Whois Protocol Control

Request registration information for an Internet domain name.

Reference

Control Information

Object Name WhoisClientCtl.WhoisClient

File Name CSWHOX12.OCX

Version 12.0.3024.1286

ProgID SocketTools.WhoisClient.12

ClassID 85F0824A-ED41-4ECA-AB52-F7A4A57023F1

Threading Model Apartment

Help File CST12CTL.CHM

Dependencies None

Standards RFC 954

Overview

The Whois protocol control provides an interface for requesting registration information for an Internet domain name. When a domain name is registered, the organization that registers the domain must provide certain contact information along with technical information such as the primary name servers for that domain. The control provides an interface for requesting that information and returning it to the program so that it can be displayed or processed. This control would be most commonly used to query the Whois server at whois.internic.net to obtain information about a specific Internet domain name or an administrative contact at that domain.

Requirements

The SocketTools ActiveX Edition components are self-registering controls that are compatible with any programming language that supports the Component Object Model (COM) and the ActiveX control specification. If you are using Visual Basic 6.0, Service Pack 6 (SP6) is required. We recommend installing all available updates for your development tools. Although the Visual Basic 6.0 runtime is supported on Windows 11, the IDE itself is no longer officially supported by Microsoft. Legacy IDEs and compilers may also require elevated (administrator) privileges to run properly.

The ActiveX controls are supported on Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and later versions of both desktop and server editions of Windows. For Windows 7, Service Pack 1 (SP1) is the minimum requirement. For Windows 8 systems, the 8.1 update must be installed. On ARM-based platforms, the minimum supported version is Windows 10 build 1709.

SocketTools includes components for both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Windows platforms. All modern versions of Windows are 64-bit, but we continue to include 32-bit components for compatibility with legacy development tools such as Visual Basic 6.0. We also provide native ARM64 ActiveX controls for systems running Windows on ARM. Note that 32-bit applications on ARM run using x86 emulation, and Microsoft no longer supports native ARM32 applications.

If you are using VBScript, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), or another scripting environment on an ARM-based system, be aware that 64-bit hosts will require ARM64 components, while 32-bit hosts will use x86 components under emulation. This includes applications created with Visual Basic 6.0. To reduce deployment complexity and avoid confusion, SocketTools does not include ARM32 ActiveX controls in its standard redistribution packages but they are available on request for legacy or specialized scenarios.

Distribution

When you distribute an application that uses this control, you can either install the file in the same folder as your application executable or as a shared component in the appropriate system folder. If you install the control in the system folder, it is important that you distribute the correct version for the target platform and it must be registered. If you install the control in the same folder as your executable, it is recommended that you use registration-free activation or COM redirection to ensure that the correct version of the control is loaded by the application.