Whois
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Whois is a protocol for submitting a query to a database for determining the owner of a domain name, an IP network, or an autonomous system number.
The whois system originated as a method that system administrators could look up information to contact other IP address or domain name administrators. The use of the data that is returned from query responses has evolved from those origins into a variety of both altruistic (such as a Certificate Authority validating the registration for ecommerce https) and nefarious uses (such as bulk unsolicited email campaigns).
There are two primary types of whois lookups, a command-line and web-based lookup, and there are two classes of data, Thin and Thick.
Though the implimentation of what precise records are presented varies in internet registries, Thin whois refers to a minimal set of information, such as the nameservers or registration date of a domain name, and generally contains a referral to a location where Thick whois information can be retrieved. Thick whois data is detailed registrant contact information, such as the domain registrant and administrative or technical contact information.
Due to the variety of standards and presentation models, there have been many researcher that have created simplified tools to lookup domain whois, like Whois Source (http://www.whois.sc) and UWhois (http://www.uwhois.com).
Some Top Level Domains operate a Thick whois at the registry, others operate a thin model. .COM and .NET registries operate a Thin whois, and allow the various domain registrars who provision the domain names to maintain their own customers' data on their self operated thick whois service. The .ORG registry is an example of Thick Whois.
Below is the thick result of a whois query on wikipedia.org:
Domain ID:D51687756-LROR Domain Name:WIKIPEDIA.ORG Created On:13-Jan-2001 00:12:14 UTC Last Updated On:08-Dec-2004 17:52:24 UTC Expiration Date:13-Jan-2014 00:12:14 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR) Status:OK Registrant ID:C3819183-RCOM Registrant Name:Jimmy Wales Registrant Organization:Bomis, Inc. Registrant Street1:4455 Lamont St., Suite 3 Registrant Street2: Registrant Street3: Registrant City:San Diego Registrant State/Province:CA Registrant Postal Code:92109 Registrant Country:US Registrant Phone:+1.6192739361 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX:+1.6192739363 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:jwales@bomis.com Admin ID:C40903147-RCOM Admin Name:Jimmy Wales Admin Organization:Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Admin Street1:3911 Harrisburg St. NE Admin Street2: Admin Street3: Admin City:St. Petersburg Admin State/Province:FL Admin Postal Code:33703 Admin Country:US Admin Phone:+1.7276441636 Admin Phone Ext.: Admin FAX: Admin FAX Ext.: Admin Email:jwales@bomis.com Tech ID:C40903148-RCOM Tech Name:Jimmy Wales Tech Organization:Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Tech Street1:3911 Harrisburg St. NE Tech Street2: Tech Street3: Tech City:St. Petersburg Tech State/Province:FL Tech Postal Code:33703 Tech Country:US Tech Phone:+1.7276441636 Tech Phone Ext.: Tech FAX: Tech FAX Ext.: Tech Email:jwales@bomis.com Name Server:ZWINGER.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Name Server:GUNTHER.BOMIS.COM
Problems
- Privacy. Registrants contact details are easily accessible to anyone on the internet.
- Spam. Spammers often harvest plain-text email addresses from WHOIS requests.
See also
External links
- RFC3912 (http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3912.txt), Whois protocol specification
- Whois Source (http://www.whois.sc/), whois lookup for multiple top level domains, and historical registrant information.
- internic (http://www.internic.net) the original.
- online whois tools (http://www.hashemian.com/tools/) whois, reverse whois, mx record, ip address discovery
- Internic Whois (http://www.internic.net/whois.html), run a Whois query for generic top-level domains
- Whois servers (http://www.whois.ws/), Global Whois service with lookup for all GTLDs and CCTLDs
- Whois (http://www.whois.to/), Web based Whois service for generic and all available country-code (two-letter) top-level domains.
- Whois and Site Info (http://ez-whois.com/), Whois search and Domain Names Informations in over 200 tlds
- Whois Service (http://www.devtoolz.com/whois_search/), Provides users the ability to run a Whois on a specific domain.
- Whois tool (http://whois.net/)
- ezWHOIS.net (http://www.ezwhois.net/), Offering free Whois lookup capabilities and supporting all TLDS and CCTLDs.
- Betterwhois.com (http://www.betterwhois.com/bwhois.cgi?domain=eastenders-tv.co.uk&x=30&y=10)
- Nominet (http://www.nominet.org.uk/index.html) UK based domain names
- Shows your IP Address (http://www.showipaddress.com)de:Whois