What is WHOIS?
Updated 7 months ago
by
Jordan Jones
WHOIS is a query / service that provides information in relation to a registered domain name such as the domain registrant/technical/billing contact information, domain availability, domain registrar, nameservers used and key dates (being registration, latest update and expiration dates).
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) policies require all domain registrants keep their contact information valid and up-to-date to help prevent fraud and identity theft.
There are three main WHOIS search tools available online to which you may wish to use. Information on a WHOIS lookup will vary dependent on the registry of a domain. The three main websites you may wish to use for WHOIS lookups are:
If your domain name is a UK domain (i.e. .UK, .CO.UK, .ORG.UK, .ME.UK etc.) you may instead wish to use the Nominet WHOIS tool as found here.
Domain registrars such as ourselves typically allow their clients to change their domain contact information directly from their client accounts. Please do however be wary, updates to WHOIS information may take up to 24 hours (this would be due to some searches being cached).
Some domain registries do allow domain owners to hide specific details on the WHOIS database replacing any information with random information (usually of the registrar, registry or hosting company). This feature would be named WHOIS privacy, but can also be referred to as ID Protection or domain privacy. At Krystal, we provide WHOIS privacy by default on all domain names, for free! Information for your domain name will only show on the WHOIS database if you reach out to our support team and explicitly request your information is shown online.
