[OT] odd whois results

[Tom H]

On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 6:59 PM, NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I've been getting some rather strange 'whois' results lately which I've
> never seen before:
>
> $ whois 206.130.97.83
> #
> # Query terms are ambiguous.  The query is assumed to be:
> #     "n 206.130.97.83"
> #
> # Use "?" to get help.
>
> I see nothing in
> http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/lucid/man1/whois.1.html
> to use a 'n' query, am I missing something or is ARIN's database screwed up>

I'm not sure that I've ever run whois against an ip address before but
I get the same warning when I do.

With certain whois servers
whois n 206.130.97.83
will skip the "...ambiguous..." warning

where "n" is for network address space


> and getting a lot of these lately:
>
> $ whois 206.130.97.83
> ERROR 503: Unable to service request due to high volume.

I get them if I request the same info quickly from the same server.