Probably, not all users know what a WHOIS service and why you need it. But judging by his name «WHO IS» (who is) one can guess that this service is designed to search for someone. If this service is in the network, so he is looking for someone in the network. But WHOIS service is not just for people search, it is designed to search for domain names and information about them. As he arranged and why it is used?

How to use the service WHOIS?

All WHOIS used to search for a specific domain in order to find out whether or not it is free. WHOIS exists in various applications, and conventional cantilever as well as a web service.

WHOIS is a special network application layer protocol that is based on protocols such as TCP (transmission protocol) and sent to the port number 43. This request is sent to a specific web resource, which in turn sends a response to the registration information about the server and its owner.

This protocol is very useful when you need to find the owner of the site, learn what provider serving web site and contact with the administration. Very often, such a service is present on the websites of providers that offer domain names. Before registering a domain, you must make sure if it is available. To do this, go to the website provider or any other site with WHOIS service and enter your preferred domain name. Service will send the corresponding request to the site, which was registered under the given domain and if that domain is registered – the user will answer this web resource for this request.

Usually the answer is specified domain itself, which it recorded the provider and its contact details as well as contact details for the administration of a web resource. Almost every web WHOIS service has the form for communication with the administration of the selected web resource that helps not only to find the owner of the site, but also to contact him. Also in the information specified end date of registration of the domain. If you wish to purchase a particular domain, you can tell when it becomes available and just outbid him.

WHOIS exists as a web service and a separate application. Most of the applications are console and have a very simple device. They only send the corresponding request to the site and receive a response, nothing more. In these console application displays only the information from the given query and there are no extra features like sending an e-mail or the ability to switch to the selected site or the provider website. But they can show more information that some Web sites to this function simply do not handle. Such applications use experienced webmasters and administrators.

For ordinary users console applications can be confusing and not everyone wants to use them. But if you do not want to use a web service, you can simply download any free WHOIS-application. It can also display detailed information about the selected domain name is similar to a console application on will also have a number of different functions that simplify the use and understanding of the application requests.

Why is it needed?

It seems that the answer to this question is obvious – to find the owner of a web site or to determine freely chosen domain name. This web service is at each provider that offers domain names. It is thanks to this service, you can pick up a beautiful and consonant with the domain name. Or you can find out when the lease expires you liked domain and simply outbid him until the former (real) owner does not have time to extend its lease. Using WHOIS you can learn the history of the domain and a site (or sites) located on it earlier. This is very important if you decide to buy up already registered domain, as early as possible at this address has a web site with a bad reputation, which can damage your reputation. You can also check whether to register before the same domain in the future could cause confusion among users.

If you want to find out whom had once belonged to a domain or a website that has usually not many options. If you have changed recently, the data on the website, perhaps can understand more data using the Google cache. The Google cache regularly compile copies of Web pages, which can then be viewed via the link http://google.com/search?q=cache:www.url.com. The Google cache, however, does not constitute an Internet archive as from archive.org, the web pages indexed automatically and regularly and these and the course of time documented literally for years. So who is in Google cache nothing more can also use the Wayback Machine on archive.org or Netcraft, as recently described in this article. Maybe give more details here.

Alternatively, a Whois query for the past be started. Services, which only make use of the data of the respective awarding bodies to help here, of course not, because they always can only report on the current owner. For this purpose, a kind Screenshot of the then WhoIs entry is almost necessary. Therefore you need a service that has at that time read out and filed the whois data. Since this is associated with a rather large expense, there are not many suppliers here.

So has the commercial service DomainTools Whois History a query, which lists any changes to the whois of a domain. DomainTools can though increasingly cost a little so that the access to the Whois equal proposes data from the past with a few dollars on the bill.

There exists only one that I know of an alternative to domain tools, namely the Domain Archive query on who.is. This site also archives regularly data from the whois records, but does not document any change in the whois, must be upheld, the data probably not too often and regularly as DomainTools from. Those who want to get fast times in experience, who has heard a domain three or four years ago, for the service on who.is is just right!