On 07/03/2017 15:07, Mouse via cctalk wrote:
   $ telnet
whois.denic.de 43
 Trying 81.91.170.6...
 Connected to whois.denic.de.
 Escape character is '^]'.
 whois -r uni-stuttgart.de
 % Error: 55000000007 Request not clearly specified
 Connection closed by foreign host.
 $ 
  That's broken. 
 In that case, it's the query that's broken.  The normal way to use
 whois for domains is to send just the domain name upon connecting; the
 "whois -r " prefix you used is probably responsible. 
 
Nope, that's taken from their own documentation - and it makes no
difference which options I give it, or none.  I didn't show all the
permutations I tried, both using a standard UNIX whois client, and using
telnet to port 43.  It's just broken.
--
Pete
Pete Turnbull