Domain Owner Lookuphow To Find An Owner
Securing your own domain online is as simple as choosing a domain name and paying the appropriate fees to register it. But, in some cases, the way to get the perfect domain for your brand or business is to buy one that already exists. Expired domain names are available for anyone to buy, but if your sights are set on one thats currently in use, youll need to find out who owns that domain in order to contact them about buying it. With the help of online domain owner lookup tools and some research, you can find out the legal ownership of a domainincluding your own.
Domain.com has the tools you need to continue building your business into a success.
Domain Ownership Is Important
Your domain name identifies your brand on the world wide web. It’s an important business asset and should be controlled by someone in authority in the business. This is doubly important if you ever want to sell your business. Whoever controls your domain can shut down your website or lose it for you altogether.
Often, the “Registrant” is the person who registered the domain in the first place. It could be an employee, someone who has since left, or your first website designer.
For obvious reasons, it’s important that your business owns its domain name. We have recently come across several businesses who have had problems because they don’t. Here’s just one of our examples, on the Portishead Chamber of Commerce blog.
In one case we came across, a website was hacked.
If A Domain Is Registered By Someone Who Dies
Another situation is when people die. Its going to happen to all of us, so theres no excuse not to be prepared. Digital legacies are becoming an increasingly important estate consideration, especially in this day and age of social media, cloud storage, etc.
In many cases of death, the credit card on file will be canceled, the domain will expire, and the website will go offline. Done. In other cases, well be contacted by people trying to close accounts, but who have no access. If they can access the deceaseds email account, they can send a password reset and log in to close things down, but otherwise authentication can be difficult and upsetting. And if the domain is for a site or enterprise run by more than one person, if one of them dies, you end up in a partner ownership situation, as outlined above.
These situations are unfortunate and awkward for us, and we sympathize greatly with people trying to sort things out. But at the same time we cant abandon our security procedures for any situation. Fussing over password resets or providing identity documentation or other administrivia when youre dealing with grief is the last thing anyone wants to deal with. Be kind to those who will survive you.
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Finding The Domain Owner Name
So how do you find out who is the owner of the domain? There are free online services available that allow you to check the domain owner. With a few simple steps you can obtain all the required domain details by visiting tucows domains, WHOIS.Net, Netim, DomainTools and ICANN WHOIS or you can also use domain name registrars like GoDaddy. You can also . The search will display a list of free online WHOIS services available.
Let us try to understand more about how a domain owner name is assigned. The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers authorizes registrars to issue and make changes to domain names to the general public. Registrant is the domain name owner.
A domain name can have four contact names associated with it. However, only one name can be the actual Registrant or the owner. The owner can either retain all the rights like administrative, billing, and technical or assign a separate person for each. Therefore, you must know the legal domain name owner and the rights that the owner has.
Using The Whois Database
WHOIS is a public database which allows you to search for domain name details. These databases are published and updated by each extensions category . The information provided is sufficient to contact the source who can resolve configuration issues, if any, related to the domain name. The service offered by registrars and registries to provide WHOIS data is called the WHOIS Service. Anyone can use the WHOIS service to search their databases and identify the registered owner or Registrant of a domain name.
WHOIS performs the lookup task seamlessly. It discloses domain owners name and contact details. We, at TechWelkin, have experienced that people approach us with various queries by getting contact details from WHOIS search. If youre a domain owner, you might be concerned about your privacy. The good thing is that you can mask your personal information like the mailing address, phone number and email id to avoid misuse and spamming.
Domain owners who wish to safeguard their personal information can opt for Domain Name Privacy. It is a privacy protection service offered by certain registrars to protect domain name owners personal information. Personal information can be seen by others only if they follow a few privacy rules.
The WHOIS Lookup search is easy to use. Let us now perform a WHOIS lookup.
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What Steps Can I Take To Ensure My Domain Privacy Is Protected
Some Registrars offer privacy protection services that allow their customers to mask their actual contact details in the Whois search result in order to prevent their private contact information falling into the hands of spammers and scammers. Get in touch with your Registrar to learn more about your options.
How To Register Your Own Domain
Its surprisingly simple to buy a domain name. If you want a domain but dont know where the site is going to be hosted yet, or perhaps are working with a web developer who is also providing hosting, I would suggest setting up an account with 123 Reg, I have several domains with them myself. Once the name is registered with them, you can then point it at any servers and the address will resolve to the website you have there.
The alternative, which is even easier, is to set up hosting and your domain with the same registrar, I always recommend using one of the bigger companies, such as Supergreen Hosting, Godaddy, Dreamhost, 1and1 etc. then you can set it up all in one place and the DNS will resolve back to your hosting and website. You can of course change this again in the future if you want to, because you own the domain.
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How To Check Who Owns A Domain Name
Every domain name name must be registered with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers . This organization is responsible for maintaining a global Internet and ensuring that domain names are owned by a single entity. They maintain the WHOIS database which contains the contact information for every domain. You can use the WHOIS database to obtain the name, address, telephone number of both the owner and the administrator of the site.
