Whois is a protocol for submitting a query to a database for determining the owner of a domain name, an IP network, or an autonomous system number.

Below is the result of a whois query on wikipedia.org:

Domain ID:D51687756-LROR
Domain Name:WIKIPEDIA.ORG
Created On:13-Jan-2001 00:12:14 UTC
Last Updated On:08-Dec-2004 17:52:24 UTC
Expiration Date:13-Jan-2014 00:12:14 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Register.com Inc. (R71-LROR)
Status:OK
Registrant ID:C3819183-RCOM
Registrant Name:Jimmy Wales
Registrant Organization:Bomis, Inc.
Registrant Street1:4455 Lamont St., Suite 3
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:San Diego
Registrant State/Province:CA
Registrant Postal Code:92109
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.6192739361
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:+1.6192739363
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:jwales@bomis.com
Admin ID:C40903147-RCOM
Admin Name:Jimmy Wales
Admin Organization:Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Admin Street1:3911 Harrisburg St. NE
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:St. Petersburg
Admin State/Province:FL
Admin Postal Code:33703
Admin Country:US
Admin Phone:+1.7276441636
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:jwales@bomis.com
Tech ID:C40903148-RCOM
Tech Name:Jimmy Wales
Tech Organization:Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
Tech Street1:3911 Harrisburg St. NE
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:St. Petersburg
Tech State/Province:FL
Tech Postal Code:33703
Tech Country:US
Tech Phone:+1.7276441636
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:jwales@bomis.com
Name Server:ZWINGER.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
Name Server:GUNTHER.BOMIS.COM 

Problems

• Privacy. Registrants contact details are easily accessible to anyone on the internet.
• Spam. Spammers often harvest plain-text email addresses from WHOIS requests.

See also

• Top-level domain

External links

• RFC3912, Whois protocol specification
• Internic Whois, run a Whois query for generic top-level domains
• Whois servers, Global Whois service with lookup for all GTLDs and CCTLDs
• Whois, Web based Whois service for generic and all available country-code (two-letter) top-level domains.
• Whois, Whois archive, 5 years of whois history on domains under com/net/org TLDs
• Whois Service, Provides users the ability to run a Whois on a specific domain.
• Whois and Reverse Whois, Complete Whois and Reverse Whois queries.