WHOIS and NICNAME let you look up a name or "handle" for a person
registered in either the Stanford Faculty/Staff/Student database or the
NIC database of registered DDN (Arpanet and Milnet) users.  Examples:

    .whois jones	looks up "jones" in the Stanford database
    .nicname abc	looks us "abc" in the NIC database

It's also possible to look up a host name this way:

    .whois score	looks up "score" in Stanford database
    .nicname sail.stanford.edu    looks up host in NIC database

The (Stanford) Whois database service is maintained by Networking Systems,
but the information in it comes (mostly) from Registrar's and Personnel
databases on the Forsythe mainframe.

The Registrar's Office sends each quarter's student info to Networking a few
weeks into the quarter.  Students have to update their email addresses manually
by using the "whois-update" server.  From some Stanford hosts you can type
"whois-update" at the system prompt; if that doesn't work you can try "telnet
jessica 1510".  Follow the rather cryptic instructions to update your email
address (it won't let you update anything else).  The change will be reflected
in Whois the next day.

Faculty and staff can have their email addresses changed by sending electronic
mail to Personnel at AT.REC@FORSYTHE.  The change will be recorded for the
Faculty Staff Directory, and WHOIS will get the change within a month or so.

AT.REC@FORSYTHE only accepts requests for changes to electronic mail
addresses.  If you need to change other info (such as your name, telephone
number, address, mail code, job title), you must fill out a PDF (Personnel
Data Form) or PAF (Personnel Action Form) and send it to Personnel Services.