Mabry WhoisX.dll problem

[GaryK]

For many years I've been using the old Mabry WhoisX component to do Whois lookups.

I know Mabry went out of business in 2006, but their component continued to function perfectly until recently when this line:

Set WhoIsX = Server.CreateObject("WhoisXObj.WhoisXCom")

started returning this error:

006~ASP 0177~Server.CreateObject Failed~800401f3

This is usually a permissions-related problem, right?

The whoisx.dll file and the registry key both have the proper permissions set.

Have any of you run into this problem and found a fix for it?

Alternately, can anyone recommend a different application or web service that performs the same function?

Thanks.

[Ocean10000]

try reregistering may fix it and it is the simpliest first step I can think of trying. I am thinking something happened and maybe this will fix it.
regsvr32.exe example.dll

[GaryK]

I forgot to mention that I'd tried re-registering it already. But I tried again and successfully re-registered it again.

When I executed the script I got the same error as before.

I'm not getting as far as the LicenseKey property so I doubt this is a DRM failure due to Mabry being out of business.

Any other ideas?

Thanks. Merry Christmas, Ocean.

[Ocean10000]

Try adding
<%
Response.Write("LOGON_USER: " & _
Request.ServerVariables("LOGON_USER"))
%>
Maybe it is a permission issue after all. So lets see which user account is being used. And make sure that user has the proper permissions on the folders and what not.

Reference: [This is for ADO but similar steps should work for yours]
[support.microsoft.com...]

[GaryK]

The correct user account is being used.

The file inherits its permissions from the parent folder and that folder is set correctly. I also checked the file itself just to be sure and it's got the right permissions too.

I'm fairly certain the two registry keys have the correct permissions.

One thing I neglected to mention was this issue is happening on three different machines. My development server, the production server, and an older machine I've got here at home that I installed the dll on after having issues on the other two machines.

Thanks again.

[Ocean10000]

Have you tried using the "WhoisXObj.WhoisXCom" from a vbs script run outside of asp to see if it works there? If it doesn't work there then most likely its not an ASP issue but maybe another issue altogether.

[GaryK]

I hadn't tried that so thanks. Here's what I got:

Error: Could not locate automation class named "WhoisXObj.WhoisXCom".
Code: 80020009

From what I could find on Google, the Code # is apparently very generic. The Error seems to suggest the dll is not installed.

I'm considering removing every last trace of the app, including the registry, and starting over again. Although I did do a clean install on a box here and it still didn't work.

[Ocean10000]

It sounds like it can not find the mapping between the name and the actual dll in question.

Lets try the following to try to clean out the dll then reinstall it.

This should unregister the dll
regsvr32.exe /u example.dll

Then reregister the dll
regsvr32.exe example.dll

And rerun the vb script to see if it still errors.

[GaryK]

Same error:

Error: Could not locate automation class named "WhoisXObj.WhoisXCom".
Code: 80020009

Owen, do you know of any low-cost Whois apps or online services with an API? Because I'm fairly well convinced now that this is an issue with the app as opposed to anything I'm doing wrong. We've seen the same kinds of errors in ASP and VBS across three different machines on different networks. I asked the folks at DNSstuff, and while they gave me a free pro account because of my browser project, they said they absolutely will not, even for pay, allow automated Whois queries.

[Ocean10000]

I did a simple search and found a one that might work for you. If that one doesn't there are a ton of results for "whois com object asp" in google which more then likely one will meet your needs.

ASP Whois Component with sample code [planet-source-code.com]

[GaryK]

Thanks. I'll take a look at it later after I'm done mainlining caffeine. ;)

[GaryK]

ActiveX component can't create object

After spending some time debugging this class, I realized it's way too simplistic for my needs. It can only query one whois server at a time, and makes no attempts at all to find the correct server for the domain queried.

I'll do some more searching tomorrow. Thanks again for your help.