Four Easy method to Check Who Owns a Domain Name

Checking on the ownership of a domain name is highly important in website management for various reasons. Either you're purchasing a domain, analysing your competitors, or ensuring that there won't be any unauthorized online brand security by checking on who owns the domain. This guide will walk you through the effective way of checking who owns a domain name and how various tools like domain WHOIS lookup and domain IP lookup can assist in the process.

Why Do You Need to Find Out Who Owns the Domain Name?

Buying a Domain: First of all, a domain name can already be taken. However, knowing who the owner is will open up the room for negotiation.
Protection of Brand: You can prevent people from registering your brand on a domain just to sell it back to you for more money.
Competitor Analysis: One might find other owners of a similar domain name and track his competitors.
Legal or Security Issues: One might suspect fraudulent activities and knowing who owns a suspicious domain name might help in legal processing when the system security is being ensured.

Now, let's discuss how you can quickly trace who owns the domain name and what tools are there.

4 Easy Methods to Check Domain Ownership

1. Using WHOIS Lookup

Using WHOIS lookup is beyond any doubt the most common and reliable way of querying the ownership of a domain. WHOIS is essentially a database compiled usually by domain registrars that contains registration information including owner contact details, such as registration and expiration dates of a domain.

who owns a domain name

How to Perform a WHOIS Lookup

A user should go to a website that offers WHOIS lookup services, like ICANN WHOIS, or WHOIS.net. One is then necessitated to input the domain name of interest.

The search results will often include information such as:

Name of registrant- owner of the domain
Contact information of registrant- email and phone number
Date of registration and expiration
Name of registrer- the organization for which the domain is registered

It is worth noting, though, that some owners use domain privacy protection that effectively hides the contact information of the owner from public access. In this case, the WHOIS look may pass the information to the registrar or proxy service rather than the actual domain owner.

Top Tools for WHOIS Lookup

ICANN WHOIS Search:

It is also one of the most trusted sources of information, managed by Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN.

WHO.is

Very basic, simple, and works.

2. Domain IP Lookup and Reverse DNS Tools

Sometimes you will want to dig into the hosting environment of the domain. A very useful set of tools for this purpose is domain IP lookup, and reverse DNS lookup tools.

reverse lookup

What is Domain IP Lookup?

A domain IP lookup tests the IP address that a domain name assigns. Each domain goes hand-in-hand with an IP address, which refers to the numeric address of the server where the website has been hosted.

Why Check the IP of a Domain?

Identify Hosting Location: Determination of the hosting location may be assisted through knowledge of the assigned IP.
Performance Monitoring: This will indicate whether the domain is hosted on shared hosting, which will definitely affect the performance of your site.
Security Auditing: If you are trying to investigate some suspicious website, finding the IP address might expose additional information about their network and server environment.

How to Perform a Domain IP Search

You may utilize DNSstuff, WhatIsMyIPAddress, or MXToolbox for the purpose of performing a domain IP search.

You'll have to just type in a domain name, and it shows you what the associated IP is.

Once you have an IP, you can use reverse DNS lookup tools to figure out which domains share the same IP.

Here are some of the most effective domain IP lookup tools:

DNSstuff: It has several DNS and IP tools, with the power of an IP lookup tool.

WhatIsMyIPAddress: A very easy-to-use utility to give a quick IP lookup result.

MXToolbox: This is a very powerful DNS and domain IP lookup service.

3. Contact the Domain Registrar

If the WHOIS lookup could not give you the owner's contact information because of privacy protection, then another trick is contacting the domain registrar. A domain registrar is a company that registers domain name.

How to Contact a Registrar

For most registrars like GoDaddy, Namecheap, or Bluehost, there are support teams that can help facilitate reaching out to the owner of the domain if privacy protection is enabled.

Some registrars also offer a feature wherein a prospective buyer can send an inquiry directly to the owner of a domain. The inquiry will need to go through the registrar's service.

4. Use Domain Brokerage Services

If you really want a domain but can't identify the owner through public means, a domain brokerage service can be of use. Domain brokers are third parties that can contact owners or otherwise connect buyers with sellers for an often-acceptable commission.

Extra Tips and Tools

Be Closely Aware of Domain Expiration Dates. It would expire domains and you could find a domain that will now come into availability due to the inability of its owner to renew it.

You can check DomainTools for receiving monitoring notifications about expiring domains.

Using an IP Domain Checker for Security Audits

Security audits become quite interesting when doing a domain IP lookup.

For example, a malicious website with many suspicious activities may also be sharing its IP address with other malicious websites. An IP domain checker finds these patterns so that risks can be mitigated beforehand.

How to Verify the Authenticity of a Domain

When buying a domain name, you need to know whether the owner is authentic. Verification is done through integration of tools like domain WHOIS search, domain IP search, and possibly contacting a domain broker or registrar so that you may verify your details using the one provided.

Challenges in Verifying Domain Ownership

Domain Privacy Protection

Most domain owners use privacy protection services, where this information is not accessible. You will see the details of the registrar in such a case instead of the actual owner's information. Some services offer limited information to be displayed, like some anonymized email addresses that can still be used for indirect contact with the owner.

Stale WHOIS Information

Domain registration details have to be updated from time to time, but in the case of the non-enforcement aspect of it, they might become out of date. If that happens, then it is probably the best course of action to contact the domain registrar.

Multiples Registrars

Transferring between registrars means that changes in the ownership or other information in the WHOIS database might not be updated immediately. Tools such as DomainTools make tracing previous owners and changes possible.

Conclusion

It is really very important to know who owns a particular domain as it can go a long way in buying a domain, protecting one's brand, or carrying out security audits. This can be done by using tools like domain WHOIS lookup and domain IP lookup or by services offered by domain brokers to find the owner of any domain and then take appropriate measures, either purchasing it or defending one's interest.