<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><div><div><div><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dear Colleagues,</span></div></div></div><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span id="OLK_SRC_BODY_SECTION"><div xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><div lang="EN-US" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Between 20 January and 17 February 2016, ICANN will be initiating a large volume of WHOIS queries of gTLD registrations as part of its WHOIS Accuracy Reporting System (ARS) project utilizing the following IP addresses to perform the
WHOIS queries:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:black">IP Addresses: 192.0.32.230/31 and 192.0.47.230/31<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">A gTLD can expect to receive query rates of 10 queries per minute; we have accounted for RSP’s with multiple gTLD’s and will attempt to limit the queries to 10 per minute across a RSP.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">We kindly request and appreciate your cooperation in allowing these queries to be processed and ask that you please whitelist the IP addresses provided above.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">As a reminder, the WHOIS ARS project was established to perform periodic studies to assess the accuracy of the contact information in the WHOIS data, with a goal of identifying opportunities to improve the accuracy
of this data over time. The project was established to implement a series of improvements recommended by the WHOIS Review Team and approved by the Board (8 November 2012) on the manner in which ICANN carries out its responsibilities regarding WHOIS.
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">This collection of data will support the next cycle in the WHOIS ARS, Phase 2 Cycle 2, which aims to assess syntax and operability accuracy of the contact information in a gTLD WHOIS record. Accuracy will be determined
with respect to the requirements of the WHOIS record’s applicable version of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. ICANN will pull a sample of approximately 200,000 WHOIS records across the entire gTLD name space, and will then perform accuracy testing on
a subsample of those records. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">We published a report (<a href="https://whois.icann.org/en/file/whois-ars-phase-2-cycle-1-report-syntax-and-operability-accuracy">https://whois.icann.org/en/file/whois-ars-phase-2-cycle-1-report-syntax-and-operability-accuracy</a>)
for Phase 2 Cycle 1 on 23 December 2015 and plan to publish a report of the findings of Phase 2 Cycle 2 in June 2016. More information about the project can be found on whois.icann.org:
<a href="https://whois.icann.org/en/whoisars">https://whois.icann.org/en/whoisars</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">Thank you for your cooperation,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:black">ICANN’s GDD Operations Team<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div></div></div></span></div></span><style><!--
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