LDAP for Mac OS X Network Utility

(For Mac OS X 10.3.x and earlier)

 

What is the "whois" database?
WHOIS is the user database maintained by ITC. The information for WHOIS comes from the Registrar's Office, Payroll, ITC, and other administrative departments. Information in the WHOIS database includes your name, your classification (staff, student, faculty, etc.), your department, your telephone number, your messenger mail address, and your e-mail address.

Configuring "whois" in the Network Utility

LDAP may not work in some mail clients in some versions of OS X.   There is a work around.

1. Go to Network Utility located in Applications/Utilities folder and double-click on it.

2. Click on the whois tab.  You will notice a list of whois servers but not whois.virginia.edu.  You can type this server in for each instance but it is better to edit the list to make whois.virginia.edu the default. 

Configuring the Network Utility

1. Quit the Network Utility

2. Find user/home or owner/library/preferences/com.apple.NetworkUtility.plist

3. Double-click on it and you may be asked to find an application that can read the file.  Use text edit.

4. The file will open and look like html code.

5. Scroll down until you see:

<key>NUWhoisServers</key>

         <array>

                  <string>whois.virginia.edu</string>              

                  <string>whois.internic.net</string>

                  <string>whois.networksolutions.com</string>

                  <string>whois.arin.net</string>

                  <string>whois.nic.mil</string>

         </array>

6. Add the line <string>whois.virginia.edu</string> at the top of the array. and save the file.

7. Re-open the network utility and click on the whois tab and there is the whois.virginia.edu server ready for a lookup.

You may search by last name or UVa computing ID.

For further help please call the ITC Help Desk at 924-3731.

Return to the Macintosh documents page.

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