Change Network Utility's whois server list
Dec 05, '01 05:52:00AM
Contributed by: daleminter
If you use the Network Utility to do 'whois' lookups, but prefer to use a whois server that's not listed in Apple's choices, there's no apparent way to add your servers to the displayed list within the pop-up list -- so you end up typing in your preferred whois server each time you run the program. But with just a bit of preference editing, it's actually quite easy to add your preferred choices. Here's how to do it.
- Go to /Users/user_name/Library/Preferences.
- Quit Network Utility if it's running.
- Open com.apple.NetworkUtility.plist file in propertylisteditor (or TextEdit if you don't have the Dev Tools installed).
- Open the NUWhoisServers key (in TextEdit, look for <key>NUWhoisServers</key>). Add/delete additional strings with the whois servers you would like to keep/remove permanently from the Network Utilities server list (in TextEdit, insert additional <string>whois.server.name</string> values into the list, or delete the ones you don't wish to see).
- Save your changes and quit the editor.
- Re-launch Network Utility and see the new list of servers
[Editor's note: This hint serves as a good example of my first rule of OS X tweaking - if you wish to change an application's default behavior, and you don't see a preference for the item you wish to change, check out the app's preferences file. There are typically values set there which are easily edited (as seen here), even if they don't have a user interface to those settings within the program.]
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