The IEDR will be changing how their whois server “rate limits” queries starting June 20th.
From June 20th onwards they will be using an approach similar to that adopted by Nominet.
The number of queries per IP will remain unchanged at 100 per day for the public.
I could never understand why they limit the rates. Is this to stop scraping of the details ?
Paul
Most registries limit the number of lookups.
There are several reasons why they do this. One reason is to stop people from scraping their own copy of the database, but the other, which is pretty simple, is to stop abuse eg. automated systems sending so many requests that the system / service becomes unusable for other users.
I might do a post on WHOIS at some point, but it’s a massive can of worms once you get past the basic technicalities 🙂
Thanks for your comment
Michele