Elizabeth Feinler and her team (who had created the Resource Directory for ARPANET) were responsible for creating the first WHOIS directory in the early 1970s. Feinler set up a server in Stanford's Network … See more

WHOIS lookups were traditionally performed with a command line interface application, but now many alternative web-based tools exist. See more

Normally the contact information of the resources assignee is returned. However, some registrars offer private registration, in which case the contact information of the registrar is shown instead.
Some registry operators are wholesalers, meaning that they … See more

One criticism of WHOIS is the lack of full access to the data. Few parties have realtime access to the complete databases. See more

The WHOIS protocol had its origin in the ARPANET NICNAME protocol and was based on the NAME/FINGER Protocol, described in See more

WHOIS services are mainly run by registrars and registries; for example the Public Interest Registry (PIR) maintains the .ORG registry and associated WHOIS service. See more

Referral Whois (RWhois) is an extension of the original WHOIS protocol and service. RWhois extends the concepts of WHOIS in a scalable, hierarchical fashion, potentially creating a … See more