Servage Magazine

Choosing a domain name is one of the first steps toward establishing your digital presence. You’ve considered all of the factors for picking your perfect domain, and you’ve thought one up. You sit down to register your domain and – somebody already own it! What now? Please be prepared and check whether the domain is available before you choose it.

So, how do you tell who is the owner of a domain name?

A WHOIS search can help to discover who is the owner of a domain name. What is a WHOIS search, though? WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase who is) isn’t an acronym, though it may look like one. In fact, it is the system that asks the question, who is responsible for a domain name. These details that are often shown are:

• Owner contact (registrant): Individual or company that owns the domain name.
• Admin contact: If e.g. registered for a company the administration of the domain name might be delegated to a particular individual or department.
• Technical contact: All technical inquiries will be directed to this contact. Servage is the technical contact for all domains which are registered via us.

The system also provides the name of the domain registrar (such as Servage), the status of the domain and important dates like e.g. expiry date. These information are helpful when you are looking into buying a registered domain. If the domain was recently registered, for example, you might have an easier time purchasing that domain from the current owner. However, Whois Domain Privacy protection might block contact information when you’re trying to use a WHOIS lookup to find out who is the owner of a domain name. If Whois Domain Privacy protection is enabled, you will see anonymous data into instead of real data. If you are interessed in buying a domain which is already taken and which run an active Whois privacy, you can always try to find the site on a domain marketplace or auction site. When domains are parked, they usually feature advertisements or a generic page. Sometimes people put up these pages when their domain is listed at auction.

There are several websites available that let you run a WhoIs search. Many specialize in one type of domain name, others can search many types of domain. Here are some examples of Whois search pages:

https://who.is/

https://www.whois.com/

https://www.whois.net/

https://whois.icann.org/en/basics-whois

https://www.denic.de/ (German domains)
https://www.dk-hostmaster.dk/da/sog-domaene (Danish domains)