Registration Records
Whois — What a Registration Lookup Still Tells You
The names and addresses have gone. The dates, the registrar and the status codes are the fields that answer real questions.
The short answer
WHOIS is the public lookup on a domain registration: which registrar holds it, when it was created, when it expires, when it last changed, and which status codes the registry has applied. Personal contact data is now redacted or proxied across most of the namespace, so the useful output is the dates, the registrar of record and the status.
Those fields answer the questions that actually come up. Is the name locked? Is a transfer in flight? Is it in redemption? Who has to be asked? RDAP, the structured successor to the old port-43 service, returns the same facts in a form tools can parse.
By the Hosting & Domains team · Reviewed 24 August 2026
0
Terms left undefined
100+
Entries, all cross-linked
Real
Worked examples, not diagrams
Free
To read, always
The service was designed when publishing a registrant's name, postal address and email in the clear seemed reasonable. It became a harvesting list, and data-protection law finished the argument. Most registries and registrars now redact personal fields by default, and many registrants sit behind a proxy service on top of that.
What survived is the operational half, and it is the half worth learning: creation, updated and expiry dates, the registrar of record and its identifier, the nameservers currently delegated, and the EPP status codes the registry has set on the name.
Read as a set, those fields tell you whether a name is transferable today, whether it is on its way to deletion, and which company can do anything about it.
The fields that survived redaction
Expect to see the registrar of record and, on generic endings, its IANA identifier; creation, updated and expiry dates; the delegated nameservers; the domain status codes; and an abuse contact. Registrant name and address will usually read as redacted for privacy, or name a proxy service instead.
Country registries differ. Some publish organisation names for business registrations while masking individuals, some publish almost nothing, and a few still publish more than you would expect. That is the registry's policy, not the registrar's.
Status codes, and what each one is telling you
clientTransferProhibited is your registrar lock, and you want it on. clientHold or serverHold means resolution has been switched off deliberately. pendingTransfer says a move is under way. autoRenewPeriod, redemptionPeriod and pendingDelete are the post-expiry sequence in order, and redemptionPeriod is the point at which a registry restore fee applies.
Those codes are the fastest diagnosis available on a name that has gone dark. A site that will not load, with serverHold on the record, is not a DNS problem, and no amount of zone editing will fix it.
RDAP, and why the old habit is worth dropping
RDAP returns the same registration data as structured JSON with a defined access model, which is what makes redaction and tiered access workable. Registry and registrar endpoints are published, browser-based lookups exist, and the output is far easier to script against than parsing free-text WHOIS.
For an occasional look either will do. For anything you run repeatedly — portfolio expiry monitoring, transfer status, lock auditing — RDAP is the one that will not break when a registrar reformats its text.
Auditing your own record once a year
Four things to confirm on every name you hold: the expiry date is what you think it is, the registrar lock is set, the delegated nameservers are the ones you intend, and the registrant email is an address you actually open at a domain other than the one you are checking.
The registrant record underneath has to be true even where the public view is masked, because transfers, disputes and account recovery are all settled against it. Redact the publication as far as the registry allows; never let the record itself drift.
Registration records, read properly
A lookup takes ten seconds and answers most of what people open tickets about. This reference explains which fields still mean something after redaction, and which status code is telling you a name has been suspended rather than misconfigured.
Public registration details are redacted as standard on names registered with us, with nothing billed monthly for it.
- Status codes decoded, one by one
- RDAP as well as the older WHOIS output
- The four fields worth auditing yearly
- 100+ entries, cross-linked to their neighbours
Why Hosting & Domains
Standard on every plan
Privacy included, not invoiced
Public registration details redacted as standard, with no monthly line for what the industry now includes.
The record kept true
Registrant details editable from your own client area, so the entry that settles disputes stays accurate.
Locks you can see
The registrar lock is a visible control rather than a support request, and it is on by default.
Every expiry date in one place
The whole portfolio with its renewal dates and auto-renewal state in the client area, not in a spreadsheet.
Transfers on request
Unlock and auth code when you ask, with whatever term remains on the registration carried over.
Cross-linked, not isolated
Each entry points at the terms that finish its picture, so one lookup turns into working knowledge.
Quick Start
Order placed to site online
- 1
Look the name up before anything else
Read the registrar of record, the expiry date, the status codes and the delegated nameservers. Most domain emergencies are diagnosed on that one screen.
- 2
Fix the record, then the routing
Correct the registrant email and confirm the lock. Only then move to the zone — a suspended name will not resolve however good the records are.
- 3
Put the site behind the name
Set the A record, install from the one-click library, and the free SSL certificate issues itself and reissues before the old one lapses.
Built In
Fitted to every plan
- Public registration details redacted as standard
- A renewal figure identical to the one you registered at
- The registrar lock set on names held with us
- The name's first year included when you order annually
- Mailboxes that answer at the name you hold
- Spam and virus screening on every mailbox by default
- Free SSL on every plan, reissued before the old one lapses
- cPanel, which is what most of the industry already runs
- No set-up charge at any point, and no joining fee
- People on the support desk every hour of every day
Frequently Asked
Questions we field again and again
What do the status codes on my domain mean?
clientTransferProhibited is the registrar lock and should normally be on. pendingTransfer means a move is under way. clientHold or serverHold means resolution has been switched off deliberately. autoRenewPeriod, redemptionPeriod and pendingDelete are the post-expiry sequence, and redemptionPeriod is where a registry restore fee starts to apply.
WHOIS or RDAP — which should I be using?
RDAP for anything repeatable. It returns the same registration facts as structured JSON with a defined access model, so scripts do not break when a registrar changes its text formatting. Free-text WHOIS is still fine for a one-off look.
The record shows a proxy service instead of me. Is that a problem?
Not for your rights. The registrant of record underneath is unchanged, and that is what disputes and transfers are settled against. The operational risk is the forwarding: a proxy address nobody monitors will quietly swallow a transfer approval, so send yourself a test message before you rely on it.
Can I still find out who owns a domain I want to buy?
Rarely by name any more. What you can usually see is the registrar, the creation and expiry dates and the status, which tells you whether the name is actively held or drifting towards deletion. For commercial domains the operator is normally identifiable from the website itself.
How often should I look my own names up?
Once a year for a small portfolio, and after any change of registrar, contact details or nameservers. What you are looking for is drift: an expiry date closer than you thought, a lock that has come off, a delegated nameserver you no longer use, or a registrant address belonging to somebody who has left.
Keep reading
How to Enable WHOIS Privacy
Turning redaction on, and proving the forwarding address actually receives a transfer approval.
DirectAdmin Reseller Hosting
Lighter DirectAdmin reseller hosting at a lower monthly rate.
Plesk Hosting
Shared hosting on Plesk for anyone who would rather not use cPanel.
Changing provider? Work through this checklist beforehand.
A straightforward running order for a migration your visitors never spot: which files travel first, how to bring the mail across without dropping a single message, the right moment to repoint DNS, and the two errors that sit behind almost every outage we get called in to fix.
Keep the record true and the lock on.
Registrations in your own name with privacy included, renewals at the original rate, and a client area that shows every expiry date.
View DirectAdmin Reseller Hosting plans