Whois Domain Lookup

Whois is a service that provides information about the registration of Internet top-level domains (TLDs) and other identifiers, such as email addresses or postal mail boxes. The data provided includes the name of the company or individual who registered the identifier, its location, when it was registered, and how to contact them. It can also provide additional information such as the administrative contacts for an organization.

The WHOIS database is maintained by IANA, which has delegated responsibility for maintaining the database to Regional Registries around the world. Each registry maintains a copy of the WHOIS database, but may not be able to respond quickly to all queries due to their size.

History

WHOIS was originally developed in 1994 by Jon Postel at UCLA's Information Sciences Institute. In 1995, Postel published RFC 1597 describing the protocol.

In 1996, the first public WHOIS server was run by Network Solutions. In 1997, Network Solutions released the first commercial version of the software. The first version of the software included only basic functionality.

In 1999, Network Solutions was acquired by VeriSign Inc.. In 2000, VeriSign released the first version of the software with full support for IPv6 addresses.

In 2001, VeriSign spun off the operation of the WHOIS system into a separate subsidiary called VeriSign Online Corporation.

In 2002, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), under contract from VeriSign, began assigning new TLDs. This resulted in a large increase in the number of records in the WHOIS database.

In 2003, VeriSign announced plans to sell VeriSign Online Corporation to Neustar. At this time, VeriSign stated that they would continue to operate the WHOIS service until 2007. However, on September 25, 2004, VeriSign announced that they had sold VeriSign Online Corporation, including the WHOIS service, to Neustar for $890 million.

On November 1, 2006, Neustar changed the URL for the WHOIS service to whois.net.

On December 31, 2008, Neustar completed its acquisition of Dynadot, Inc., and continued to operate the WHOIS Service through Dynadot.

On January 18, 2012, Neustar announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Tucows, Inc. For more details see Tucows acquisition announcement. As part of the deal, Neustar assumed control over the WHOIS service operated by Tucows.

On February 6, 2013, Neustar announced the sale of the WHOIS business to eNom, LLC.

Features

The WHOIS service allows users to query the following types of information:

Domain Name Registration

IP address allocation

Domain name expiration dates

Administrative Contact

Technical Contact

Billing Contact

Registrar Contact

DNS Records

PTR Record

Reverse Lookup

Spam Reports

Abuse Reports

WHOIS Privacy Protection

WHOIS privacy protection allows you to hide your personal information from search engines, ISPs, and others. You can use WHOIS privacy protection to protect your identity if someone else registers your domain name.

Whois Privacy Protection protects your privacy by hiding your personal information from third parties. Your personal information will remain private even after you have transferred ownership of your domain name.

You can enable WHOIS privacy protection by selecting "Hide my WHOIS" on the Domain Settings page of the Control Panel.

Privacy protection is enabled by default. If you want to disable privacy protection, click Disable. To re-enable privacy protection, click Enable.

If you are not sure whether or not you should disable privacy protection, contact us. We may be able to help you determine if you need to disable privacy protection.

Privacy Protection FAQ

What happens when I enable WHOIS privacy protection?

When you enable WHOIS privacy protection, your personal information will no longer appear in the WHOIS database unless you specifically request it.

How do I make changes to my WHOIS privacy settings?

To change your privacy settings, go to the Domain Settings page of your Control Panel. On the Domain Settings page, select Hide My WHOIS and then enter your desired privacy settings.

Why does my WHOIS privacy setting say "Disabled"?

Some registrars offer a feature called "domain lock," which prevents new registrations from being made while the domain's privacy settings are set to "disabled." When you purchase a domain with a registrar offering domain locks, the domain registration process automatically sets the domain's privacy settings to disabled. This means that anyone looking up your domain's WHOIS record will only see information about the current owner of the domain.

Can I disable WHOIS privacy protection for all domains registered at my account?

Yes. Go to the Domain Settings page and deselect Hide My WHOIS. Then, select Disable All Domains.

How long does WHOIS privacy protection last?

WHOIS privacy protection lasts until you explicitly remove it.

How often does WHOIS data get updated?

WHOIS data gets updated every time there is a change in the status of your domain name. For example, if you transfer ownership of your domain name, the WHOIS database would update to reflect this change.

Do I need to renew my WHOIS privacy protection? Can I keep my WHOIS privacy protection indefinitely?

No. If you do not renew your WHOIS privacy protection, it expires one year after the date you initially purchased the service.

Does WHOIS privacy protection work for.com,.net, and other top level domains?

Yes. WHOIS privacy protection works for all top level domains (TLDs).

Is WHOIS privacy protection available for free?

Yes. WHO IS privacy protection is offered as part of our basic package.

I'm having trouble registering a domain. What can I do?

If you're having problems registering a domain, please call customer support.

What if I don't know who owns my domain? Is there any way to find out?

No. The WHOIS database contains only information about the current owner(s) of a domain. You cannot view the history of a domain's previous owners.

What if someone else has access to my WHOIS records? How can I stop them?

You can prevent others from viewing your WHOIS record by changing your privacy settings. To learn more, read the section above titled "How do I make changes?"