WHOIS Reports

WHOIS is a response protocol that is widely used for querying databases in order to determine the registrant or assignee of Internet resources, such as a domain name, an IP address etc.

When a domain is registered, the name and contact details of the domain holder along with other details like registration date, IP address, name server details etc are entered into a database called the WHOIS database.

The WHOIS database is accessible to all and at all times. Query services are known as WHOIS lookup and many websites offer this as a free service. One of such website is .com

Getting a whois report

Open this website in your browser:

http://greatstatistics.com/whois.php

Fill in the website in the empty field and hit the Whois button. If you did this right you should see a report like this.

There will be four options available.

· DNS Records shows DNS lookup analysis for greatstatistics.com. The Record gives you the information of greatstatistics.com Ip address, name servers, and the state of authority (SOA) records.

· WHOIS information will give you details such as Registration, Domain Name,Registrant, Creation Date, Expiration Date, Domain servers in listed order, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing, Contact, Status.

· WEBSEARCH Lists all the related sites

· Last option lists the details of Whois Data, Website Keywords and SEO Stats,Related Site Information,Related Websites for Greatstatistics.com.

A WHOIS lookup is useful when you want to

• check the availability of a new domain name
• find or contact a particular domain name holder
• check the expiry date of a registered domain name
• trace the identity of a spammer etc.

The downside of all this (for a domain holder) is that there is a lot of personal information that is available to the public through the WHOIS system. This provides ample opportunity for spamming, identity thefts and the likes. Telemarketers, spammers, stalkers and identity thieves often scour the WHOIS database for potential victims.

There could be a number of other reasons (including business) why a domain name holder may not want his details publicly visible in the WHOIS database for every domain he owns. All of these could be valid ones too. All the same, in this age of ever increasing cybercrimes, security considerations alone should be enough to tilt your decision in favor of hiding from the WHOIS.

Hiding yourself from this public database is in no way illegal. You can always use a proxy server or opt for private domain registration to conceal yourself from the WHOIS lookup system. Your domain registrar will be able to provide you specific information on how this is can be implemented.