Domain registrars and Domain Resellers who use WHMCS to manage and register Co.Za Domains may receive the error “Service unavailable – please try again later” when attempting to perform a whois lookup / domain name availability lookup via WHMCS.
The source relates to issues with the WHOIS server which is maintained by ZA Central Registry (ZACR). ZACR published a notice regarding a change to their WHOIS server effective on the 2nd May 2016.
All clients using the whois service will need to perform whois queries using the new whois server coza-whois.registry.net.za.
Follow the instructions below to update the WHMCS WHOIS server
- Connect via ftp and browse to your whmcs installation
- Locate and open the file /includes/whoisservers.php
- Find .co.za|whois.registry.net.za|Available
- Replace with .co.za|coza-whois.registry.net.za|Available
- Save the file changes