Whois is a internet protocol used to find out info about domain names including the name servers associated with the domain, the domain Administrative and registrar, Billing and Technical contacts with email and postal addresses.
By performing a simple WHOIS research you can find out when and by whom a domain was registered, contact info and many more. WHOIS search can reveal a numerical IP address. Firstly, WHOIS searches were executed in a command line. Searches can still use command line, but Web based tools now make it more convenient to visit a WHOIS website and simply enter domain name or IP address.
All domain registrars maintain a WHOIS database with contact info for each domain names hosted on their servers. The WHOIS is a service or an application which searches the domain name info contained in WHOIS databases. It is usually used to check either domain is available or the ownership of a domain. Service demands you to put a domain name such as example.com (without www prefix).
WHOIS database includes name, telephone number, address and email address of the owner of the domain. If it is owned by a business - address, email, the company name, and telephone number are listed. There are also expiration date of the registration period, technical administrator, domain administrator and many other information.
If you registered your domain through a friend, relative, colleague or a webdeveloper, check the WHOIS to find out if the domain truly belongs to you. You can really lost the domain name because you had had it registered through nephew Tom who got involved with college and had no remembrance of registering the domain name. Since the all important information (password and username) used for managing the domain name where forgotten (or lost), the domain name could be expired.