How to Perform a Domain Name Lookup

Looking up information on a domain name can be very helpful for many IT professionals and end users alike. Information such as Meta data, indexed data, the register and server data can all be gain with just a few simple searches. This article will show you how to perform a domain name lookup using several different options.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Computer with Internet Browser

1. Use a web based domain name lookup service. There are many websites that will perform a WHOIS and many other searches for free. Some are better than others and you should never have to sign up for anything to perform these searches. This is probably the easiest way to perform a domain name lookup and will typically give the most information.

2. Use a UNIX based command line WHOIS client. These are text based command line programs that perform a domain name lookup. These are typically used by system administrators and can be a quick way of gaining some information on a domain.

3. Use a Windows based command line WHOIS client. Much like their UNIX counterparts Windows based command line WHOIS clients provide a text based resource for querying domain information. There are several WHOIS clients available for Windows including one supplied by Microsoft. The Microsoft version is part of the Sysinternals Suite of utilities.