One of the most effective ways to protect your privacy online is to use whois search.
Hubs.com, which is a leading social networking site (with more than 30 million users), allows users to search for don’t know who listed the domain. So if you’ve been banned from a social network for breaking rules that you didn’t break, you can fight back using whois search.
WHOIS is the valuable information about a domain name which can be used by an interested domain owner or registrar to protect his or her privacy online. When you conduct a whois search for a domain, you can key in the WHOIS information for the domain name in question.
For example, if I want to conduct a whois search for the domain name example.com, I could enter the WHOIS information for example.com using the & character: example.com. However, if the domain name owner of example.com intentionally misuses the WHOIS information, I can correct this by entering in ‘update whois’ for example.com, which will allow someone to contact the domain owner and ask them to remove the WHOIS information.
Each domain owner is given 30 days to respond to the WHOIS query or they lose their domain name.
This is how you can fight back if you are being domain blocked. The domain name owner in this case can simply ignore the WHOIS information or direct them to another domain that they may own.
Directing the Domain Owner to another Domain
Some web hosting companies, aware of this problem, have a process ofDirecting thedomain owner to another domain. Not all companies allow this, however.
Public WHOIS database searches can be done by anyone. WHOIS information is very important because it identifies an organization, whether it is a social network or a corporate. If the company is legitimate, it is able to register a WHOIS domain name.
In order to prevent from being misused, WHOIS information must be Updated or Captcha must be used.
For example, to conduct a WHOIS domain name search for the domain name of a hospital, you can enter in WHOIS domain name search for example.edu.com. The query will return all WHOIS domain registrations that are held by the below listed hospitals.
Additionally, you can also use the search string technique to conduct a WHOIS domain name search. The query to search for a generic domain name such as “email” will return all WHOIS domain registrations that are associated with the email address.
As there is money to be made using whois domain names, scammers are also making a lot of money recycling old domains and locking them up with WHOIS. They can make a lot of money with just one WHOIS domain name.
Should you conclude that a whois domain name search is definitely warranted, the next step is to collect the names of the domain owners. By doing this, you can double check that the domain is actually registered. If it is unregistered, you can file a WHOIS domain name search and ask for contact details of the domain owner to conduct the further investigation.
Additional Resources
WHOIS Pocket Guide:http://www.whois.net/whoispocket/
IMPORTANT FEATURES
Hidden field that is used in 2Ways or Anonymity Services domain name search:
1. Proxy Server – suggested by users, this field should be left unchecked as it may generate negative traffic to your site.
2. Repeated Site Address – In case of a tiered hosting; user should be required to provide both the web site address and the country of the web server.
3. Home page – Should be left blank to prevent domain Owner from hosting a home page at the given URL.
4. Copyright – Should be noted whether the domain is a free or paid one.
5.Issue of Registration – You should be granted the opportunity to register your domain with them. However, domain owner should be charged a certain fee before the registration is implemented.
6. Control Registry – Should be part of your domain WHOIS search. Should be stated whether you can transfer your domain(s) to another registrar.
7. Expired Status – Should be part of your WHOIS search.
8. Proxy Server – Users should be forbidden to use proxy servers to prevent illegal usage of their domains.
9. Creation of WHOIS database – Should be part of your WHOIS search.
10. Updating of WHOIS – Should be part of your WHOIS search.
Allies
Think that you are sure that domain you want to register is accurate? If yes, then:
1. You can either obtain the whois information for domain name from the registrar who will then inform you whether it is accurate or not.
2.
