NOTE: This form uses the ISINDEX tag to create the user-input field. Some users have reported that this input box is not displayed when using certain browsers. If you are experiencing this problem, please use the ITTS Whois.

Whois is used to look up records in the main database. Each record has a "handle" (a unique identifier assigned to it), a name, a record type, and various other fields depending on the type of record.

To use Whois, simply type in your target string (i.e. example.com or smith, john). Please note that requests like "www.example.com" will not yield a correct answer; Whois can query only for second-level domain names.

The default action for Whois, unless directed otherwise with a keyword (e.g. "domain root"), is to do a very broad search, looking for matches to your target in many fields: handle, name, nicknames, hostname, net address, etc, and finding all record types.

Whois then shows the results in one of two ways: as a full, detailed display for a single match (with possible subdisplay), or as one- or two-line summaries for multiple matches.

For more information on using Whois, please consult our Whois tutorial.