Who Owns that Name?
by Ross Lasley
Quietly, without much discussion amongst non-geeks, the domain name industry was de-regulated.
This was a good thing; all the bad things people had to say about Network Solutions were well deserved.
See, it used to be that if you wanted a domain name there was only one place to buy it – Network Solutions – the only Registrar that existed. The problem with this (besides the obvious monopoly issues) was that they started to really suck at it. (I could go on here for thousands of words but I’ll spare you.)
So, then came deregulation – and some serious confusion for consumers. Click here for the list of approximately 175 accredited registrars.
And of course, the bulk of these major registrars also have re-seller programs – you can buy domain names all over the place now, even inside QuickBooks accounting software.
Most people know you can find out about a domain by looking up the whois information – literally “who is” the owner of this domain. Network Solutions whois page is here. You can enter any domain name – and it is supposed to tell you who owns the name…but of course this does not work if it is not a Network Solutions domain. It used to – registrars were sharing data – but each registrar has taken their ball from the field and gone home to not play anymore.
Lots of “web tips” articles suggest you make sure you really own your domain name – this is because some webmasters are not as honest as they could be – and most of them say to check whois at Network Solutions.
Now there is a problem – that no longer works - and it is a bit different than it used to be to get that done.
To check on the ownership of any domain name you need to start at Internic.
It will then tell you the registrar of the domain and the location of that registrar's whois server. If we lookup kisscomputing.com at Internic here is what it says:
Domain Name: KISSCOMPUTING.COM
Registrar: TUCOWS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.opensrs.net
Referral URL: http://www.opensrs.org
Name Server: NS1.KISSCOMPUTING.NET
Name Server: NS2.KISSCOMPUTING.NET
Status: ACTIVE
So then we go to the whois server for the Registrar Tucows – whois.opensrs.net (occasionally the listed whois server doesn’t work; in that case go to the referring URL and click on the whois button).
Then we look up kisscomputing.com again - now that we know we are at the correct registrar - and we find:
Registrant:
KISS Computing, Inc
Main Street Mercantile #10, 3 Main St.
Eastham, MA 02642
US
Bingo!
So next time you need to check who owns a name be sure to start by finding out which registrar the name is with, and then go to that registrar to lookup the info.
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 Tech Tip |
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by Michael
McGrath
Those of you who are regular readers will recall that our
last issue's Tech Tip was about the use of Windows
Update to keep your system current. So, how many of you
followed up on that? Those who did will have noted that the
updates and patches available at the site are not only for
Windows. You will find Critical Updates for Outlook Express
6 and for Windows Media Player for XP, among others. You'll
also find Driver Updates available. What's a Driver Update,
you might wonder?
Well, each system component in the hardware ranks, things
like video cards, sound cards, printers, modems, and other
peripherals, all need software to operate within the configuration
of your computer system. Those little pieces of software that
make them run are referred to as “drivers.” The
various Windows operating systems (98, 98SE, ME, 2000 and
XP) have many drivers built into them, those little bits of
software that will help Windows communicate with the peripherals
and make them work. However, the operating systems only include
drivers for peripherals that exist at the time of the operating
system release. So, to help you use newer peripherals, new
software, or “drivers,” are made available for
download to keep your system current.
When you use the Updates service, then, don't forget to check
out the service packs and patches for programs other than
Windows. And, don't forget to check out new drivers, too. |
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