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Q.: Can I use SmartWhois if I'm
behind a firewall or a proxy server?
A.: Yes, SmartWhois supports SOCKS firewalls and HTTP/HTTPS
proxy servers (they must support the CONNECT method). If your
firewall is not SOCKS-compliant, you'll have to configure it to
allow network traffic on TCP ports 43 and 80. Please refer to your
proxy server's documentation or contact your network administrator
for information on configuring (mapping) proxy ports. Also, see the
Using SmartWhois From Behind a
Firewall chapter of the help file for more detailed
information.
Q.: I made a query using
wildcard, but the program's status bar displays "Connection timed
out" before I get any results. How can I make it work?
A.: Using wildcard queries usually takes longer to retrieve data
than using normal queries. To handle this problem, you should set a
longer timeout period (Settings => Options => Queries). For example, you can change
the timeout period from 45 seconds to 100 seconds.
Q.: Why do I get the
"Connection timed out" or "Connection failed" errors?
A.: There are several possible reasons:
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Your connection to the Internet is too slow or "fuzzy," which
usually happens when you have a low quality telephone line. Try to
reconnect to your ISP. |
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The Whois server the program is connecting to is down.
SmartWhois obtains information from official whois databases, and
these databases are not in our control. So you'll have to wait
until the server is up and running again, which normally doesn't
take long. |
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If you enabled IP address/hostname caching in the Options, the
program might fail to connect to a Whois server if its IP address
has recently changed. Click Clear Cache in Settings => Options => Cache => DNS. |
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Your network environment does not permit outbound TCP
connections on ports 43 and 80. This is often the case when you
don't have direct Internet access, e.g. you are behind a corporate
firewall, or if you installed a personal firewall with incorrectly
configured packet-blocking rules. |
Q.: When running a batch query,
I only get certain percentage of the domains / IP addresses
processed. Why some of the records are unavailable?
A.: Many whois databases temporarily or permanently ban an IP
address after receiving a certain number of queries over a fixed
period of time. To avoid being banned, we suggest that you use a
great number of proxy servers for connecting to whois severs.
SmartWhois is capable of selecting a random server from the proxy
list every time the application connects to a whois server. This
may help you avoid being banned. Please refer to the Using SmartWhois From Behind a
Proxy / Firewall chapter of SmartWhois manual for more
information on configuring proxy servers.
Q.: Can I call SmartWhois
directly from my application?
A.: Yes. You can use the command-line interface to send an IP
address or domain to SmartWhois and run the query. Please see the
Command Line Options chapter of the
manual for more information on command-line usage examples.
Q.: My firewall software
warns me that SmartWhois is "attempting to access the Internet." I
am aware that some sites are able to track users by collecting the
information sent by their programs via Internet. Why does
SmartWhois "attempt to access the Internet"?
A.: What alerts your firewall are the attempts to connect to
Whois databases to fetch the requested records, and the attempts to
connect to DNS serves to resolve IP addresses to hostnames. The
primary function of the program is to obtain the most current
records available from whois databases; therefore SmartWhois makes
outbound connections on TCP ports 43 and 80 and UDP port 53.
Additionally, the program may check for updates by contacting
www.tamos.com (this functionality can be
disabled). There are no other hidden activities. We don't sell
spyware.
Q.: When I click on the
SmartWhois icon in the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Firefox
toolbar, the program box flashes up briefly and then vanishes. Why
this feature isn't working?
A.: The SmartWhois plug-in window is displayed only when it is
active, and it is automatically closed when the focus is moved to
another window. Most likely you have a software running that is
changing the focus and activates other windows, or always moves its
window on top. We would suggest to close all other running
applications one by one to see which one is affecting SmartWhois.
Another reason for this behavior could be the mouse cursor settings
on your computer. Certain mouse driver utilities allow you to
configure the cursor to activate the window under the cursor, or
even bring it to the foreground. When these features are enabled,
they will prevent SmartWhois window from staying open.
Q.: I can't see the owner
information when querying Chinese or Japanese domains; I see
gibberish instead of characters.
A.: To see text in East Asian languages, you should install East
Asian fonts in Windows. Open Control Panel => Regional and
Language Options, select the "Languages" tab, and check the
"Install files for East Asian languages" box.
Q.: What are LOC records and
are they supported by SmartWhois?
A.: An LOC record stands for geographic location
information: some domains and IP addresses may have a special DNS
record that stores the object location coordinates (Latitude,
Longitude, etc.). SmartWhois can query this information and
generate a Google Map link to view the location of an object on the
map.
Q.: What are internationalized
domain names and are they supported in SmartWhois?
A.: An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet
domain name that contains one or more non-ASCII characters. Such
domain names could contain letters with diacritics, as required by
many non-English languages, or characters from non-Latin scripts
such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese or Hindi. And, yes, SmartWhois
supports IDN queries.
Q.: IPv6 queries don't work for
me. Is there anything I can do about it?
A.: To successfully make IPv6 queries you need to have Windows
XP or later operating system installed. If you're running Windows
XP, the IPv6 support should be installed. To install it, open a
Command Prompt window and execute the following command:
netsh interface ipv6
install
Note: IPv6 is not supported on Windows 2000 or earlier operating
systems.
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