Whois
A network
tool that lets you obtain information on names from the Network Information
Center.
A Whois request displays a contact name, mailing
address, telephone number and network mailbox for all users and organizations
that are registered with one of the official Whois servers, such as the Internet Network
Information Center (interNIC) database.
You can use the Whois tool to find administrative contacts from a Whois database.
To use the Whois tool, do the following:
- Select the Whois tab.
- Enter in the Query text box a query
text (for example, whitehouse.gov).
Enter the name or ôhandleö (unique identifier assigned to a Whois record) of a person or
an organization. The drop-down list shows
the previous queries entered. The query searches all records of the Whois database for an exact match of the name or handle.
If you donÆt know the name or handle, you can enter a partial query string followed by one or more dots. For example, entering ôMack.ö finds ôMack,ö ôMackall,ö ôMackey.ö
If there is more than one occurrence of the name, Whois returns a summary of each. You can then extract the handle (shown in parentheses) of the name you want more information on and enter it as the
query string, preceded by an exclamation mark, for example ô!ABC.ö
- Set in the Options dialog box any of the options you want to
use.
NetInfo now includes new feature, which will automatically determine the
Whois server to query based upon the country extension found in the query string.
You can uncheck the Autodetect checkbox to force your queries to go to the server specified in Whois
Setup:
whois.internic.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Internet Network Information Center (interNIC).
whois.arin.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the American Registry for Internet Numbers.
whois.nic.gov
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Government-Wide
Registration Service.
whois.nic.mil
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the
Department of Defense Network Information Center.
whois.cdnnet.ca
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the
Canadian Internet Registration Authority.
whois.ripe.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the European
Network Coordination Center.
whois.nic.uk
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the
United Kingdom Network Information Center.
whois.ripn.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the
Russian Network Information Center.
whois.apnic.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Asia Pacific
Network Information Center.
whois.aunic.net
Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Australian
Network Information Center.
Note: You can choose from the current list of known Whois
servers and add a new server to the list.
- Click the Start button.
The Whois client establishes a connection with the specified Whois server. The results of the query appear in the
Response area. If the query finds a single occurrence of the search string (person or organization), it displays the detailed information for that person or organization. If it finds more than one occurrence of the search string, it displays a summary of each record that matches the search string.
Note:
To display help information on using the services that the NIC provides through Whois, send a Whois query with
"help" text.
Whois example:
![](/file/15317/Netwerk_Vol14.iso/netinfo/data1.cab/Help_Files/NetInfo.chm/whois.gif)