Whois The Webmaster Here?
Finding Information on Web sites
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Have you gotten email from some place that you don't understand? By that, I mean, email informing you of a membership that you signed up for and have no memory of doing so. Have you tried to unsubscribe to something and been unsuccessful, and want to know who these jokers are who are sending all this junk to you?
This is how I research a company. At least, this is how I find out who is behind the domain. I do a Whois search on the domain name, to find its owner and contact information.
It is an easy task, and takes just a few minutes. You just have to know where to look.
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Have you gotten email from some place that you don't understand? By that, I mean, email informing you of a membership that you signed up for and have no memory of doing so. Have you tried to unsubscribe to something and been unsuccessful, and want to know who these jokers are who are sending all this junk to you?
This is how I research a company. At least, this is how I find out who is behind the domain. I do a Whois search on the domain name, to find its owner and contact information.
It is an easy task, and takes just a few minutes. You just have to know where to look.
I use Network Solutions' whois lookup tool.
http://networksolutions.com/whois
Just type in the domain name that you want information on, and it will return a result that provides you with the owner, technical contact, administrative contact, etc..
As an example, here is the information from Whois, for my domain, tlcpromotions.net
So, if you have a problem with a web site, do a whois lookup and contact the site owner. If you get no remedy there then you can contact the hosting company and complain to them. You will be able to locate the hosting company by going to the site of the listed registrar, and doing another whois search on their site.
I recently had to do this when someone bought a domain and set up a web page defaming me. They used my name for the domain, and when I told them to take it down, they ignored me. So, I contacted the hosting company, and they took the page down and redirected the URL to their home age.
There is a feature to domain registration that is designed to protect the identify of the registrant; referred to as Whois Guard, but I think that is a feature that is more damaging than helpful. I do not use it for any of my domains, because I want people to know who I am and that they can trust me. When I come across a domain using this guarding feature, I am immediately suspicious of it. Why are they hiding their information?
The way I look at it is this: If you're building a web site, one that is ethical, why would you want to hide who you are? This feature isn't free, and if someone is willing to pay to hide their contact information, then I probably don't want to be associated with them.
Use this information to avoid scams. When in doubt, check it out. Run a whois lookup on web sites wanting to do any kind of business with you. Don't get scammed like I recently did, and don't allow domain owners to spam you. Fight back! If you've got a legitimate complaint, file it with the site owner and their hosting company. Don't forget to include all email headers when sending in your complaint. Credible web site owners will take care of the problem immediately.
Copyright © 2008
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine
About the Author:
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and Marketing Information. Serving online professionals since 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine
http://www.ads-on-q.com/intro
Author of: My Journey A Lifetime of Verse http://stores.lulu.com/triizine
Internet Marketing Mavens
http://internetmarketing-mavens.com
Keywords: whois, networksolutions, domain, spam
Just type in the domain name that you want information on, and it will return a result that provides you with the owner, technical contact, administrative contact, etc..
As an example, here is the information from Whois, for my domain, tlcpromotions.net
Registration Service Provided By: NameCheap.com
Contact: support@NameCheap.com
Visit: http://www.namecheap.com/
Domain name: TLCPROMOTIONS.NET
Registrant Contact:
TLC Promotions
Trina Sonnenberg
P.O. Box 481
440 Fox St
Nucla, CO 81424
US
Administrative Contact:
TLC Promotions
Trina Sonnenberg (admin @ tlcpromotions.net)
+1.9708647799
Fax: +1.9708647797
P.O. Box 481
440 Fox St
Nucla, CO 81424
US
Technical Contact:
TLC Promotions
Trina Sonnenberg (admin @ tlcpromotions.net)
+1.9708647799
Fax: +1.9708647797
P.O. Box 481
440 Fox St
Nucla, CO 81424
US
Status: Locked
Name Servers:
NS1.ADSONQ.COM
NS2.ADSONQ.COM
Creation date: 27 Nov 2002 22:22:15
Expiration date: 27 Nov 2009 22:22:15
So, if you have a problem with a web site, do a whois lookup and contact the site owner. If you get no remedy there then you can contact the hosting company and complain to them. You will be able to locate the hosting company by going to the site of the listed registrar, and doing another whois search on their site.
I recently had to do this when someone bought a domain and set up a web page defaming me. They used my name for the domain, and when I told them to take it down, they ignored me. So, I contacted the hosting company, and they took the page down and redirected the URL to their home age.
There is a feature to domain registration that is designed to protect the identify of the registrant; referred to as Whois Guard, but I think that is a feature that is more damaging than helpful. I do not use it for any of my domains, because I want people to know who I am and that they can trust me. When I come across a domain using this guarding feature, I am immediately suspicious of it. Why are they hiding their information?
The way I look at it is this: If you're building a web site, one that is ethical, why would you want to hide who you are? This feature isn't free, and if someone is willing to pay to hide their contact information, then I probably don't want to be associated with them.
Use this information to avoid scams. When in doubt, check it out. Run a whois lookup on web sites wanting to do any kind of business with you. Don't get scammed like I recently did, and don't allow domain owners to spam you. Fight back! If you've got a legitimate complaint, file it with the site owner and their hosting company. Don't forget to include all email headers when sending in your complaint. Credible web site owners will take care of the problem immediately.
Copyright © 2008
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine
About the Author:
Trina L.C. Sonnenberg
Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Your Trusted Source for Internet Business and Marketing Information. Serving online professionals since 2001. ISSN# 1555-2276
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine
http://www.ads-on-q.com/intro
Author of: My Journey A Lifetime of Verse http://stores.lulu.com/triizine
Internet Marketing Mavens
http://internetmarketing-mavens.com
Keywords: whois, networksolutions, domain, spam
Comments
Good article. I don't understand why anyone with a legitimate site would want to hide their information either. Good idea - just stay away from them.
Lois
Excellent article!
VERY useful info -- this is the first time I've heard of http://networksolutions.com...
I am going to share this with lots of people!
Thank you!
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