just below the script's screenshot). — Dzhuneyt, Apr 26 '13 at 11:02
@ColorWP.com yes I click that and I got a blank page with nothing to download. — Michael Rader, Apr 26 '13 at 20:03
And if you click the "Source" tab, then Trunk at the left side? — Dzhuneyt, Aug 09 '13 at 13:48

score 11 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 07 '21 at 05:51

A very simple WHOIS client I just threw together based on this specification and this list of servers.

It seems to work reasonably well, however the important thing to note here is that the WHOIS protocol, such as it is defined (and it's the worst definition of a protocol I've ever seen) is clearly designed to be return human-readable documents, and no effort is made to make it computer-readable. This is a sorry state of affairs that has irritated me a great deal in the past.

As a result, the below, very simple code, already contains an edge-case workaround for .com domains, and uses an incredibly generic regex that will likely give false positives and false negatives.

class WHOISClient
{
    private $servers = array(
        'ac' => 'whois.nic.ac',
        'ae' => 'whois.aeda.net.ae',
        'aero' => 'whois.aero',
        'af' => 'whois.nic.af',
        'ag' => 'whois.nic.ag',
        'al' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'am' => 'whois.amnic.net',
        'as' => 'whois.nic.as',
        'asia' => 'whois.nic.asia',
        'at' => 'whois.nic.at',
        'au' => 'whois.aunic.net',
        'ax' => 'whois.ax', 
        'az' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'ba' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'be' => 'whois.dns.be',
        'bg' => 'whois.register.bg',
        'bi' => 'whois.nic.bi',
        'biz' => 'whois.neulevel.biz',
        'bj' => 'www.nic.bj',
        'br' => 'whois.nic.br',
        'br.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'bt' => 'whois.netnames.net',
        'by' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'bz' => 'whois.belizenic.bz',
        'ca' => 'whois.cira.ca',
        'cat' => 'whois.cat',
        'cc' => 'whois.nic.cc',
        'cd' => 'whois.nic.cd',
        'ch' => 'whois.nic.ch', 
        'ck' => 'whois.nic.ck',
        'cl' => 'nic.cl',
        'cn' => 'whois.cnnic.net.cn',
        'cn.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'co' => 'whois.nic.co',
        'co.nl' => 'whois.co.nl',
        'com' => 'whois.verisign-grs.com',
        'coop' => 'whois.nic.coop',
        'cx' => 'whois.nic.cx',
        'cy' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'cz' => 'whois.nic.cz',
        'de' => 'whois.denic.de',
        'dk' => 'whois.dk-hostmaster.dk',
        'dm' => 'whois.nic.cx',
        'dz' => 'whois.nic.dz',
        'edu' => 'whois.educause.net',
        'ee' => 'whois.tld.ee',
        'eg' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'es' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'eu' => 'whois.eu',
        'eu.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'fi' => 'whois.ficora.fi',
        'fo' => 'whois.nic.fo',
        'fr' => 'whois.nic.fr',
        'gb' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'gb.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'gb.net' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'qc.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'ge' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'gl' => 'whois.nic.gl',
        'gm' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'gov' => 'whois.nic.gov',
        'gr' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'gs' => 'whois.nic.gs',
        'hk' => 'whois.hknic.net.hk',
        'hm' => 'whois.registry.hm',
        'hn' => 'whois2.afilias-grs.net',
        'hr' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'hu' => 'whois.nic.hu',
        'hu.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'ie' => 'whois.domainregistry.ie',
        'il' => 'whois.isoc.org.il',
        'in' => 'whois.inregistry.net',
        'info' => 'whois.afilias.info',
        'int' => 'whois.isi.edu',
        'io' => 'whois.nic.io',
        'iq' => 'vrx.net',
        'ir' => 'whois.nic.ir',
        'is' => 'whois.isnic.is',
        'it' => 'whois.nic.it',
        'je' => 'whois.je',
        'jobs' => 'jobswhois.verisign-grs.com',
        'jp' => 'whois.jprs.jp',
        'ke' => 'whois.kenic.or.ke',
        'kg' => 'whois.domain.kg',
        'kr' => 'whois.nic.or.kr',
        'la' => 'whois2.afilias-grs.net',
        'li' => 'whois.nic.li',
        'lt' => 'whois.domreg.lt',
        'lu' => 'whois.restena.lu',
        'lv' => 'whois.nic.lv',
        'ly' => 'whois.lydomains.com',
        'ma' => 'whois.iam.net.ma',
        'mc' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'md' => 'whois.nic.md',
        'me' => 'whois.nic.me',
        'mil' => 'whois.nic.mil',
        'mk' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'mobi' => 'whois.dotmobiregistry.net',
        'ms' => 'whois.nic.ms',
        'mt' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'mu' => 'whois.nic.mu',
        'mx' => 'whois.nic.mx',
        'my' => 'whois.mynic.net.my',
        'name' => 'whois.nic.name',
        'net' => 'whois.verisign-grs.com',
        'nf' => 'whois.nic.cx',
        'ng' => 'whois.nic.net.ng',
        'nl' => 'whois.domain-registry.nl',
        'no' => 'whois.norid.no',
        'no.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'nu' => 'whois.nic.nu',
        'nz' => 'whois.srs.net.nz',
        'org' => 'whois.pir.org',
        'pl' => 'whois.dns.pl',
        'pr' => 'whois.nic.pr',
        'pro' => 'whois.registrypro.pro',
        'pt' => 'whois.dns.pt',
        'pw' => 'whois.nic.pw',
        'ro' => 'whois.rotld.ro',
        'ru' => 'whois.tcinet.ru',
        'sa' => 'saudinic.net.sa',
        'sa.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'sb' => 'whois.nic.net.sb',
        'sc' => 'whois2.afilias-grs.net',
        'se' => 'whois.nic-se.se',
        'se.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'se.net' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'sg' => 'whois.nic.net.sg',
        'sh' => 'whois.nic.sh',
        'si' => 'whois.arnes.si',
        'sk' => 'whois.sk-nic.sk',
        'sm' => 'whois.nic.sm',
        'st' => 'whois.nic.st',
        'so' => 'whois.nic.so',
        'su' => 'whois.tcinet.ru',
        'tc' => 'whois.adamsnames.tc',
        'tel' => 'whois.nic.tel',
        'tf' => 'whois.nic.tf',
        'th' => 'whois.thnic.net',
        'tj' => 'whois.nic.tj',
        'tk' => 'whois.nic.tk',
        'tl' => 'whois.domains.tl',
        'tm' => 'whois.nic.tm',
        'tn' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'to' => 'whois.tonic.to',
        'tp' => 'whois.domains.tl',
        'tr' => 'whois.nic.tr',
        'travel' => 'whois.nic.travel',
        'tw' => 'whois.twnic.net.tw',
        'tv' => 'whois.nic.tv',
        'tz' => 'whois.tznic.or.tz',
        'ua' => 'whois.ua',
        'uk' => 'whois.nic.uk',
        'uk.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'uk.net' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'gov.uk' => 'whois.ja.net',
        'us' => 'whois.nic.us',
        'us.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'uy' => 'nic.uy',
        'uy.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com',
        'uz' => 'whois.cctld.uz',
        'va' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'vc' => 'whois2.afilias-grs.net',
        've' => 'whois.nic.ve',
        'vg' => 'whois.adamsnames.tc',
        'ws' => 'whois.website.ws',
        'xxx' => 'whois.nic.xxx',
        'yu' => 'whois.ripe.net',
        'za.com' => 'whois.centralnic.com'
    );

