How Do I Know Where My Domain Is Registered

The Geek Way: Start With The Domain Name

First, always start from the beginning. Start with the domain. Do a whois to find out which name servers are being used with this domain.

You will see this in the results:

Name Server: NS.RACKSPACE.COMName Server: NS2.RACKSPACE.COM

There are 2 or more name servers listed usually as there is a primary server and secondary server. Very often, where you have your DNS is where you have other things like your website hosting and email, so this is a valuable clue.

I also have an article here about how to tell who is hosting your website and you might want to read that one as well.

Can We Keep Our Whois Data Private

In most cases, yes. When you purchase a domain either through a registrar or web hosting company you can pay an extra fee to keep your WHOIS data private. The fee typically runs around $10-20 per year, per domain.

However some domain extensions, .us is one example, do not allow private registration.

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Set Up The Blank / Naked Version Of Your Domain

When we think of the web, we tend to assume all websites start with the www prefix. However, the chances are you probably visit websites on a regular basis without using www at all.

For example, you can visit LCN by either using www.lcn.com or simply lcn.com the latter address without the www is often called a naked domain.

What is actually happening here is lcn.com is merely redirecting to our proper www.lcn.com address. However, without setting this up, users will just get an error page when visiting your sites naked domain variant and this isnt a good experience for anyone.

lcn.com naked domain redirecting to www.lcn.com

You should be able to do this easily enough at most domain providers. Naturally, here at LCN its super straight-forward.

Simply find your domain name from the Domains section of your account, look for DNS settings, and from here selectAdd an A record.

When adding your new A record, ensure you leave the hostname field blank, and add the IP address for your server .

As with everything at LCN, if you get stuck, just give us a call or get us on LiveChat and well have the problem fixed in minutes.

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How To Find Your Registrar

• Its likely you have received invoices for your domain name by email it is best to search your email history for these emails to find out the registrar/company you are using. Try searching for your full domain name as a starting point. You should have an email from them with the original account creation and billing information which you can use to log in and gain access.
• Failing this you can do a WHOIS lookup, the easiest way to do this is through the lookup website , enter your top-level domain name, for example, mydomain.com and click search. Look for the Registrar information this shows the company that the domain is currently hosted with. If this looks foreign check the Admin, Technical and Billing contacts and email addresses for any company name that looks familiar. You may also find a colleagues details which you can use to track things down further.
• Some WHOIS lookups dont return the results you might be looking for, instead, they return a link to a provider website where you can then search for the specific details. For example, most Australian .au domain names are like this. In the public WHOIS results, you might receive a message like Visit whois.ausregistry.com.au for Web-based WhoIs which requires you to go to that website to perform the search and get the full results. It just depends where your domain is registered and how much information they make publicly available.

How Do I Check If A Domain Name Is Available

The Name.com platform lets you perform a thorough domain name search so you can find out if the name you want for your website is available and for sale. There are a couple of ways to see if the website name you want is available. The easiest method is to type the domain name you’re interested in into our search box and well tell you if the domain is available for registration. You can also search for the domain in Whois Lookup.

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Whats The Difference Between A Domain Name Registrar And A Website Host

There are usually two parts to owning a website:

When someone types your domain name into a web browser , the internet knows to serve your website files stored on your web host to that visitor. Thats because youve set up your DNS to associate your domain name with that web host .

Some companies like GoDaddy will offer both domain names and web hosting. More commonly, most people buy their domain name from one provider and get their web hosting from another company. And, yes, that means you will be billed for your domain name and your website hosting separately. Typical pricing for domain names ranges from $10 to $25 a year, and web hosting ranges from $10 to $50 a month.

Final takeaway: Dont be shy. Call your web host and registrar. Theyll be more than happy to educate you on how all this works. Also, calling late at night is a good idea because you wont have to wait on hold.

Domain Name Or Website

The first thing to figure out is, are we talking about the domain name or website? Theres a difference.

Your domain is registered somewhere, the DNS is somewhere, the website is somewhere and the email is somewhere. Yes, there are 4 things:

Dont worry too much about this many times, either all or a bunch of these things are hosted at the same place. The main point here is that they can be at different places, so dont see one thing, make an assumption, and be wrong.

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How Do I Find The Best Available Domain Name

If you have an idea for the name you want, start by searching for that. If the name isnt available, well show you our best recommendations for similar, available domain names. Or, if you dont have a specific domain name in mind, just type in keywords that describe your website or project, hit search, and check out the suggestions.

