Whois server for .SH TLD unresponsive, redirects to IIS page [resolved] | Hacker News Reader

Whois server for .SH TLD unresponsive, redirects to IIS page [resolved]

whois.nic.sh

35 pointsdm18 comments

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Edit: Turned out to be scheduled maintenance, which is now complete.

Also the case for .IO and .AC as well as most TLDs managed by Identity Digital (Donuts).

List at https://identity.digital/our-domains/

Perhaps most notably, this includes .info domains.

http://whois.donuts.co/ says “Maintenance in progress please check again later!”

EDIT: It’s up again.

Also using an invalid certificate.

Worked for me. Maybe just got fixed.

   printf 'nic.sh\r\n'|nc -vvn 52.37.99.5 43

Do you code with a magnet and a needle? ;)

I use what comes with the operating system, e.g., the Bourne shell (builtin printf) and GCC (to compile original netcat). Not sure I understand the magnet and needle meme.

Wild that we've kinda just let these random companies handle such a vital part of our global infrastructure

Edit: Made this comment when it was thought that the entire TLD was unresponsive. The point still stands IMO but that's the original context.

To be fair, it’s not their DNS that is unavailable, it’s just their Whois server. Whois, while it can be considered an essential service, is not meant to be critical infrastructure. Whois is only meant to be accessed manually by humans (which is enforced by rate limits), and the format of its output is completely free-form, i.e. not machine parseable in the general case.

It does mean all registrations, renewals and changes to ~250 TLDs are out of action though.

None of those are done via Whois. If what you say is true, then it must mean that they have taken down more than their Whois service, and have suspended EPP access as well.

You're right of course that Whois isn't involved in those things. Other comments indicate it's scheduled maintenance, which means EPP is down and most registrars have status updates out indicating changes to these TLDs are unavailable.

Which is not that uncommon. Registries undergo maintenance all the time. The only thing that is really impacted is the ability to register new domains and use them immediately.

If they were just going to open it up to the clowns in this absolute hellscape of a for-profit gTLD third-party rent-seeking shitshow anyways, why not just let any domain at any 'TLD' be registered directly with ICANN instead of this waking nightmare where 'Donuts' owns '.hot'?

I mean I guess there's the beaucoup bucks ICANN gets with application and other fees?

But really, you could just say to a ICANN-accredited registrar 'hey, I want cool.beans' and if not taken by someone else, sure why not. Technically it would be possible, no? Just redirect anything not a TLD already to ICANN? We already have the URDP for disputes and it's not like above said clown show prevents someone from buying mygoogle.limo anyways

SERVICE NOTICE: Scheduled Production Maintenance Registry Donuts Inc.

Type: Scheduled Production Maintenance

Origin: Registry Donuts Inc.

Planned Start Date: 2023-02-13 22:00:00 UTC

Planned End Date: 2023-02-13 23:30:00 UTC

Implications: Total Outage

Affected Environments: Production Environment

> Planned Start Date: 2023-02-13 22:00:00 UTC

> Planned End Date: 2023-02-13 23:30:00 UTC

> Scheduled at: 2023-02-13 22:05:00 UTC

Comment made in jest.

There's no such thing as an outage, there's just scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.

"If you don't schedule maintenance, your <s>equipment</s> infrastructure will schedule some for you."

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