[CentOS] TIP for broken ARIN whois

This works for me on Centos 5.6. It may assist newcomers to the Linux world of Centos.

whois 51.51.51.51

produces a normal and conventional display of data.

However since ARIN, the North American registrar of IP addresses, "modernised" its WHOIS processing, a query to

whois 64.64.64.64

will produce a one line summary of possible matches, which always includes ARIN, but omits the details we used to receive before ARIN implemented its much criticised "improved" service.

A one line script solves it for me (but only for ARIN network entries).

#!/bin/bash whois -h whois.arin.net n + $1

I call my script .arin

.arin 64.64.64.64

produces a normal output.

Paul.