WHOIS is a way of searching for information about the owner of a domain name or an IP address (a unique number given to each computer connected to the Internet). You can use WHOIS to discover when a domain expires or to research your competition. WHOIS information was originally found at a single place -- however, these days it's not quite as easy. You might have to try several WHOIS tools to find the information you want.

Here are some reasons that you might want to do a WHOIS lookup:

1. To see who owns a domain name
2. To see when your domain name expires so you can renew it on time
3. To make sure that your domain information is up-to-date
4. To research a competitor or sales lead
5. To inquire about buying a domain directly from the owner

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Look up a domain name

In a typical WHOIS record, you will find the domain name, date created, sponsoring registrar, expiration date, and registrant info.

I recommend: Go to a WHOIS tool such as easyWhois and type in a domain. Press the button that allows you to search. You will get the WHOIS record or sometimes a link to a site that will have the WHOIS record. You might have to go to that site (for example, one of the big registrars such as Network Solutions, Joker.com, or GoDaddy.com) and search with that site's WHOIS tool to find the WHOIS record.

Use domain name info to help get the domain name you want

Finding out who owns a domain name and when the domain expires can be useful if you are trying to buy the domain name you want and it is not listed as available.

I recommend: At the DomainTools domain name search, you can search for domains for sale or at auction. You can also monitor when a domain name is available, or search for domains that exist around a particular keyword, or even get suggestions for available domain names related to a particular keyword. The biz info site offers searches on .biz and .info extensions, which tend to be more available than .com extensions.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you do a WHOIS lookup and don't get all the information outlined above, try going to the Registrar's URL or Referral URL and search on the WHOIS tool at that site.
• •  Some registrars provide the premium service of hiding WHOIS information of their customers – usually for a fee – so sometimes you won't be able to find what you're looking for when you search for the name and contact information of the owner of domain.
• •  Not all WHOIS tools are set up to query every database for every request. Some will simply find the registrar and send you a link to that registrar. You will have to then follow that link and search that registrar's WHOIS tool to get more information about the domain.
• •  Other WHOIS tools will actually query many other databases automatically and return the information.
• •  Still other WHOIS tools try to provide additional information about the domain or format the output of the WHOIS request in a user-friendly way.