Contact handles have been obsolete for some time now.  The "!handle"
InterNic syntax no longer works and core COCO handle queries seems
to only return empty records.

 - todd

Index: usr.bin/whois/whois.1
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/whois/whois.1,v
diff -u -p -u -r1.39 whois.1
--- usr.bin/whois/whois.1	5 Mar 2024 16:06:32 -0000	1.39
+++ usr.bin/whois/whois.1	5 Mar 2024 16:27:55 -0000
@@ -214,28 +214,6 @@ For more information as to what
 operands have special meaning, and how to guide the search, use
 the special name
 .Dq help .
-.Ss Special cases
-Queries beginning with an exclamation point
-.Ql \&!
-are assumed to be
-.Tn NSI
-contact handles.
-Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line,
-.Pq whois.networksolutions.com
-will be used as the
-.Nm
-database.
-.Pp
-Similarly, queries beginning with
-.Dq COCO-
-are assumed to be
-.Tn CORE
-contact handles.
-Unless a host or domain is specified on the command line,
-.Pq whois.corenic.net
-will be used as the
-.Nm
-database.
 .Sh EXAMPLES
 Most types of data, such as domain names and
 .Tn IP
Index: usr.bin/whois/whois.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/usr.bin/whois/whois.c,v
diff -u -p -u -r1.59 whois.c
--- usr.bin/whois/whois.c	5 Mar 2024 16:06:32 -0000	1.59
+++ usr.bin/whois/whois.c	5 Mar 2024 16:27:55 -0000
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@
 
 #define	NICHOST		"whois.crsnic.net"
 #define	INICHOST	"whois.internic.net"
-#define	CNICHOST	"whois.corenic.net"
 #define	DNICHOST	"whois.nic.mil"
 #define	GNICHOST	"whois.nic.gov"
 #define	ANICHOST	"whois.arin.net"
@@ -276,10 +275,9 @@ whois(const char *query, const char *ser
 /*
  * If no country is specified determine the top level domain from the query.
  * If the TLD is a number, query ARIN, otherwise, use TLD.whois-server.net.
- * If the domain does not contain '.', check to see if it is an NSI handle
- * (starts with '!') or a CORE handle (COCO-[0-9]+ or COHO-[0-9]+) or an
- * ASN (starts with AS) or IPv6 address (contains ':'). Fall back to
- * NICHOST for the non-handle and non-IPv6 case.
+ * If the domain does not contain '.', check to see if it is an ASN (starts
+ * with AS) or IPv6 address (contains ':').
+ * Fall back to NICHOST for the non-handle and non-IPv6 case.
  */
 char *
 choose_server(const char *name, const char *country, char **tofree)
@@ -297,13 +295,7 @@ choose_server(const char *name, const ch
 	if (country != NULL)
 		qhead = country;
 	else if ((qhead = strrchr(name, '.')) == NULL) {
-		if (*name == '!')
-			return (INICHOST);
-		else if ((strncasecmp(name, "COCO-", 5) == 0 ||
-		    strncasecmp(name, "COHO-", 5) == 0) &&
-		    strtol(name + 5, &ep, 10) > 0 && *ep == '\0')
-			return (CNICHOST);
-		else if ((strncasecmp(name, "AS", 2) == 0) &&
+		if ((strncasecmp(name, "AS", 2) == 0) &&
 		    strtol(name + 2, &ep, 10) > 0 && *ep == '\0')
 			return (MNICHOST);
 		else if (strchr(name, ':') != NULL) /* IPv6 address */