Whois Lookup Guide — How to Find Domain Owner and Registration Info

WHOIS is one of the internet's oldest protocols — it lets you query a database to find out who owns a domain name or IP address. This guide explains how to read WHOIS records and what you can discover from them.

What Information Does WHOIS Reveal?

Domain Name:    example.com
Registrar:      GoDaddy LLC
Registered:     1995-08-14
Expires:        2026-08-13       ← renew before this date!
Updated:        2024-01-10
Name Servers:   ns1.example.com
                ns2.example.com
Status:         clientTransferProhibited

Registrant:     [redacted — WHOIS privacy enabled]
Admin Email:    [redacted]

WHOIS Privacy Protection

Most registrars offer WHOIS privacy (also called domain privacy) which replaces your personal contact details with the registrar's proxy information. This prevents spam and protects your identity. It is enabled by default on most modern domain registrations.

Practical Use Cases

Checking domain expiry

Before a domain expires, someone else can register it. WHOIS lets you check when any domain is due to expire — useful for monitoring competitor domains or your own portfolio.

Finding a site's nameservers

WHOIS shows which DNS nameservers a domain uses — useful when diagnosing DNS propagation issues or verifying a domain has been transferred correctly.

IP address ownership

Enter an IP address instead of a domain to see which organisation (ISP, cloud provider, company) owns that IP block.