              WHOIS.TTP - STinG Whois Client v1.00
              --------------------------------------
      		     (c)1998 Gary A. Priest
                     ----------------------

WHOIS.TTP is a freeware WHOIS client for the Atari ST/STE/TT/Falcon
and compatibles, when running the TCP/IP stack, STinG.

It is a simple TOS based client, which can either be run on it's own
from a GEM desktop or from within a CLI or TOS based shell.

It was written in assembler and is based on the NICNAME/WHOIS protocol 
defined in RFC954.

Using Whois it is possible to look up details of people such as 
telephone numbers, email addresses etc. Of course these people must 
actually be registered with the provider of the Whois server such as 
InterNIC.  It is also possible to determine whether the domain name 
you desire is already in use; you can learn who administers a particular
site; and you can view a list of a site's name servers.

Whois involves an online database populated with information about 
domains, hosts, and the contacts associated with them. This database 
is known as the InterNIC database.

You can query this server "rs.internic.net" or any other WHOIS server 
by using WHOIS.TTP.


USING WHOIS.TTP
----------------
Run WHOIS.TTP and pass it the name you wish to search for.

The default whois server is rs.internic.net and need not be 
specified. If another server is to be used then precede your search 
query with -h servername, where servername is the name of the whois 
server. 

Examples
--------
whois -v
Will display the current version and credits of WHOIS.TTP

whois ?
Will connect to rs.internic.net passing it the query of ? which will 
return detailed help information on using that particular whois server.

whois Smith

Will connect to rs.internic.net and return details of all registered 
users by the name of Smith.

whois -h whois.nic.ddn.mil Smith

Will connect to server whois.nic.ddn.mil and return details of all 
registered users by the name of Smith.


IMPORTANT
---------
As I do not intend to go through all the different types of searches 
that can be performed, I strongly recommend that on first use, you use 
whois ? and read the returned help information from rs.internic.net.


FREEWARE
--------
WHOIS.TTP is FREEWARE! I make no charge for using it.

If you use and like it, then please drop me an email and tell me 
so. Without encouragement it may not develop. So, even if it's 
just a one liner, please make the effort.


DISCLAIMER
----------
WHOIS.TTP is used at your own risk. I will not be held responsible for 
any damage caused either directly or indirectly from it's use, or the 
loss of any electronic data.


KNOWN PROBLEMS/LIMITATIONS
--------------------------
.I have not tested it with STiK, and offer no guarantees that it will
 work. It definately works with STinG.

.Seems to randomly crash when running under VT52 in MagiC. I have 
 tried to prevent this by outputting characters one at a time using 
 Cconout when running under MagiC. When not running under MagiC it 
 uses Cconws to output a whole string, which should be faster.


NEW VERSIONS
------------
The latest version of WHOIS.TTP can be found on my website:

http://www.the-gap.demon.co.uk/

Gary Priest 07/05/98
gary@the-gap.demon.co.uk


VERSION CHANGES/HISTORY
-----------------------
v1.00 07/05/98
Initial Release
