- Whois is a query and a response protocol that is widely used for querying database that store the registered users or assignees of an internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous systems information.
- It is a public database which allows to find out information about a specific internet resource.
- For eg. you can know about a domain name, who registered it and who you can contact about this domain name.
Data model
- A whois database consists of a set of text records for each resource.
- These text records consists of various items of information about the resource itself and any associated information of assignees, registrants, administrative information, such as creation and expiration dates.
- Two data models exist for storing resource information in a whois database, the thick and the thin model.
Thin
- A thin registry only includes technical data sufficient to identify the sponsoring registrar, status of the registration, and creation and expiration dates for each registration in its WHOIS data store.
- .COM and .NET are examples of thin registries.
Thick
- Thick registries maintain the registrant’s contact information and designated administrative and technical contact information, in addition to the sponsoring registrar and registration status information supplied by a thin registry.
- .INFO and .BIZ are examples of thick registries.
Working process
- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit organization that is responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces of the internet.
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