1. WHOIS is an Internet service and utility that shows additional information about a domain, the registrar of the domain, and the IP address. When trying to come up with a domain name for a new website, performing a WHOIS lets you determine if that name is registered or available.
The WHOIS command and service is pronounced as two separate words "who is" and is not an acronym, even though it is typed in all uppercase.
When a domain is registered though a domain name registrar, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) requires that the registration information be made publicly available. The WHOIS record must include the registrars name, the creation date, updated date, and expiration date. Other information can include the name servers and the registrant, admin, and technical contact information.
The personal contact information can be made private as a free or paid service, depending on the registrar.
When a WHOIS search is performed, the service queries several domain registrars since there is no central database to display the final results. A WHOIS can be done through the command line or an online service. Below is a brief overview of how to use each of the different WHOIS options.
If a domain is private, you cannot see any personal contact information on any WHOIS.
Several online WHOIS services allow anyone to look up any online domain on any device with Internet access. Below are a few examples of these online services. Some of these services may show additional information if the domain is being hosted through the service providing the WHOIS.
With Microsoft Windows and Windows Sysinternals installed, you can run the whois command from the Windows command line (MS-DOS).
The macOS, Linux, and Unix Terminal come with a pre-installed whois command. See the whois command page for further information on using the command.
When performing a whois lookup on a domain name, if the domain is available a message like "No whois information found" is shown. If there is no whois information, that domain is available for purchase.
The following is an example of what you may see when doing a WHOIS in the Microsoft Windows command line using the whois Sysinternals command. In our example, we are doing a WHOIS on the "microsoft.com" domain.
Whois v1.12 - Domain information lookup utility Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com Copyright (C) 2005-2014 Mark Russinovich Connecting to COM.whois-servers.net. Domain ID: 2724960_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com Updated Date: 2014-10-09T16:28:25Z Creation Date: 1991-05-02T04:00:00Z Registry Expiry Date: 2021-05-03T04:00:00Z Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc. Registrar IANA ID: 292 Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected] Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740 Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverDeleteProhibited Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited Domain Status: serverUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverUpdateProhibited Name Server: NS1.MSFT.NET Name Server: NS2.MSFT.NET Name Server: NS3.MSFT.NET Name Server: NS4.MSFT.NET DNSSEC: unsigned URL of the ICANN Whois Inaccuracy Complaint Form: https://www.icann.org/wicf/ >>> Last update of whois database: 2020-05-05T17:57:00ZRelated information
2. A command used on some chat networks, such as IRC (Internet Relay Chat). Whois lets users find out additional information about other users, such as their hostname, IP address, channels, and how long they've been online. For example, if the username was mrhope, you could type the command below to display information about that person.