WhoIs, the old and the new

[plodr]

I used to use Karen Kenworthy's WhoIs
WhoIs v2.6.6 | Karen's Power Tools and Karen's Power Tools Newsletter

For those that never heard of her she wrote small, very effective programs called PowerTools. (I purchased one of her CDs with the programs on it). Sadly, she died suddenly in 2011 so her programs have never been updated.

A listing of her programs: Directory of Karen's Power Tools | Karen's Power Tools and Karen's Power Tools Newsletter
I think her brother Bill has kept up the old site.

I liked her version of WhoIs because not only could I get the registration info but I could also get the IP. This was very useful for anyone who couldn't get to a site because his/her ISP didn't direct properly. I'd have the person type in the IP instead of the address and that would resolve the issue in some cases.

I downloaded the SysInternals version of WhoIs to see how it worked. Since I'm on a 32 bit computer (Win 7), once I extracted the 3 files, I ran the exe rather than the 64 bit exe. I tried as a normal user and as an administrator. The command line window opens and immediately closes. So I get nothing.

Next I opened a command window (as an administrator and tried doing this

[B]Usage: whois [-v] domainname [whois.server][/B]

all that did was give me an error.
whois is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file

So what am I doing wrong?

 

[xilolee]

You probably forgot to add the whois path to the path environment variable: Control Panel\System and Security\System - advanced system settings, (click yes in the UAC window that should appear if you didn't disable it), click environment variables, double-click path under the system variables pane (or click it once and then click edit), and add the path.

And usage: isn't a valid command.
Example:

whois sysnative.com -v -nobanner | more

If you don't want to modify PATH (env. var.), you should reach the whois directory/folder through the cd or chdir command (in a simple or an elevated command prompt).

 

[plodr]

I think I prefer cd rather than adding a path but I'm not sure what I change the directory to.

whois sits in a folder on my desktop so do I change it to
C:\users\plodr\Desktop\Whois ?

Well that's not it. Error: the system can not find the path specified.

 

[xilolee]

Open an elevated command prompt and then launch these commands:
(instead of sysnative.com, try the website you prefer)

cd c:\users\plodr\desktop\whois
whois sysnative.com | more

Read More:

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.16299.64]
(c) 2017 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>cd c:\users\xilo\desktop\whois

c:\Users\xilo\Desktop\WhoIs>whois sysnative.com | more

Whois v1.20 - Domain information lookup
Copyright (C) 2005-2017 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
Connecting to COM.whois-servers.net...
WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com
   Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com
   Updated Date: 2017-10-01T20:55:41Z
   Creation Date: 2010-10-30T13:18:48Z
   Registry Expiry Date: 2019-10-30T13:18:48Z

 

[plodr]

I typed in

cd c:\users\plodr\desktop\whois

and hit enter to type in the 2nd line.
I get an error: the system can not find the path specified
so I can't get any further to type in the 2nd line. Then I remembered DOS is very particular.

Now I'm getting somewhere. In DOS Users and users are not the same
C:\Users\plodr\Desktop\Whois

works. I suspect yesterday I didn't type WhoIs by typed whois.

Thanks. I think I have it now.

The problem will be remembering to type it correctly the next time I use it.:hysterical:

 

[Tekno Venus]

A handy trick to open command prompt directly to a folder of your choice is to hold shift and right click inside a folder (or on your desktop). The right click menu will have a few extra options, including Open Command Prompt Here (or powershell for later version of Windows 10).

 

[xilolee]

I didn't have to write it paying attention to cases.

In DOS Users and users are not the same

Dos should have been case-insensitive, therefore the problem shouldn't be that one.
Even the current command line.
Although there could be few exceptions (most likely errors in programming made by developers).
At the moment, I know only windbg.exe parameters as an exception of this rule (made with intention).

 

[plodr]

Thanks Techno Venus! That simple shift and right click saves me typing and getting something wrong.

xilolee, I have to assume that I made some sort of typing error then. In any case. I'll use the shift + right click so I can't blame it on my typing.

Much thanks to both of you for your assistance.

Now on to the next problem.:1grin: