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 Can You Protect Your Information
To combat the negative things that can happen when your private information is published, registrars usually offer an optional WHOIS privacy service. Such services allow the registrar to act as a proxy of the registrant. They publish the proxy contact information on the WHOIS directory, and keep the registrants information private.
Ideally, you should purchase this kind of service when you register your domain. This prevents the information from getting indexed or cached by WHOIS look-up websites and search engines. However, it can be purchased any time after the domain is registered. The service GoDaddy offers is called Private Registration.
Its also important to note that not every type of domain is eligible for this privacy service. Some domain extensions dont allow registrants to use a proxy. Others provide their own privacy service. A good rule of thumb is if privacy isnt offered when you purchase the domain, it will either not allow a proxy or will have an alternative service.
Questions? Feel free to reach out to our amazing help and customer support team. Were here to help!
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Who Can See My Information
Everyone can see your information. The name, address and phone number you submit when you register your domain is publicly accessible by anyone at any time. This is good if you are trying to sell your domain name, but bad news if your name and contact info is collected by a spammer, hacker or identity thief.
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Difference Between Website Hosting And A Domain Name Registry
Weve described a way to check website hosting whereabouts for free. But you may wonder how a website hosting is different from a domain name registry. Lets make it clear.
A domain name registry is a database with all domain names and the associated information. Why do we need domain names in the first place? Each website has its unique ID called an IP address. That long string of numbers isnt easy to remember. A unique domain name is associated with the IP address. It serves as a human-compatible shortcut a user can memorize and easily refer to. A domain name is what people use to find your website. If you are looking for domain names for your business, you may use our Domain Availability Checker.
Website hosts store, serve, and process files for many websites. When you use web hosting, you lease space on the servers to house your sites files and make them available for the visitors. If a website is a shop, then a website hosting company is a shopping center, providing you with all the necessities.
Find A Domain Using Godaddys Whois Domain Lookup
With over 77 million domain names under management, GoDaddy is one of the worlds oldest and largest domain name registrars. They have affordable prices and a large selection of domain name extensions.
To find out who owns a domain name, use the GoDaddy WHOIS Database tool. It functions similarly to the previous tools.
Enter the domain name into the WHOIS database lookup tool, and the tool will return the required domain name details.
Youll notice that the results are similar to those obtained using the previous tools.
Trying the domain name search with multiple tools, on the other hand, can be beneficial. You can get more precise information if the domain is hosted by a specific registrar.
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What Are Domains Urls And Websites
Something you may be asking yourself is, What is a domain name? Its a word we often hear thrown around in relation to websites, but we dont often know exactly what the word entails. In fact, it can be easy to assume that a domain is something its not, like a URL or a website.
For that reason, one of the best ways to understand domains is to look at them in comparison to those two things. Below, well talk about each one.
What is a website domain?
To put it simply, a domain is the name of a website. Websites can be identified with IP addresses, but those arent convenient for humans to remember, so domains are used to make it easier to keep track of website names.
An example of what a domain name looks like is walmart.com. The equivalent for a physical store would be the store name.
What is a website URL?
While domains only consist of the websites name, URLs provide the address for each individual page. Domains are included in URLs, but they arent the same thing.
URLs consist of the full line of text that you see in the address bar when you visit a website. An example of a URL would be . The domain walmart.com is part of it, but it also includes additional information to direct the browser to the order-tracking page specifically.
If the physical store equivalent of a domain is the store name, the URL is the stores street address.
What is a website?
Opportunities With Expiring Domains
In case you didnt know, there are hundreds of high quality domains expiring every day. Domains expire because individuals or businesses simply forget to renew or they decide to let the domain go. This represents a significant opportunity to purchase valuable domains at an extremely low price.
Use the Who.is tools to identify and register expiring domains and recently expired domains without spending all day doing it. You can view up to six expiring TLDs . Search a keyword phrase and filter the results by character count, include hyphens or numbers, and even view domains that have hundreds of existing backlinks which can be extremely valuable for your efforts with search engine optimization . You would be amazed at some of the domains you could register today!
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What Is A Domain Name Anyway
A domain name It is a unique identifier – combination of letters and/or numbers – which identifies a specific website or computer on the Internet.
There are three parts of a domain name: Top-level, second level, and third level. The top level refers to the end of the domain and identifies the type of organization. A second level domain is the common name identifier such as Google and identifies the organizations website. The third level domain is at the beginning of the domain name and identifies a particular host server.
With the wide variety of domains available, and the complexity of finding that perfect domain, make your domain search and WHOIS lookup simpler today with Who.is!
Using Network Solutions To Locate A Domain Domain Lookup And Whois
With over 7 million domain names registered, Network Solutions is one of the worlds largest domain name registrars. This service allows you to register a large number of popular domain extensions.
They also provide nearly everything youll need to get your WordPress small business website up and running, such as web hosting, security tools, and SEO services, among other things.
The WHOIS lookup and domain lookup tools can help you figure out who owns a domain name.
Simply type in the domain youre looking for and hit Search.
The tool will then show you any domain registration information that is available.
Only if the domain is registered with Network Solutions will detailed WHOIS information be displayed.
Network Solutions, on the other hand, offers a one-of-a-kind add-on service that allows you to buy a domain name without revealing your identity.
If you decide to use this service, simply click the Backorder button, pay a deposit, and their team will begin working on your order.
This is a great way to buy a domain name from an owner without having to do all of the legwork.
Note: If youre buying a new domain name, use our Network Solutions coupon code to save 25% on your purchase.
