function whois_query($domain) {

// fix the domain name:
$domain = strtolower(trim($domain));
$domain = preg_replace('/^http:\/\//i', '', $domain);
$domain = preg_replace('/^www\./i', '', $domain);
$domain = explode('/', $domain);
$domain = trim($domain[0]);

$_domain = explode('.', $domain);
$lst = count($_domain)-1;
$ext = $_domain[$lst];

$servers = array(
"biz" => "whois.neulevel.biz",
"com" => "whois.internic.net",
"us" => "whois.nic.us",
"coop" => "whois.nic.coop",
"info" => "whois.nic.info",
"name" => "whois.nic.name",
"net" => "whois.internic.net",
"gov" => "whois.nic.gov",
"edu" => "whois.internic.net",
"mil" => "rs.internic.net",
"int" => "whois.iana.org",
"ac" => "whois.nic.ac",
"ae" => "whois.uaenic.ae",
"at" => "whois.ripe.net",
"au" => "whois.aunic.net",
"be" => "whois.dns.be",
"bg" => "whois.ripe.net",
"br" => "whois.registro.br",
"bz" => "whois.belizenic.bz",
"ca" => "whois.cira.ca",
"cc" => "whois.nic.cc",
"ch" => "whois.nic.ch",
"cl" => "whois.nic.cl",
"cn" => "whois.cnnic.net.cn",
"cz" => "whois.nic.cz",
"de" => "whois.nic.de",
"fr" => "whois.nic.fr",
"hu" => "whois.nic.hu",
"ie" => "whois.domainregistry.ie",
"il" => "whois.isoc.org.il",
"in" => "whois.ncst.ernet.in",
"ir" => "whois.nic.ir",
"mc" => "whois.ripe.net",
"to" => "whois.tonic.to",
"tv" => "whois.tv",
"ru" => "whois.ripn.net",
"org" => "whois.pir.org",
"aero" => "whois.information.aero",
"nl" => "whois.domain-registry.nl"
);

if (!isset($servers[$ext])){
die('Error: No matching nic server found!');
}

$nic_server = $servers[$ext];

$output = '';

// connect to whois server:
if ($conn = fsockopen ($nic_server, 43)) {
fputs($conn, $domain."\r\n");
while(!feof($conn)) {
$output .= fgets($conn,128);
}
fclose($conn);
}
else { die('Error: Could not connect to ' . $nic_server . '!'); }

return $output;
}