whois lookup slow via Terminal

[ebsseattle]

I recently changed computers and since then, whenever I do a whois lookup using Terminal, it takes forever to get the results. I tried pings and other commands and they're almost instantaneous. Could this be because of something behind the whois search that's causing the delay?

Thanks.

 

[harryb2448]

Hard to say. What computer, what operating system and what was the previous operating system and did you use cloning software, Restore in Disk Utility or Migration Assistant?

 

[ebsseattle]

Mid-2013 Macbook Pro to Late 2014 Macbook Pro, both running OSX v10.10.3, and I transferred everything using Migration Assistant.

 

[vansmith]

The whois lookups are quick here so it might be the whois server being used by OS X. When you say that it takes a while, what are we talking here? What domain are you trying to get whois info on?

 

[ebsseattle]

A while as in 30-60 seconds at times. In the past it would have been anywhere from 2-5 seconds usually. I've tried a bunch of domains, including google.com or other big sites that wouldn't be complicated for any whois server to look up.

Is there a way to find out what whois server my OSX is using, or to change it (if that's what's causing the lag)?

 

[vansmith]

The manpage here notes that you can consult different registries. Perhaps that will help. Of course, doing that will depend on knowing which registry contains the registration for the domain you're looking up.