Finding Domain Name Information

Posted by technically confused | Posted in Domain Names, Web Stuff | Posted on 27-07-2008

Finding Domain Name Information

Sometimes we need to find information about a domain name or website. Maybe it’s an address, a phone number, or where a domain is hosted. You can search a domain name in a whois database and you’ll find information.

A Whois search allows us to do this - it’s a public database that contains all kinds of information, about every domain name registered on the internet. To find this kind of information, you need to search a special database. You can search Google for the phrase whois search or you can use one of the sites listed here:

http://betterwhois.com
http://allwhois.com

My favorite whois search on the web is BetterWhois. All you do is type the domain name in the text box - make sure to include the .com or .net.

We’re looking for information about the domain notarealdomain.com which just happens to be a registered domain. The registrant has decided to use the registrar’s privacy features, so you won’t see any addresses or names that apply directly to the registrant:

Domain Name: NOTAREALDOMAIN.COM
Registrar: NEW DREAM NETWORK, LLC
Whois Server: whois.dreamhost.com
Referral URL: http://www.dreamhost.com
Name Server: NS1.DREAMHOST.COM
Name Server: NS2.DREAMHOST.COM
Name Server: NS3.DREAMHOST.COM
Status: ok
Updated Date: 19-mar-2008
Creation Date: 19-mar-2008
Expiration Date: 19-mar-2009

So, what are you looking at?

Domain Name - This is the domain you’re researching.

Registrar - The company the domain is registered with - there are tons.

Whois Server - The whois database this information came from - there are several.

Referral URL - This is who you talk to if you want to make changes to the domain name.

Nameserver - First nameserver (also called the primary nameserver)

Nameserver - Second nameserver. (also called the secondary nameserver)

Nameserver - This domain has a third nameserver as well: you can have as many as needed, although the norm is two. Depending on which whois service you use, you may also see the IP addresses associated with the nameservers.
The nameservers generally will tell you where a domain is hosted. You can do a whois search on the nameservers to get more info on the host itself.

Updated Date - Tells you when information on the whois record was updated. This could pertain to addresses, nameservers, or simply if the domain was renewed for another year.

Creation Date - Tells you the date the domain name was created on.

Expiration Date - This is when the domain name expires.

You’ll also see this:

Registrant Contact - This is who owns the domain.
Administrative Contact - This is who is in charge of the domain.
Technical Contact - This is who you contact if there’s a problem.
Billing Contact - This is who pays for the domain.

All of the contact info can be the same, or it can be different. In this particular case, the information is all the same - it’s under the Registrar’s contact info, because the registrant wants privacy so the contact information is hidden. Privacy registrations look like this:

notarealdomain.com Private Registrant
notarealdomain.com@proxy.dreamhost.com
A Happy DreamHost Customer
417 Associated Rd #324
Brea, CA 92821
US
+1.2139471032

If you want to find where a domain is hosted, you can read through the whois - once in a while the info is there. Usually you’ll need to take the nameserver domain name (without the ns1. before the domain name) and do a whois on that. This can go on endlessly, depending on how the host is set up.

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