Currently the WhoisClient is extending the FingerClient, which sends its request like so:
output = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(output, 1024));
output.writeBytes(__query.toString());
This obviously uses the platform's default encoding, which may be workable for Finger requests, but today's Whois services oftentimes support foreign characters via some IDN scheme and therefore usually run under utf-8. It should therefore either be configurable which encoding is used for the request, or, alternatively, the query interface should be changed to not accept strings, but only bytes. Then it's the client's responsibility to do the appropriate thing.
As it is now, there is no way to use this WhoisClient for IDN-aware Whois registries.
Improvement
Resolved
Major
WhoisClient should not use the platform's default Encoding
