Domain Whois: Looking up Domain Names

The most common use of whois is for looking up domain names. This may be for checking available domain names before registering or to locate information on the domain name registrant.

The whois server for domain registration records are maintained by the organization authorized to register domain names. This depends on the specific domain name extension.

There are a number of registrars for the popular Com and Net domains and the actual domain records are not available from a single whois server.

Whois lookup for Com and Net Domains

Here is the procedure for looking up the popular top level domains.

• Query whois.crsnic.net (or rs.internic.net) for the domain name.
• Check the returned records to see if the domain is already registered. If it is, look for the authoritative whois server
• Query the authoritative whois server to obtain the actual whois records.

Whois View will perform the above steps automatically and you will be able to obtain the actual whois records straight away.

Whois lookup for other top level domains

The other top level domain registrars maintain their own whois servers. Some of the main domain extensions and the whois servers are listed below.

INFO: whois.afilias.info
BIZ: whois.neulevel.biz
ORG: whois.publicinterestregistry.net
AERO: whois.information.aero
COOP: whois.nic.coop
NAME: whois.nic.name

For more information on the ICANN approved top level domains please visit ICANN TLD Programs.