People, We have been experimenting a bit with other means of accessing the RIPE database and have implemented access via "finger" and mail. Especially the last one should be a real addition to access, since we have had requests from people that just had e-mail facilities, but did want to access the database. So, you can use: finger 192.87.45.0@whois.ripe.net finger as1104@whois.ripe.net and all the other keys to access the RIPE database (RIPE part only) or send mail to <whois@ripe.net> with a message containing lines starting with "whois" and then a key (one word keys only), for instance: whois 192.87.45 whois as1104 Make sure that the line starts with whois (no leading characters). Please give them a try and see if you like it. -Marten