    private function locateServer($domain)
    {
        $parts = explode('.', $domain);

        for ($i = 0, $l = count($parts); $i < $l; $i++) {
            $root = implode('.', $parts);

            if (isset($this->servers[$root])) {
                return $this->servers[$root];
            }

            array_shift($parts);
        }

        throw new \UnexpectedValueException('Unknown TLD in domain ' . $domain);
    }

    private function makeRequest($server, $domain)
    {
        $sock = stream_socket_client("tcp://$server:43", $errNo, $errStr, 3);
        if (!$sock) {
            throw new \RuntimeException('Unable to connect to WHOIS server at ' . $server . ':43');
        }

        if ($server == $this->servers['com']) {
            // .com domains are a special case, there may be others as well
            $domain = "=$domain";
        }

        if (!fwrite($sock, "$domain\r\n")) {
            throw new \RuntimeException('Error sending request to server at ' . $server . ':43');
        }

        return stream_get_contents($sock);
    }

    private function findRegistrar($raw)
    {
        if (preg_match('/registrar\s*[:\-=][^a-z0-9]*([^\r\n]+)/i', $raw, $matches)) {
            return trim($matches[1]);
        }

        return false;
    }

    public function queryRegistrar($domain)
    {
        $server = $this->locateServer($domain);
        
        $raw = $this->makeRequest($server, $domain);
        
        return $this->findRegistrar($raw);
    }
}

Use it like:

$client = new WHOISClient;
var_dump($client->queryRegistrar('google.com'));

This simple script works great, but be aware that most WHOIS servers have strict usage limitations. If you are querying domains in bulk, you'll likely receive some message like this: "WHOIS LIMIT EXCEEDED". So monitor your results and have a fall back plan. — Chadwick Meyer, Jun 11 '15 at 20:59
This script works great for our support team to quickly view the registrar name when they are troubleshooting. — Craig Edmonds, Jul 07 '21 at 23:19

PHP Script That Finds The Registrar of Any Domain Name

1 Answers1