What Is Whois? How to Look Up a Domain on Whois

Understanding what Whois is and how it works helps you look up domains information quickly and accurately. So what exactly is Whois and how is it used? This article answers those questions, so read on!

What is Whois?

Whois is an Internet service used to look up information about domain names. Individuals, organizations and businesses that register a domain must provide ICANN personal data such as full name, phone number, address and email. This body is regarded as a non-profit organization responsible for overseeing the use of domains on the Internet.

ICANN publishes the information it collects on Whois accurately and in full, in line with current policies and laws. As a result, anyone can use Whois to search for data and identify who registered a domain.

Why use Whois?

In general, there are 2 common ways to use Whois:

Use Whois to check whether a domain is already registered

This is the first step to owning a domain. If the domain is already registered, the registrant's information, or registration details hidden by Whois Privacy, will be displayed.

Use Whois to look up information about a domain

You may need information about a domain in order to buy an already registered domain from its owner, or to check how trustworthy a website is from its registration details. Large, reputable websites usually do not hide their information. You will only fail to find the owner's details if they use a Whois Privacy service.

How to use Whois to look up a domain

This is the Whois domain lookup interface. Looking up a domain takes 3 steps:

• Step 1: Go to the lookup page who.is
• Step 2: Enter the domain name or IP address you want to check in the search box, then click the magnifier icon.

• Step 3: Scroll down to see all the information recorded in the Whois database.

Some important details to look at:

• Information about the domain owner includes name, phone number, address, email and company. However, if the site has signed up for Whois Privacy, this information will be hidden.
• A domain registered in the owner's own name is one that has been registered by, and belongs to, an organization or individual.
• After you complete the domain procedures, the registrar activates the domain and confirms your ownership. Ownership information is stated in the contract and displayed in full in the system. Any edit or change to the website must be confirmed by the owner.
• Besides using Whois to check who owns a domain, you can also visit the domain directly in a browser to look for information, or send an email to the administrative contact email.
• Finally, a domain also has an expiry date. At that point you can contact the domain owner to negotiate. Or, if things go well and they no longer renew the domain, you can take the chance to register that address for yourself.

What information Whois shows 

Whois data gives you information about the owners or contact details, along with other important details. Here is the information that usually appears and that you should pay attention to when looking into any domain on Whois:

• Registrar: This is the name and contact information of the organization (registrar) that distributes the domain you may be using.
• Registant: This field shows the name of the domain's owner or the person it is registered to.
• Contacts: This is the contact information of the registrant, the owner or the technical support person.
• Name Servers: This is the address of the DNS servers configured to point to the domain.
• Domain Status: Shows the status of the domain.
• Registration Date: The domain's registration date.
• Updated Date: The most recent update date.
• Expiry Date: The domain's expiry date.

Protecting a domain's Whois information

As mentioned earlier, the information Whois provides includes registration details, the administrator, the billing contact, the technical contact and contact details. Domain owners are required to maintain this Whois data, and accurate domain data is updated continuously under ICANN policy.

If a domain owner wants to keep personal information private, they can sign up for a Whois Privacy service. Owner details such as name, phone number, address and company are then hidden and cannot be looked up.

How to update Whois information

Under ICANN rules, registrants must keep the owner information in the Whois database accurate. Domain providers use the information supplied by the buyer at the time the domain was registered.

So what should you do to change incorrect information? You need to contact the domain provider you registered with and ask them to update it. Within 48 hours, Whois will automatically update the corresponding information.

What is WHOIS Privacy?

Whois Privacy has come up several times above, so what exactly is it? As you may have guessed, it is a service that hides domain information. It is meant for website owners who do not want to make their contact details public, in order to stop competitors or bad actors from getting hold of this information. Besides its main benefit of privacy, Whois Privacy has a downside for branding: your website or business may look less trustworthy if you hide your information on Whois.

How to hide information in Whois

If you need to hide personal information, contact the provider where you registered the domain. They will then send you an email to confirm. Once you confirm, your personal information on the domain will be hidden.

After that, go back to Whois to check whether your domain's information is really hidden.

However, if you need to protect your information and website data from cybercriminals, Whois Privacy alone is not enough. You also need to combine other network security measures, such as: an SSL certificate for your website; highly secure servers such as VPS, Cloud VPS or Dedicated Server, and so on. Also remember to choose mua hosting from reputable providers. You will get smart utilities with 24/7/365 support.

That covers the basics of what Whois is, plus an overview of Whois, its utilities and how to use it. We hope you found the information about domains useful and can own a domain that suits you.