Domain WHOIS service

WHOIS stands as an easy to use method of finding out info about the owner of a domain name, an IP address or an autonomous system number on the Internet. In the case of a privately owned domain, the WHOIS database contains the full name, address, telephone number, and email address of the registered owner of the domain. If the domain is owned by a business, the company name, address, email, and telephone number are listed.

The way in which WHOIS works is that the WHOIS service operates through a WHOIS server and anyone can connect to a WHOIS server. By connecting to a WHOIS server you are able to send a query regarding a domain name then when your query is received it will be resolved to the best that it can be and once your query has been resolved the connection to the server will be closed. The most common use of the WHOIS website is to find information about domain names, especially to check the availability of a domain name or for information regarding the registrant of a domain name.

When you are performing a search via the WHOIS website you can find out who registered the domain name and exactly when the domain name was registered. A WHOIS search can also reveal the name or network mapped to a numerical IP address.

Web-based WHOIS clients still rely on the WHOIS protocol to connect to a WHOIS server and do lookups, and command-line WHOIS clients are still quite widely used by system administrators.