The Problem with WHOIS
For decades, the WHOIS protocol was the go-to solution to check domain ownership, IP address allocations, and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). However, WHOIS has a massive flaw: it lacks a standardized format. Parsing plain text responses from hundreds of different registries is an absolute nightmare.
Enter RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol). It’s the official, modern successor to WHOIS. It runs over HTTP and delivers responses in structured JSON.
Introducing rdap-java
While working on infrastructure and DNS monitoring utilities, I realized that existing Java solutions for RDAP were either part of massive, bloated frameworks or heavily outdated.
