function whois_query($domain) {  
  
    // fix the domain name:  
    $domain = strtolower(trim($domain));  
    $domain = preg_replace('/^http:\/\//i', '', $domain);  
    $domain = preg_replace('/^www\./i', '', $domain);  
    $domain = explode('/', $domain);  
    $domain = trim($domain[0]);  
  
    // split the TLD from domain name  
    $_domain = explode('.', $domain);  
    $lst = count($_domain)-1;  
    $ext = $_domain[$lst];  
  
    // You find resources and lists   
    // like these on wikipedia:   
    //  
    // <a href="http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois">http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whois</a>  
    //  
    $servers = array(  
        "biz" => "whois.neulevel.biz",  
        "com" => "whois.internic.net",  
        "us" => "whois.nic.us",  
        "coop" => "whois.nic.coop",  
        "info" => "whois.nic.info",  
        "name" => "whois.nic.name",  
        "net" => "whois.internic.net",  
        "gov" => "whois.nic.gov",  
        "edu" => "whois.internic.net",  
        "mil" => "rs.internic.net",  
        "int" => "whois.iana.org",  
        "ac" => "whois.nic.ac",  
        "ae" => "whois.uaenic.ae",  
        "at" => "whois.ripe.net",  
        "au" => "whois.aunic.net",  
        "be" => "whois.dns.be",  
        "bg" => "whois.ripe.net",  
        "br" => "whois.registro.br",  
        "bz" => "whois.belizenic.bz",  
        "ca" => "whois.cira.ca",  
        "cc" => "whois.nic.cc",  
        "ch" => "whois.nic.ch",  
        "cl" => "whois.nic.cl",  
        "cn" => "whois.cnnic.net.cn",  
        "cz" => "whois.nic.cz",  
        "de" => "whois.nic.de",  
        "fr" => "whois.nic.fr",  
        "hu" => "whois.nic.hu",  
        "ie" => "whois.domainregistry.ie",  
        "il" => "whois.isoc.org.il",  
        "in" => "whois.ncst.ernet.in",  
        "ir" => "whois.nic.ir",  
        "mc" => "whois.ripe.net",  
        "to" => "whois.tonic.to",  
        "tv" => "whois.tv",  
        "ru" => "whois.ripn.net",  
        "org" => "whois.pir.org",  
        "aero" => "whois.information.aero",  
        "nl" => "whois.domain-registry.nl"  
    );  
  
    if (!isset($servers[$ext])){  
        die('Error: No matching nic server found!');  
    }  
  
    $nic_server = $servers[$ext];  
  
    $output = '';  
  
    // connect to whois server:  
    if ($conn = fsockopen ($nic_server, 43)) {  
        fputs($conn, $domain."\r\n");  
        while(!feof($conn)) {  
            $output .= fgets($conn,128);  
        }  
        fclose($conn);  
    }  
    else { die('Error: Could not connect to ' . $nic_server . '!'); }  
  
    return $output;  
}  

echo nl2br(whois_query("www.phpec.org"));