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What is a WHOIS Search

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21 Feb, 2013

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This article briefly explains whats WHOIS and describes most common use cases often referred to as WHOIS search or WHOIS
lookup.

WHOIS explained
WHOIS actually means Who is? and reads the same. Its a useful utility for looking up information on any domain name.
Historically, WHOIS is one of the oldest terms of the Internet. Its a crucial set of data for businesses (e.g. ISPs), individuals (e.g.
webmasters) and even governments, so no wonder it is one of the most searched database in the world, also one of the most
detailed.
WHOIS search results provide helpful information surrounding a particular domain name. It may include personal or business
information about domain name ownership, registration and expiration dates, nameservers, status
(http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/wiki/domain-name-status-codes/) information, etc. It may also include contact information
such as physical address, phone number and email address.

Technically, WHOIS is a protocol used to update and find information about

domain names, IP addresses and some other Internet resources. This means
WHOIS services operate through WHOIS servers databases that store
records of registered users or assignees of Internet resources in a humanreadable format.
Anyone can connect to a WHOIS server to send a query, the server will then
respond to this query. The most common usage of WHOIS is for finding
information about domain names thats generally meant by various terms,
such as whois search, whois lookup or whois query.

(http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/wiki/wpcontent/uploads/2013/02/whois-tlddomain_name-ip.jpg)
Who stands behind all these?
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/people/28288673@N07/

How to perform a WHOIS search

You dont need to have any software installed on your PC, there are many
websites that will allow you to perform a WHOIS lookup, for example who.is
(http://who.is/)
Yet, if youre a Linux or Mac user, or if you have purchased your own Linux-

based VPS (http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/vps-hosting.php) or Dedicated Server (http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/dedicatedservers.php) its easy to retrieve any WHOIS record you need. Use the following command in shell:

whoiswebhostingbuzz.com

[alert]Recent CentOS versions dont have whois command line client installed by default. Run yum install jwhois command to set it
up. Windows users can get a command line Whois utility (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897435.aspx) by
Mark Russinovich.[/alert]
This command will output the following result:

[Queryingwhois.verisigngrs.com]
[Redirectedtowhois.enom.com]

[Queryingwhois.enom.com]
[whois.enom.com]
====
RegistrationServiceProvidedBy:Namecheap.com
Contact:support@namecheap.com
Visit:http://namecheap.com
Domainname:webhostingbuzz.com
RegistrantContact:
WebHostingBuzzUSALLC
MatthewRussell()
Fax:
15MidstateDrive
Suite212
Auburn,MA01501
US
AdministrativeContact:
WebHostingBuzzUSALLC
MatthewRussell(sales@webhostingbuzz.com)
+1.8002521887
Fax:+1.3023972394
15MidstateDrive
Suite212
Auburn,MA01501
US
TechnicalContact:
WebHostingBuzzUSALLC
MatthewRussell(sales@webhostingbuzz.com)

+1.8002521887
Fax:+1.3023972394
15MidstateDrive
Suite212
Auburn,MA01501
US
Status:Locked
NameServers:
ns100.fastwhb.com
ns101.fastwhb.com
Creationdate:31Oct200200:00:00
Expirationdate:31Oct201800:00:00
====
Thedatainthiswhoisdatabaseisprovidedtoyouforinformation
purposesonly,thatis,toassistyouinobtaininginformationaboutor
relatedtoadomainnameregistrationrecord.Wemakethisinformation
available"asis,"anddonotguaranteeitsaccuracy.Bysubmittinga
whoisquery,youagreethatyouwillusethisdataonlyforlawful
purposesandthat,undernocircumstanceswillyouusethisdatato:(1)
enablehighvolume,automated,electronicprocessesthatstressorload
thiswhoisdatabasesystemprovidingyouthisinformation;or(2)allow,
enable,orotherwisesupportthetransmissionofmassunsolicited,
commercialadvertisingorsolicitationsviadirectmail,electronic
mail,orbytelephone.Thecompilation,repackaging,disseminationor
otheruseofthisdataisexpresslyprohibitedwithoutpriorwritten
consentfromus.
Wereservetherighttomodifythesetermsatanytime.Bysubmitting
thisquery,youagreetoabidebytheseterms.

Version6.34/3/2002

This is a standard-looking whois response about a domain name.

