Hosting

If you need information on a domain then a 'Whois lookup' is the quickest way to find it.

With whois you can find out if a domain is registered, who owns and hosts a domain, direct contact details, when the domain was last renewed and when it's due to expire.

There are many sites that let you to run a whois lookup, we recommend Whois-search.

This guide will focus on how to use Whois-search but the same instructions apply to most other whois sites.

• Whois on a .uk domain
• Whois on a non .uk domain
• Using whois to check if a domain exists

Whois on a .uk domain

In this example we'll run a check on mybroadbandspeed.co.uk

1. Enter the domain you want to check into the box and press Go.

2. You'll be shown all available information on the domain:

1. Contact Information - Here you can see the Registrant's name, type and address
2. Registrar - This shows the company that the domain is registered with and its IPSTAG. If a domain is with us the TAG will be FORCE9
3. Relevant Dates - See when the domain was registered and when it's due to expire
4. Registration Status - See the current status of the domain
5. Name Servers - The name servers show you who currently hosts the domain. Our name servers are NS1.FORCE9.NET and NS2.FORCE9.NET

Whois on a non .uk domain

The information is presented differently for other domain types. For this second example we'll run a check on mybroadbandspeed.com.

1. Registrar details - This shows which registrar owns the domain. If we have full control of a domain this will be listed as Enom
2. Contact Information - Here you can see the Administrative and Technical Contact details for the domain
3. Status - The domain's current status is shown here, this domain would need unlocking before a transfer could happen
4. Name Servers - The name servers show you who currently hosts the domain. Our name servers are NS1.FORCE9.NET and NS2.FORCE9.NET
5. Relevant Dates - See when the domain was registered and when it's due to expire

Using whois to check if a domain exists

If you're looking to register a new domain you can use whois to check if someone else has beaten you to it.

1. Enter the domain you want to check into the box and press Go.

2. If the domain exists you'll see its registration information as shown in the previous section.

If you see a note similar to this then your domain does not exist and you are ok to register it:

This page last updated 26th February 2009