Frequently Asked Questions¶
Can I trust you with my data?¶
Great question. See Data Privacy for more information.
How can I get a key?¶
How do I call the API?¶
For a JSON response, make a simple GET request to the endpoint. For example, to query domain microsoft.com with license key ABCD1234 call:
https://api.whoishippo.com/v1/ABCD1234/microsoft.com
Does the system get slower when it’s busy?¶
No. All infrastructure is hosted in cloud based platforms with automatic scaling enabled. Automatic scaling kicks in at busy times to provide more hardware resources to meet demand.
Do you cache results?¶
To deliver the speed and reliability demanded by our customers, verification results are cached as follows:
- Level 1 cache: CloudFlare based. Cache expiration 2 hours.
- Level 2 cache: Microsoft Azure based. Cache expiration up to 90 days (depends on domain expiry in the WHOIS record).
Can I get My Usage in Real-Time?¶
Not yet. This feature is in the development pipeline.
How does it work?¶
At a basic conceptual level, the process of querying WHOIS services is very simple. First, find the authoritive WHOIS server for a particular TLD. Next, connect to the server on port 43, query the domain and capture the response.
The hard bit is dealing with WHOIS services that are intrinsically configured to work against the process of querying domains in any form large volume scale. Additionally, the WHOIS system does not follow one, unified standard which means that the data returned from WHOIS services is very difficult to parse to anything that is useful for automation or integration purposes.
Email Hippo’s strength in dealing with the “hard bit” of the WHOIS system comes from years of experience in solving similar challenges in email verification.
Can I get blacklisted using this API?¶
No. It’s Email Hippo infrastructure that does the work.
Will anyone know that I am quering a domain?¶
No. It’s Email Hippo infrastructure that does the work.