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WHOIS basic instructions

Introduction

The .uk WHOIS is a service that you can use to check whether or not a .uk domain name has been registered.  If the domain name you search for has already been registered, the WHOIS will provide information about the domain name registration.

Nominet provides this service as we operate a publicly-available registry on behalf of all Internet users. For the benefit of the whole community information released via the WHOIS and other methods is very important.

The WHOIS is available to everyone (subject to the terms of use) and only shows the name of the registrant and their address, as held on our register, if the registrant has given consent for the details to be disclosed.  This is a view of a register and not a directory to allow you to contact them via email.  Therefore, the WHOIS does not give email addresses of users, nor does it disclose fax or phone numbers.  It is not possible to use the WHOIS to find out who owns a particular email address.

Accessing the WHOIS

You can access the WHOIS service from the front page of our website.  Enter the domain name you wish to check in the WHOIS search box and click on ‘look up’.  Do not enter ‘www’ in front of the domain name, and ensure you put in the whole of the domain name e.g. ‘nominet.org.uk’

The WHOIS searches the register database for the domain name and then returns a message with information about the domain name you searched for.

You can also access the WHOIS directly on port 43, as described in the detailed instructions.

Responses from WHOIS
There are a number of different responses you may receive, depending on the situation.

Domain name is already registered
If the domain name is already registered the response will look like this:

Domain name:                    [This is the domain name you are searching for]

Data validation:                [The validation status of the registrant's name and address data will appear here]

Registered through:             [If the domain name has been registered through an agent (reseller) associated with the registrar, and the registrar has provided us with those details, then they will appear here, together with their web site address.] 
    
Registrar:                      [This is the name of the company who has made the registration, together with their tag name and their website address]
     
Relevant dates:         
    Registered on:              [The date the domain name was registered]
    Renewal date:               [The date the domain name is next due for renewal]
    Last updated:               [The date the domain name was last updated]

Registration status:            [This is the current registration status of the domain name]

Name servers listed in order:   [The name servers for the domain name are listed here]

DNSSEC:                         [Domains that have been digitally signed using DNSSEC will by displayed as "Signed". This field will be omitted when the domain is not signed]
     
WHOIS lookup made at:           [This is the time and date the search was made, in the format hh:mm:ss dd-mm-yyyy] -- [copyright text]
  • The ‘Trading as’ section will only appear if the registrant is a legal entity with a separate trading name and the registrant has given their consent to display the name.
  • In the ‘Registrant type’ section, everything after the first comma is only displayed if the type has an associated number (eg. Registered company number, registered charity number or registered school number) and the registrant has given their consent to display the name.
  • ‘Registered through:’ will only be displayed if the registrar has associated a domain name with a reseller
  • In some cases there is no registrar, so the ‘Registrar’ section will display either:
No agent listed.  This domain is registered directly with Nominet.

Or

No agent listed.

Examples of other responses from WHOIS when the registrant has given consent for their details to be disclosed.

Domain name is already registered – consent to display registrant name but not address

Domain name:

        example.uk

Registrant:

        Example Inc.

Data validation:

        Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 01-Jan-2018

Registrar:

        Example GmbH [Tag = EXAMPLE]

        URL: http://www.example.net

Relevant dates:

        Registered on: 01-Jan-2018

        Expiry date:  01-Jan-2019

        Last updated:  05-May-2018

Registration status:

        Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:

        ns3.example.com

        ns4.example.com

WHOIS lookup made at 14:11:12 26-Jun-2018

Domain name is already registered – consent to display registrant address but not name

Domain name:

        example.uk

Registrant's address:

                   123 Example Dr.

                   Oxford

                   Oxon

                   OX1 1HL

                   United Kingdom

Data validation:

        Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 01-Jan-2018

Registrar:

        Example GmbH [Tag = EXAMPLE]

        URL: http://www.example.net

Relevant dates:

        Registered on: 01-Jan-2018

        Expiry date:  01-Jan-2019

        Last updated:  05-May-2018

Registration status:

        Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:

        ns3.example.com

        ns4.example.com

WHOIS lookup made at 14:11:12 26-Jun-2018

Domain name is already registered – consent to display registrant name and address

Domain name:

        example.uk

Registrant:

        Example Inc.

Registrant's address:

                   123 Example Dr.

                   Oxford

                   Oxon

                   OX1 1HL

                   United Kingdom

Data validation:

        Nominet was able to match the registrant's name and address against a 3rd party data source on 01-Jan-2018

Registrar:

        Example GmbH [Tag = EXAMPLE]

        URL: http://www.example.net

Relevant dates:

        Registered on: 01-Jan-2018

        Expiry date:  01-Jan-2019

        Last updated:  05-May-2018

Registration status:

        Registered until expiry date.

Name servers:

        ns3.example.com

        ns4.example.com

WHOIS lookup made at 14:11:12 26-Jun-2018

Domain name is not found
If the domain name you searched is syntactically correct, a .uk domain name and conforms to the rules for domain names, but is not found the following will be displayed:

No match for "<domain name>".     
This domain name has not been registered. 
WHOIS lookup made at <hh:mm:ss dd-mm-yy> -- [copyright text]

You may also like to refer to our more detailed instructions for using the WHOIS service.

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