What is a WHOIS lookup? Published: 24 Jul, 2023
A WHOIS lookup is a query of a WHOIS server to retrieve information about the registration of a domain name. The WHOIS server contains information such as the domain name registrant's name, address, email address, phone number, and the domain name's expiration date. WHOIS lookups can be performed for any domain name, regardless of its extension.
Why use a WHOIS lookup?
There are a number of reasons why you might want to use a WHOIS lookup. For example, you might want to use a WHOIS lookup to:
- Verify the ownership of a domain name
- Find contact information for a domain name registrant
- Check the expiration date of a domain name
- Monitor the changes made to a domain name registration
- Research domain name ownership
How to use a WHOIS lookup
There are a number of ways to use a WHOIS lookup. You can use our WHOIS lookup service online, or you can use a command-line tool. If you use a WHOIS lookup service online, you will simply need to enter the domain name you want to lookup in the search bar. The service will then return the WHOIS information for the domain name. If you use a command-line tool, you will need to use the whois
command. For example, to perform a WHOIS lookup for the domain name example.com
, you would use the following command:
whois example.com
WHOIS lookup privacy
In some cases, domain name registrants may choose to hide their personal information from the public. This can be done by using a privacy service. Privacy services will replace the registrant's personal information with a proxy address. This can make it difficult to find contact information for domain name registrants.
Conclusion
WHOIS lookups can be a valuable tool for a variety of purposes. If you need to find information about a domain name, a WHOIS lookup is a good place to start.