How to Get Domain and IP Address Information Using WHOIS Command

WHOIS is a TCP-based query and response protocol that is commonly used to provide information services to Internet users. It returns information about the registered Domain Names, an IP address block, Name Servers and a much wider range of information services.

In Linux, the whois command line utility is a WHOIS client for communicating with the WHOIS server (or database host) which listen to requests on the well-known port number 43, which stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format.

Read Also: 10 Linux Dig (Domain Information Groper) Commands to Query DNS

whois command line utility does not come pre-installed on many Linux distributions, run the appropriate command below for your distribution to install it.

# yum install whois		#RHEL/CentOS
# dnf install whois		#Fedora 22+
$ sudo apt install whois	#Debian/Ubuntu

How to Find IP Address Information

To get the information about specific IP Address issue the command as shown in the below example.

$ whois 216.58.206.46

#
# ARIN WHOIS data and services are subject to the Terms of Use
# available at: https://www.arin.net/whois_tou.html
#
# If you see inaccuracies in the results, please report at
# https://www.arin.net/public/whoisinaccuracy/index.xhtml
#


#
# The following results may also be obtained via:
# https://whois.arin.net/rest/nets;q=216.58.206.46?showDetails=true&showARIN=false&showNonArinTopLevelNet=false&ext=netref2
#

NetRange:       216.58.192.0 - 216.58.223.255
CIDR:           216.58.192.0/19
NetName:        GOOGLE
NetHandle:      NET-216-58-192-0-1
Parent:         NET216 (NET-216-0-0-0-0)
NetType:        Direct Allocation
OriginAS:       AS15169
Organization:   Google LLC (GOGL)
RegDate:        2012-01-27
Updated:        2012-01-27
Ref:            https://whois.arin.net/rest/net/NET-216-58-192-0-1



OrgName:        Google LLC
OrgId:          GOGL
Address:        1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
City:           Mountain View
StateProv:      CA
PostalCode:     94043
Country:        US
RegDate:        2000-03-30
Updated:        2017-12-21
Ref:            https://whois.arin.net/rest/org/GOGL
...

How to Find Domain Information

To get the information about the registered domain, simply issue the following command with the domain name. It will retrieve domain data including availability, ownership, creation, expiration details, name servers, etc.

$ whois google.com

Domain Name: GOOGLE.COM
   Registry Domain ID: 2138514_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
   Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.markmonitor.com
   Registrar URL: http://www.markmonitor.com
   Updated Date: 2011-07-20T16:55:31Z
   Creation Date: 1997-09-15T04:00:00Z
   Registry Expiry Date: 2020-09-14T04:00:00Z
   Registrar: MarkMonitor Inc.
   Registrar IANA ID: 292
   Registrar Abuse Contact Email: [email protected]
   Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.2083895740
   Domain Status: clientDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientDeleteProhibited
   Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
   Domain Status: clientUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#clientUpdateProhibited
   Domain Status: serverDeleteProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverDeleteProhibited
   Domain Status: serverTransferProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverTransferProhibited
   Domain Status: serverUpdateProhibited https://icann.org/epp#serverUpdateProhibited
   Name Server: NS1.GOOGLE.COM
   Name Server: NS2.GOOGLE.COM
   Name Server: NS3.GOOGLE.COM
   Name Server: NS4.GOOGLE.COM
....

The formatting of information will differ based on the WHOIS server used. In addition, one downside of WHOIS is the lack of full access to the data, therefore check out these useful guides for querying DNS information in Linux:

1. Useful ‘host’ Command Examples for Querying DNS Lookups
2. 8 Linux Nslookup Commands to Troubleshoot DNS (Domain Name Server)

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