ARIN Keeps Port 43 WHOIS After 24 of 43 Comments Opposed Retirement

ARIN Counted 24 of 43 Substantive Comments Against Killing Port 43. The Port Stays.

Why it matters

ARIN proposed a 2029 retirement for its busiest old directory protocol. After the consultation, it kept the service on the clock only in pencil: adoption and query milestones first, another round with the community later.

Daniel Kade2 November 2026 at 00:39 UTCReading Time 2 minLast update: 2 November 2026

ARIN set separate migration triggers for RWhois, Whois-RWS and Port 43 WHOIS.

Summary

ARIN’s 2026 consultation produced three different retirement paths: RWhois gets a 365-day clock after a migration tool; Whois-RWS waits on RDAP parity; Port 43 WHOIS stays in service pending adoption milestones and another consultation.
ARIN’s ARIN 58 recap says 24 of 43 substantive comments opposed retiring Port 43 or asked for a much longer transition. It does not describe those comments as a vote or a representative survey.

ARIN put three old directory services on the table. One left with a countdown. One left with homework. The busiest one left without a retirement date.

The distinction emerged after ARIN’s August–September consultation on RWhois, Whois-RWS and Port 43 WHOIS. Its original proposal treated Port 43 as the long goodbye: a two-year sunset, no earlier than 1 January 2029, with notices in query results and outreach to organizations that rely on it. ARIN cited the service’s high query volume and use by cybersecurity professionals, researchers, law enforcement and others.

The ARIN 58 recap supplies the sharpest number in the record. Of 43 substantive comments on Port 43, 24 opposed retirement or called for a much longer transition. ARIN’s recap does not identify those comments as 43 people, 43 members or a ballot. It does show that the written response materially changed the proposed timetable: ARIN will keep Port 43 running, watch RDAP adoption in commercial products and query traffic, and bring retirement back for consultation after community-identified prerequisites are met.

RWhois drew a different response. ARIN said commenters raised no objection to retirement. The revised plan ties its 365-day countdown to public release of a migration tool, giving organizations a concrete trigger before the clock starts. Whois-RWS splits in two: API retirement waits until parity issues with RDAP, documentation and training are addressed; the browser interface gets a beta RDAP advanced-search tool and at least six months alongside the existing UI before a sunset date is set.

The consultation did not produce a single migration date. It sorted services by who still depends on them and what ARIN must build first. Port 43 remains the hardest case because the institution cannot point to a completed replacement gate and call the argument over.