Understanding WHOIS Information

Whois search refers to a query for information about any domain name that has been registered. This information is required to be published by the Registry and Registrar under the ICANN contract.

Terms you’d like to know:

• ICANN is a non-profit organization that overlooks technical management of Domain Names and their IP addresses. ICANN mandates that information for every domain has to be made available via a WHOIS search.
   
• The Registry is an organization that manages the registration of domain names for which it is responsible and controls the policies of domain name registration. Most Registeries do not sell domains directly to end customers.
   
• The Registrar is an organization that sells domain names on behalf of the Registry and it needs to be ICANN accredited.
   
• The Registrant is You, the customer, an individual or organization that registers a domain name.

Whenever a customer registers a domain name, they agree to publish the valid contacts for their domain. This information may be cached by third party whois information providers such as who.is, whois.com, port43whois.com for public access.

What information is visible via a WHOIS Search?

A WHOIS search result will show 4 types of contact details. The Registrant, Administrative, Billing and Technical contact person details. Every TLD -Top Level Domain(.COM .IN .ORG etc) has its own set of policies. So you may not find all TLDs with all 4 types of contacts. This information is published to know the owner of the website(Registrant) along with the Registrar, Date of registration and expiry, domain transfer process, and the DNS details.

The registrar needs to follow up with the registrant for maintaining the accuracy of WHOIS details for the domain name or for any complaints that are reported against the domain from ICANN.