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Learn Everything About A Domain By Using Our Whois Lookup
WHOIS is an internet protocol which can be used to look up who owns which online resources such as domain names and IP addresses, at any given time. It is thanks to WHOIS lookup, that you may find out when a domain was created, when its set to expire, who owns it and how to contact them. Learn how to use our WHOIS lookup a simple yet very useful online domain lookup tool.
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One: Visit The Website
In cases where the owner bought the domain as an investment, theyll make it easy for you to contact them. So start by pulling up the website to see what shows up.
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They may say outright that the domain is for sale, and include contact information or a form you can fill out. Or in some cases where the domain is in active use, youll be able to find contact information on the websites Contact or About page.
If youre lucky enough that this step does the trick and you find the domain owner, you can skip the next two steps.
Search The Icann Records
While registering a domain name for your website, you may have noticed that youre required to enter basic website-related details. These may include your identification details, administrative or technical information, and more.
WHOIS is a comprehensive data repository containing website ownership details. It is the brainchild of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers a non-profit organisation that maintains, coordinates, and updates this information system.
You can use a lookup table to search through this public directory and map the website host using the Registration Data Access Protocol .
All you need to do is visit lookup.icann.org and enter the URL of your website. Youll be presented with a list of information, including the web host details. Alternatively, you can run the whois < website.com> command in the command prompt to access this information.
What does the WHOIS information contain?
Name of the Hosting Provider
The WHOIS details address your immediate question who is hosting this website/domain? Itll contain the name of the company managing the server. Itll also include the contact details of the hosting provider.
IP Address
Every device that connects to the internet has a unique Internet Protocol address or IP linked to it. As such, the WHOIS information will also contain the IP address of the server hosting the website.
Owner Details
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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.
How To Update Your Whois Information
You should always keep your WHOIS information updated to comply with ICANN rules about domain ownership. That means providing accurate contact information through which you can receive correspondence from your domain registrars.
You can update the information about your domains easily on the Hostinger control panel. You only need to log into your hPanel account and update the Domains section.
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A Paid Tool For Tougher To Find Info: Domainiq
Whether youve hit a brick wall, or youre simply happy to pay to take a shortcut, or this is a problem you hit regularly & the time saving and extra info is worth it, our favourite paid domain hunting tool is DomainIQ.
DomainIQ is a tool from Intelium Corp .
DomainIQ offers a huge range of features aimed at helping you to find out who owns a particular domain, or which domains a particular person owns.
Heres an example of two of the primary features of the tool. Firstly, the core overview report for a domain :
You can also see there at the top, the tabs Portfolio, Whois , Whois History , and Related Domains.
Whois History is perhaps the most useful of those. Heres an example:
Obviously the example weve used is Samsung, but in the case of a privately owned domain this can be extremely useful for finding out who owned the domain in the past, or simply for searching back prior to a domain falling under a privacy protection system.
Aside from the above, the core set of features is as follows:
Most of these features are available with every level of access, but with limitations around how frequently you can use them:
Outside of these core features, there are also many others. For example, the Snapshot History tool has a database of historical snapshots for most websites over a certain size. This is sometimes useful for seeing older versions of sites, from which you can sometimes get contact info:
What If You Keep Your Whois Data Private
If you keep your registration data private, you should offer some other way for the public to contact you. You can do this by publishing general contact information somewhere on your website. You can choose to include:
- Business contact information: A must-have for local businesses, but important for all, contact information helps customers and prospective customers get in touch.
- Webmaster/IT contact information: This makes it easy for visitors to report website problems, and have them go straight to your IT team
- Corporate identity: If your company owns multiple sites or brands, identifying the parent corporation on each lets visitors know when theyre on one of your sites.
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You May Be Curious Who Is The Website Owner Or Domain Owner
When we first try to search for a domain, our mind will automatically pick up the easiest name to remember. Due to the internet world booming started from the year 1999 or 2000, most of the nice .COM / .Net domain name has been secured by earlier internet adopter. The first steps to launch a website choosing a domain name and then finding a suitable hosting plan.
However, choosing the perfect domain name can take a slightly longer time.
Youve spent most of the time for the names, you also tried different domain suggestion tools, and youve finally found the perfect one. You are about to buy your domain and found out that its already been registered by someone.
If you still cant resist owning the domain name. Dont stop here, you can do some hard work by contacting the domain owner.
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Why Search For A Domain Owner
The most obvious reason to locate a domain owner is to try to purchase the domain, but that isnt the only one. If a site claims to be a legitimate one owned by a major corporation but appears suspicious, checking its ownership is a way to verify its authenticity. Likewise, if a website has no contact information on its homepage or a contact page, a visitor could track down its owners in order to contact them with questions about the sites products or servicesor to report a technical problem.
Another reason to check domain ownership information is to safeguard the security of your own site against incorrect or incomplete contact information. Looking up the domain ownership records on an existing site allows owners to ensure that their information is correct and that nothing has been changed without permission. Searches for domain ownership can be accomplished through public WHOIS databases, website searches, and even email, depending on the reasons for conducting the search.
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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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Migrate Your Site To The New Domain
Once youve secured ownership of the domain in question, youll want to migrate your existing site to that domain name.
If you build your website on a platform like Shopify, you can migrate to or from pretty much any online site builder. There are several options for migrating a site to Shopify, each being a relatively simple process.
Learn more: Get the features you need to grow your businessand the support to switch smoothly with Shopify website migration.
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