How To Find A Domain Owner

I need to contact the owner of a domain name, how can i do?If domain privacy is on, then generally a whois lookup is more or less useless to find the domain owners contact information.If thats the case, youll probably want to ask them to take a look at the domain.If the domain was initially registered publicly and then had whois protection added, you will.

If the domain you wanted has privacy, dont fret.If you are looking for a domain, whois domain lookup can tell you if its already owned by another entity and provide contact information for the.If you know the domain name of a website then there are some ways through which you can find domain registration details.If you need to contact the owner of a gtld domain on our accreditation, please use the below form:

In order to do this, youll need to do a little bit of research.In some cases, additional information such as a domain names registration and renewal dates are included, as well as any technical and administrative contact details.It allows the public to check whether a specific domain name is still available or not and to obtain information related to the registration records of existing domain names.Look up the whois history in domaintools.

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What Is A Domain Registrar

A domain registrar is a company that has been certified by ICANN and given permission to buy and sell domains to businesses and end users.

Domain names can be purchased through domain registrars, though many businesses purchase them through the same company that provides their web hosting. In these cases, the web hosting company also acts as the registrar.

Alternatively, some companies host their websites on their own servers, either on-site or in the cloud. These companies dont need web hosting services, so can purchase domains directly from one of many domain registrars.

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Tips When Making Your Ca Purchase

Always register the domain name yourself

Never let third parties, such as a marketing agency, complete a registration on your behalf. This can become a problem if you part ways and no longer have access to the account managing your domain name.

Register common variations of your name

If your company or product is commonly misspelled, register the alternate domain names and forward them to your primary website. This helps protect your brand identity and ensures no one else can register these domain names.

Provide accurate contact information

CIRA and your registrar will use the contact information provided during the registration process to communicate important information about your domain name.

Register a .CA with French-accented characters

The .CA domain registry supports French accented characters within domain names: é, ë, ê, è, â, à , æ, ô, , ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, ÿ. When a .CA domain name is registered, all variations with accented characters are reserved for the original registrant exclusively.

Choose a registration term length that works for you

You can register a domain name from one to 10 years at a time. A longer registration period, combined with setting up auto-renewal with your registrar, can help you ensure your .CA domain name remains registered and active.

Protect your domain

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My Information Doesn’t Match The Whois Results How Do I Change My Whois Information

According to the rules established by ICANN, Registrars are expected to maintain the accuracy of the domain name owner’s contact details in the Whois database. Most Registrars use the details provided by the buyer at the time the Domain was registered.

In case your information does not match the Whois results, you can change this information by getting in touch with your Registrar who will be able to assist you in updating your information. Once this information is updated, the Whois record will also update accordingly. On an average, it can take 24-24 hours for this change to reflect in the Whois database.

My Information Doesnt Match The Whois Results How Do I Change My Whois Information

According to the rules established by ICANN, Registrars are expected to maintain the accuracy of the domain name ownerâs contact details in the Whois database. Most Registrars use the details provided by the buyer at the time the Domain was registered.

In case your information does not match the Whois results, you can change this information by getting in touch with your Registrar who will be able to assist you in updating your information. Once this information is updated, the Whois record will also update accordingly. On an average, it can take 24-24 hours for this change to reflect in the Whois database.

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Viewing The Status Of A Domain Registration

ICANN, the organization that maintains a central database of domain names, has developed a set of domain name status codes that tell you the status of a variety of operations, for example, registering a domain name, transferring a domain name to another registrar, renewing the registration for a domain name, and so on. All registrars use this same set of status codes.

To view the status code for your domains, perform the following procedure.

To view the status of a domain

Consider A New Domain Name

Theres a decent chance that even if you take all of these steps, the person that owns that domain now either wont want to sell, or will only accept a higher price than you can pay.

In that case, youre far from the first person to have to come up with an alternative to the first name you set your heart on. Consider different domain name extensionsif the .com is taken, the .net or .co may still be available. And brainstorm new domain name ideas. You may just come up with something you like even more than your original idea.

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My Website States It Has Been Suspended

After registering a new domain, a verification email is sent to the email address you provided during the Google workspace account creation process. You have 15 days to click the verification link before the domain gets suspended.

Any future updates to the registrant’s contact information, such as the first name, last name, or email address, will re-trigger this verification process.

