A network tool that lets you obtain information on names from the Network Information Center.

A Whois request displays a contact name, mailing address, telephone number, and network mailbox for all users and organizations that are registered with one of the official Whois servers, such as the Internet Network Information Center (interNIC) database.

You can use the Whois tool to find administrative contacts from a Whois database.

To use the Whois tool, do the following:

1. Select the Whois tab.
   
   
2. In the Query text box, enter a query text (for example, whitehouse.gov).
   
   Enter the name or ôhandleö (unique identifier assigned to a Whois record) of a person or an organization. The drop-down list shows the previous query text entered. The query searches all records of the Whois database for an exact match of the name or handle.
   
   If you donÆt know the name or handle, you can enter a partial query string followed by one or more dots. For example, entering ôMack.ö finds ôMack,ö ôMackall,ö ôMackey.ö 
   
   If there is more than one occurrence of the name, Whois returns a summary of each. You can then extract the handle (shown in parentheses) of the name you want more information on and enter it as the query string, preceded by an exclamation mark, for example ô!ABC.ö
   
   
3. In the Options dialog box set any of the options you want to use.
   
   NetInfo now includes new feature, which will automatically determine the Whois server to query based upon the country extension found in the query string. You can uncheck the Autodetect checkbox to force your queries to go to the server specified in Whois Setup:
   
   whois.internic.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Internet Network Information Center (interNIC).
   
   whois.arin.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the American Registry for Internet Numbers server.
   
   whois.nic.gov
   
   Provides information about users and organizations on the U.S. government network.
   
   whois.nic.mil
   
   Provides information about users and organizations on the U.S. military network.
   
   whois.ripe.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the European IP Address Allocations server.
   
   whois.nic.uk
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the United Kingdom IP Address Allocations server.
   
   whois.ripn.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Russian IP Address Allocations server.
   
   whois.apnic.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Asia Pacific IP Address Allocations server.
   
   whois.aunic.net
   
   Provides information about users and organizations registered with the Australia IP Address Allocations server.
   
   Note: You can choose from the current list of known Whois servers and add a new server to the list.
   
   
4. Click the Start button.
   
   The Whois client contacts the specified Whois server. The results of the query appear in the Response area. If the query finds a single occurrence of the search string (person or organization), it displays the detailed information for that person or organization. If it finds more than one occurrence of the search string, it displays a summary of each record that matches the search string. 

Note:

To display help information on using the services that the NIC provides through Whois, send a Whois query with "help" text. 

Whois example: