What is WHOIS?

WHOIS information is what you get when you go to a WHOIS lookup service and type in a web address. After you click the submit button, you get a page that tells you WHO registered the domain name. It also tells you other stuff like what DNS server the site is located on, the date the domain was registered and when it expires.

WHOIS lookups are pretty handy for my business, especially when the queried site is doing something nasty like hotlinking or using stolen content. Cheaters like to hide but most cheaters are too dumb to hide behind a domain name privacy service.

Most WHOIS lookups are pretty spare with information. They just give you the basics. If you want to know detailed information about a particular domain or IP address, you should use a service like Whois Source. They give you all kinds of neat info on a domain. You can find out if the domain is registered under any other top level extensions. You can see whether or not the domain has a Secured Socket Layer (SSL). You'll even find out whether or not a domain is locked.

Whois Source offers their service for free but if you buy a silver membership, you get even more features such as a complete WHOIS history of the domain. You also get to find out what sites are sharing the same webserver via their reverse IP lookup.

So anyway, I was playing around on the Whois Source site last night. I was typing in famous political domains to see just how secure the nation's most important websites were. I found some pretty interesting stuff.

For instance, the site www.firstgov.gov is the official portal of the US government. Did you know that www.firstgov.gov doesn't have SSL? Did you know that the domain www.whitehouse.gov shares a server with Best Buy, Victoria's Secret and an NBC affiliate in Columbus, Ohio? Are you aware that the Republican National Committee shares a server with domains like: www.Imaliberal.com, www.Kerryliberalrecord.com, www.Kerrypicksbayh.com, www.Kerrypicksbiden.com, www.Mytaxrefund.org and www.Your-congress.com?

Perhaps the most disturbing reverse IP lookup was the one I did for www.georgewbush.com. That's the official site for the Bush/Cheney re-election effort. According to Whois Source, www.georgewbush.com shares a server with only four other domains. Here they are:

www.Hotlesbiansheepaction.com
www.Johnkerrey.org
www.Saudis.net
www.Warisbad.info

Here's a screen capture

Isn't the Internet fun?