Re: Whois using these ARIN services?? (fwd: Consultation on the Future of ARIN???s Directory Services)

[Cat Okita via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

I'll have to check again -- as recently as a couple of months ago, my VOIP line was perfectly happy to support pulse 
dial (ditto the land line).

That aside -- there's a great deal to be said for maintaining simple and easy to manage interfaces with a substantial 
history of tooling and support -- ones that don't require expensive upgrades, time from specialists, or (I'm looking at 
you, SNMP) can't be understood by (most) humans in their native form.

cheers!

> On Aug 30, 2026, at 06:52, Tom Beecher via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
> > Your telephone landline (if you still have one) or VoIP to POTS
> > adapter usually supports rotary dialing. It's been nearly half a
> > century since anyone made a rotary phone but the POTS equipment still
> > supports rotary dialing.
> >
> > Why?
> >
> > Because backward compatibility is valuable. There's a disadvantage to
> > building a POTS adapter which is less than 100% backward compatible.
> > And the cost to implement a user-interface skin atop modern signaling
> > which implements rotary dialing is utterly trivial.
> >
> > So I agree with you: why shouldn't the RIR use an RDAP server that
> > also provides a whois-compatible user interface skin? And do so
> > indefinitely?
>
> The PSTN hasn't supported pulse 'indefinitely'. In the 60s when DTMF was
> deployed, the PSTN supported both as a transition mechanism for 30 years.
> In the 90s, LECs started retiring the pulse equipment, moving to DTMF only.
> Once a given network did that, users then were required to use a pulse-DTMF
> adapter to continue using the system with old equipment. While some systems
> still haven't fully retired pulse, most have.
>
> Almost everything in tech moves through these transition cycles. Start with
> A , run A + B in parallel, retire A. Demanding that A and B run in parallel
> indefinitely just because "I don't want to change my thing that relies on
> A" is silly.
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 12:16 AM William Herrin via NANOG <
> nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
>
> > On Sat, Aug 29, 2026 at 12:04 AM borg--- via NANOG
> > <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
> > > Actually, I think RIRs could actually run proxy themselfs, and
> > > generate WHOIS reply based on RDAP data. Why not?
> >
> > Your telephone landline (if you still have one) or VoIP to POTS
> > adapter usually supports rotary dialing. It's been nearly half a
> > century since anyone made a rotary phone but the POTS equipment still
> > supports rotary dialing.
> >
> > Why?
> >
> > Because backward compatibility is valuable. There's a disadvantage to
> > building a POTS adapter which is less than 100% backward compatible.
> > And the cost to implement a user-interface skin atop modern signaling
> > which implements rotary dialing is utterly trivial.
> >
> > So I agree with you: why shouldn't the RIR use an RDAP server that
> > also provides a whois-compatible user interface skin? And do so
> > indefinitely?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Bill Herrin
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > For hire. https://bill.herrin.us/resume/
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