Quoting Larry Bloch:
| 
| Is there any reason why the script that checks for the existence of a AUNIC 
Handle uses the whois gateway, rather than the AUNIC Name Status Report that I
NA uses.
| 
| Any chance the script could be altered to use the AUNIC Name Status report r
ather than a whois check?

It would seem to make more sense to solve the problem at its source,
and make whois sync its data regularly. Many people would rely on the 
whois server to reflect reality.

Perhaps whois could be modified to list unregistered domains too, with
a "Status: Pending" line or similar for yet-to-be-appraised domains -
similar to the InterNIC whois Status field..

kim