Obviously, the above information has been captured at a time of preparing this article for publication, so if you decide to run the
exact same query and search whois database for webhostingbuzz.com domain name records some bits of the output may vary.
[alert]A WHOIS lookup may not provide expected results if WHOIS privacy is enabled by domain name registrar. This is usually
done in order to hide or disguise certain information, or prevent automated collecting of it as all information in whois database is
100% publicly available.[/alert]
No useful information will be provided if a domain name is not registered:

root@linux[~]#whoisnotyetregistered.com
[Queryingwhois.verisigngrs.com]
[whois.verisigngrs.com]
WhoisServerVersion2.0
Domainnamesinthe.comand.netdomainscannowberegistered
withmanydifferentcompetingregistrars.Gotohttp://www.internic.net
fordetailedinformation.
Nomatchfordomain"NOTYETREGISTERED.COM".
>>>Lastupdateofwhoisdatabase:Thu,21Feb201315:51:22UTC<<<

As seen above, not-yet-registered.com domain name doesnt have any WHOIS records associated with it, meaning that it can be
registered by anyone. As soon as someone registers this domain name and it stops being available for registration well see
whois results similar to those of webhostingbuzz.com name.
Keep in mind that different WHOIS servers will display different results also depending on a domain name zone (TLD). For
example:

root@linux[~]#whoisbloggr.no
[Queryingwhois.norid.no]
[whois.norid.no]
%Kopibeskyttet,sehttp://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/whois/kopirett.html
%Rightsrestrictedbycopyright.Seehttp://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/whois/kopirett.en.html
DomainInformation
NORIDHandle...............:BLO1487DNORID
DomainName................:bloggr.no
DomainHolderHandle.......:BA5098ONORID
RegistrarHandle...........:REG42NORID
LegalcHandle.............:EA3434PNORID
TechcHandle..............:DH38RNORID
NameServerHandle.........:NSHY11HNORID
NameServerHandle.........:NSHY46HNORID
NameServerHandle.........:NSHY81HNORID
Additionalinformation:
Created:20110217
Lastupdated:20130208
NORIDHandle...............:BA5098ONORID
Type.......................:organization
Name.......................:OMEGAMEDIAAS
IdType....................:organization_number
IdNumber..................:934563719
RegistrarHandle...........:REG42NORID
PostAddress...............:Sorgenfrigata6A
PostalCode................:NO0367
PostalArea................:OSLO
Country....................:NO

PhoneNumber...............:+47.94328901
EmailAddress..............:74busjuisxeh@emailprotection.domainnameshop.com
Additionalinformation:
Created:20101001
Lastupdated:20130131

Thats because specific details of records being stored vary among domain name registries. Besides that, each country-code toplevel registry has its own national rules.

WHOIS search of IP address

WHOIS query can be also used to retrieve publicly available information about IP addresses:

root@linux[~]#whois37.61.233.101
[Queryingwhois.arin.net]
[Redirectedtowhois.ripe.net:43]
[Queryingwhois.ripe.net]
[whois.ripe.net]
%ThisistheRIPEDatabasequeryservice.
%TheobjectsareinRPSLformat.
%
%TheRIPEDatabaseissubjecttoTermsandConditions.
%Seehttp://www.ripe.net/db/support/dbtermsconditions.pdf
%Note:thisoutputhasbeenfiltered.
%Toreceiveoutputforadatabaseupdate,usethe"B"flag.
%Informationrelatedto'37.61.233.037.61.234.255'
inetnum:37.61.233.037.61.234.255
netname:LIT1

descr:LayerIPUKhostingdivisioninfrastructure
country:GB
remarks:Pleasesendabusecomplaintemailsto"abuse@layerip.com"
adminc:LRIPRIPE
techc:LRIPRIPE
status:ASSIGNEDPA
mntby:MNTLAYERIP
mntby:TIMICOMNT
mntdomains:MNTLAYERIP
source:RIPE#Filtered
role:LayerIPNOC
address:LandmarkHouse,1RiseholmeRoad,Lincoln,LN13SN,UK
adminc:LRIPRIPE
techc:ARKH8RIPE
nichdl:LRIPRIPE
mntby:MNTLAYERIP
source:RIPE#Filtered
%Informationrelatedto'37.61.233.0/24AS8607'
route:37.61.233.0/24
descr:LayerIPUKhostingdivisioninfrastructure
origin:AS8607
mntby:TIMICOMNT
mntby:MNTLAYERIP
source:RIPE#Filtered
%ThisquerywasservedbytheRIPEDatabaseQueryServiceversion1.53(WHOIS3)

The result is somewhat similar to what you get when querying whois about a domain name.

[alert style=success]If youre fancy learning more about WHOIS, including examples of esoteric use and other really techie stuff
check WHOIS Guide for Real Geeks (http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/wiki/whois-guide-for-real-geeks/) by WebHostingBuzz
Experts.[/alert]

Resources
World Map of Regional Internet Registries

(http://www.webhostingbuzz.com/wiki/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Regional_Internet_Registries-world_map.png)
Image credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Regional_Internet_Registries_world_map.svg

ARIN WHOIS (http://whois.arin.net/ui)

RIPE WHOIS (https://apps.db.ripe.net/search/query.html)

APNIC WHOIS (http://www.apnic.net/apnic-info/whois_search2)
AFRINIC WHOIS (http://www.afrinic.net/en/services/whois-query)
LACNIC WHOIS (http://lacnic.net/en/index.html)
WHOIS Protocol Specification RFC 3912 (http://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3912/?include_text=1)
API for Developers (http://developer.namecheap.com/docs/)

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