Note: If your domain was suspended, once the verification is complete, it can take up to 48 hours for your domain to become active again.

Use Some Apple Terminal / Linux Tools

Heres the geeky way using the Terminal app on a Mac or it works in Linux. Most IT people live in Windows land and dont have access to great tools like this. I dont know how many emails Ive received from supposed IT People asking me to tell them the IP address of a website. Its public info you just need to look it up but they dont know how. Heres now

Do a dig. Type in dig and then the domain name :

TonyMacbookPro:~ tony$ dig tonyherman.com< < > >   DiG 9.8.3-P1 < < > >   tonyherman.com  global options: +cmd  Got answer:  -> >  HEADER< <  - opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 7602  flags: qr rd ra  QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0  QUESTION SECTION: tonyherman.com.       IN   A  ANSWER SECTION:tonyherman.com.     86400   IN   A   67.192.51.67  Query time: 71 msec  SERVER: 10.0.1.1#53  WHEN: Mon May  2 20:50:17 2016  MSG SIZE  rcvd: 48

And then take that result and do a dig -x on it to find out more

TonyMacbookPro:~ tony$ dig -x 67.192.51.67< < > >   DiG 9.8.3-P1 < < > >   -x 67.192.51.67  global options: +cmd  Got answer:  -> >  HEADER< <  - opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 24104  flags: qr rd ra  QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0  QUESTION SECTION: 67.51.192.67.in-addr.arpa.   IN   PTR  ANSWER SECTION:67.51.192.67.in-addr.arpa. 3600   IN   PTR   web2.webstix.com.  Query time: 37 msec  SERVER: 10.0.1.1#53  WHEN: Mon May  2 20:50:23 2016  MSG SIZE  rcvd: 73

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How To Register Your Websites Domain Name

The first domain name in history was Symbolics.com, which was registered on March 15, 1985. Today, there are more than 300 million domain names, with millions more added each year. A domain name is essentially the address that visitors will type into their browser address bar to arrive at your website.

Domain names allow users to easily connect to other computer IP addresses by typing in an address like Google.com instead of Googles numerical IP address of 74.125.239.116. In other words, domain names make our lives a lot easier.

Your domain name is an important part of establishing your brand. No two domain names can be exactly alike, although they can be similar. Ideally, your domain name will be unique and distinctive, so users dont confuse it with other domain names or different businesses.

You might be wondering isnt a domain name, then, simply a website? Although they are similar, domain names and websites have important differences. Your domain name is the address for your website it is what people use to find your website, which consists of pages, images, and other files.

Choosing and registering a domain name is often the first step when building a website. Read on to learn how to register a domain name.

Why Do You Need To Register Your Domain

With billions of people using the Internet each day, its important that everything is handled in an organized way. The concept of domain name registration has been around for many years, and its what determines who owns the rights to which domains. Without this process, it would be impossible for the Internet to function properly.

When a domain name is registered, its filed with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers . This is the organization that has been tracking who owns which domains since 1998. While registered domain names are filed away with this organization, you pay a third-party provider to handle the actual registration process.

Once you register your domain, you are listed as the owner of it for a set amount of time. In most cases, you can purchase domain names for a period of at least one year. After the year has expired, you need to renew your ownership. Some domain name registration companies allow you to pay for multiple years at a time if youre sure that you want to maintain ownership for a long period of time.

Keep in mind that if you fail to renew your domain, you lose your ownership of it. This means someone else could purchase the domain name and be able to replace your website with something different.

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Can I Look Up Org Info Biz Us Or Tel Domains

DOMAINS

If Its Not A Parked Domain Find The Owners Contact Information

If you find that the domain has a fully built-out site, then its not a parked domain. The domain is being used by a real business. Luckily, you still have recourse if you want to buy the domain.

First, determine how likely it is for the owner to sell the domain to you. Does the website look like its been recently updated? Is it under construction? How many snapshots does it have on the Wayback Machine? If the website looks outdated or has just a few Wayback Machien snapshots, its more likely youll successfully start a conversation with the owner.

For example, the domain mellowbee.com looks like a good candidate because its had only a few Wayback Machine snapshots over the years and the current website is made up of one page.

The owners email is at the bottom, so its easy to reach out.

If you cant find the owners contact information on the site, try searching for the owner through ICANN. Keep in mind that a good portion of domain name owners hide their contact information for privacy reasons.

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