ECONNRESET (Whois::ConnectionError) - Error Trying to Query Whois in Ruby

Question

I'm writing a simple program in Ruby to check if a list of domains is taken. Basically it cycles through a list, and uses the following function to check.

require 'rubygems'
require 'whois'

def check_domain(domain)
  c = Whois::Client.new
  c.query("google.com").available?
end

The program keeps erroring out (even when I hardcode in google.com), and prints the message below. Given how simple the program is, I've run out of ideas - any suggestions?

/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/server/adapters/base.rb:165:in `query_the_socket': Errno::ECONNRESET: Connection reset by peer (Whois::ConnectionError)
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/server/adapters/verisign.rb:41:in `request'
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/server/adapters/base.rb:113:in `query'
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/server/adapters/base.rb:150:in `buffer_start'
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/server/adapters/base.rb:112:in `query'
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/client.rb:90:in `query'
from /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/timeout.rb:62:in `timeout'
from /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/whois-2.0.2/lib/whois/client.rb:87:in `query'
from checker.rb:7:in `check_domain'
from checker.rb:14
from checker.rb:11:in `each'
from checker.rb:11

Answer 1

The are two possible explanations to this issue:

1. you are behind a firewall/proxy and the client can't reach the server
2. (more realistic) your request is being throttled. Some .COM servers, such as GoDaddy, are used to reset the connection as a way to protect against multiple queries. See this ticket. You can solve this problem by limiting the number of requests to the same server.

Answer 2

Try to use the timeout param:

irb(main):002:0> c = Whois::Client.new(:timeout => 100) # 100 seconds
irb(main):003:0> c.query("google.com").available?
=> true