I suspect that a better answer was desired. I suggest that the local WHOIS handles be distinguished by the global WHOIS database name. I am assuming that no two WHOIS database providers use the same global handle for their WHOIS servers. Then your database searches can find the instances of local name and report back with all the WHOIS sources available to help resolve the query. Most of the time, the results will be singular, but when not singular, the query response offers a way to resolve the ambiguity. Then I think the proposal has a chance of working. Cheers...\Stef Rick Wesson <wessorh@ar.com> posted: >Florian, > >there is no guarantee the uniqueness of WHOIS handles. there is no name >space for whois, nor an entity to register such. > >pick any prefix you wish. > >-rick > >On Sat, 12 Oct 2002, Florian Weimer wrote: > > > Is there some method to guarantee the uniqueness of WHOIS handles? > > Can I register affixes somehwere? > > > > I'm currently creating a WHOIS-like database (which might be publicly > > accessible one day), and I'd like to avoid handle collisions with > > other WHOIS databases. > > > > (I asked a similar question on some IETF WHOIS list a few months ago, > > but this list appears to be dead.) > >