Where Can I Go If I Get Stuck
You can always ask us, well do our best to advise the best course of action. Weve overseen the domain transfer process countless times, so well quickly be able to advise the best way to proceed. You can also try contacting the registrar in question directly. If youre not sure what to do, please contact us and well let you know what to do.
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Whois Public Domain Info
WHOIS is a database that stores public information on a domains registered users in a way that can be easily read. It basically tells you who is responsible for a domain. Many online registrars will allow you to access and search the WHOIS databases. I use the Godaddy lookup out of habit but any of them should work just fine.
WHOIS will also give you the registrant name of the individual who registered the domain. Now youll be able to know if it was an old web designer, a business partner, or even yourself who set it up. Youll also find the date of creation and expiration date. With this information you can hopefully contact the person who registered it and have them transfer the domain to you. And we all live happily ever after!
If you need to recover a domain account where you lost the password, the WHOIS info will often give the registrant email address which will help you in recovering a password and login from the domain registrar.
Transferring is slightly complicated but I created a video on how to easily transfer domain names that you can find HERE.
Note: Keep in mind that some domain owners pay for privacy to hide the public WHOIS information and provide only proxy info. In that case, youll be out of luck and may just need to wait for the domain to expire so you can register it yourself
For a rundown on best practices when setting up a website, check out my blog post on Website Ownership Fundamentals and feel free to ask any questions you may have below.
Why Is Whois Important And Who Can Use It
The Whois database makes it easy to find a website owner. This may be useful if you need to contact the domain name holder, or if youre a legal team wanting to clarify ownership for a trademark dispute.
Domain buyers and sellers can also benefit by using Whois to view site ownership details fast, which helps the domain purchasing process go smoothly.
If youre interested in acquiring a domain and want to find out if its already been registered, you can use our Whois search tool to check its availability.
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How To Find Out Who The Domain Owner Is
Youve spent time brainstorming domain names. Youve tried different domain suggestion tools. And youve finally figured out the perfect name.
But when you go to register the domain name youre set on, you find that someone has already claimed it. What a disappointment.
Before you give up on that perfect name and start the whole process again from scratch, know there might still be hope.
Registered domain names are sometimes still availableif you know how to find the owner.
People invest in domain names for a number of different reasons. Sometimes, its to start their own website at that domain. Sometimes its purely for investment purposes. And in a few cases, it may be for a website idea that either never comes to fruition, or that falls off the owners radar over time.
If the website youre interested in isnt being actively used and updated, then the owner may be happy to hear from an interested buyer. And even if the owner is clearly using the domain name right now, if youre willing to spend enough to make a sale worth it to them you may still have a chance.
In both cases, you should anticipate spending more for the domain name than if you went with something no one else owns yet. But if youre really set on that domain name, its worth trying your chances.
Some More Registrant Information Domain Server Information Domain Name Record Information
WHOIS performs the required task efficiently, however, at the same time it should be noted that the information available may be exploited or utilized for spam and other purposes. You may end up receiving emails and unnecessary information from different resources and start filling up your inbox. To get rid of this problem, there are certain tools to help protect your privacy.
As in the case of www.DomainSherpa.com, we are able to see only limited information about the actual owner as the information is camouflaged through a privacy protection service called domain name privacy. Many domain name registrars offer domain privacy to mask the actual information of the domain owner. The privacy feature helps display third party information to safeguard your personal information from publically available information. Personal information is collected by the registrar and is accessible only on request by following certain privacy rules and regulations.
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Who Registered Your Domain
To discover who registered your domain, go to the “Whois” website and enter your domain name, e.g. www.bluetree.co.uk.
If the Registrant is not your company, then you should take steps to change it.
If a private individual registers a domain that’s not used for trade, they can pay extra to hide their contact details. This can make things difficult if you want to correct a bad situation. A business cannot hide its details, however.
Whats The Difference Between Hosting And Owning A Domain
Just because a web design agency registers a domain for you doesnt necessarily mean that they own it. Any good webmaster will register the domain in your name, which means they control how the domain works and which servers it points to, but ultimately the ownership is still with you. If the web designer registers it in their own account, then they are hosting it for you, and if they register it in an account that you own then youre hosting it yourself. In either case, the domain should always be registered in your name so that you retain ownership.
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How To Hide Your Information From Whois Lookups
Online privacy is incredibly important and some people do not want their contact details publicly available on the internet. For anyone who does not want to sell their domain or be contacted by those browsing the Whois directory, we highly recommend purchasing Advanced Security for all of your domains, which includes Whois Privacy, Domain Lock Plus, and a free SSL certificate. It masks your contact information and prevents spammers and telemarketers from using your information for no good.
What Is The Difference Between Whois Lookup And A Domain Check
A domain check helps to identify whether or not a particular domain name is available to register. A Whois lookup gives you access to further limited information regarding a registered domain. Should your requested domain name still be available, you can use both the Whois service, as well as carrying out a domain check in order to easily register your desired domain name with IONOS. Furthermore, we recommend suitable domain alternatives in case a particular domain name is registered already. Regardless of whether you use our Whois lookup or domain check tools, our main goal is to offer you the best support possible on your way to your domain name of choice.
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