[ Apologies for multiple copies. ] Colleagues, Whois query processing for the RIPE Database Server has been revised to be more consistent and helpful to users. In the past, the server would make a number of changes to the user query without telling the user, for example removing characters that it did not understand or truncating the query. The new implementation will perform exactly the query the user requested, if possible, and give errors when not. Warnings are now returned where appropriate. A full description of the changes may be found here: http://www.ripe.net/db/whois-query-2002.html In general, all correct queries will provide exactly the same results as on the previous version of the server. If you have any questions please send them to <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>. Suggestions may be sent to <ripe-dbm@ripe.net>, or discussed on the RIPE Database working group mailing list, details of which may be found here: http://www.ripe.net/ripe/wg/db/index.html -- Shane Kerr RIPE NCC