nicname/tcp

The nicname or whois service provides name and address information. It was originally written for military personel, as far as I can tell.

A client telnets to the port, sends text and a CR LF, the server responds by doing a query on its database and returning appropriate information.

This is often and more commonly known as whois. For information about the rwhois protocol see RFC-1714 Page

RFC-954 The most up to date information about whois, nicname.

RFC-812 Older docs.