RFC 1914 (rfc1914) - Page 2 of 10

How to Interact with a Whois++ Mesh

RFC 1914          How to Interact with a Whois++ Mesh      February 1996


2. Basic functionality

   Each Whois++ client should be configured to automatically send
   queries to a specific Whois++ server. The deault Whois++ server can
   vary depending on which template is desired, and the location of the
   client with respect to the WHOIS++ index mesh,  but as a rule the
   server should be as local as possible.

                        A
                       / \
                      B   C
                     / \   \
           Z -----> D   E   F
                   / \
                  G   H

       Fig 1: The client Z is configured to first query server D

   After getting responses from a server, the client can act in several
   ways. If the number of hits is greater than zero, the response is
   just presented to the user. If the client gets one or many servers-
   to-ask answers, the client should be able to automatically resolve
   these pointers, i.e. query these servers in turn.

                        A
                       / \
                      B   C
                     / \   \
           Z  G   H

   Fig 2: The client Z gets a "servers-to-ask G" response from D and
             therefore may automatically queries server G.

3. How to navigate in the mesh

   A client can use several different strategies when traversing or
   navigating around in the mesh. The automatic way of doing this is to
   just "expand the search" (described in 3.1) and a second method is to
   use the "Directory of Servers" (described in 3.2).

3.1. Expansion of searches

   If the number of hits is zero, or if the user in some way wants to
   expand the search, it is recommended for the client to issue a
   'polled-by' and 'polled-for' query to the server. The client can then
   repeat the original query to the new servers indicated.



Faltstrom, et al            Standards Track