Say you come across a website you really enjoy, and would love to get in touch with the author to let him or her know that. But, you can’t find the owner’s contact details anywhere on the site. In this case, you can try checking the WHOIS record for that website. WHOIS is a database of records that contains information about the owner(s) of every website. Some reasons to check a WHOIS record on a website is to find out when a domain will expire or what registrar the domain is currently registered at, but in this case, you would just like to find the e-mail address or phone number of the owner of a site you enjoy.

First, you’ll want to find a site that will allow you to search the WHOIS database. There are many sites that will allow you to this, but for this example, I will be using WHOIS.net (I will discuss more sites that allow you to search the WHOIS database later). So you’ll type in whois.net in your browser, and you’ll arrive to a page with four input boxes. You’ll want to use the first input box labeled “WHOIS Lookup”. Type in the domain (minus the extension) that you’d like to see the WHOIS record for, select the extension of the domain from the drop-down menu next to the input box, and click “Go!”.

You’ll now be presented with the WHOIS record of the website you entered. Included in the record will be the owner’s name, address, phone number, amongst other details such as:

Registrant – This is the name and address of the owner of the domain name.
Administrative Contact – This is the person that handles the administrative duties of the domain name.
Billing Contact – This is the person that handles the billing duties of the domain name, such as paying the registration fees for renewing the domain.
Technical Contact – This is the person that handles the technical duties of the domain name.

Unless the domain name is owned by a company, each of the above will most likely list the same person.

Record Expiration Date – This is the date that the domain will expire if it doesn’t get renewed.
Record Creation Date – This is the date that the domain was first registered by the current registrant.

Other websites that allow you search the WHOIS database:

Domain Tools – Displays a wealth of extra information, such as link information, DMOZ and Yahoo Directory listings, Alexa rank, and much more.
Network Solutions – Also lets you search by IP address, and displays whether the domain is included in DMOZ or the Yahoo Directory.
Internic – Lets you search by registrar or nameserver.