WHOIS

From SuperbHosting.net Support Wiki

To find out who owns a domain name

To locate the registrant information for any domain registered with SuperbRegistrar, simply use our WHOIS lookup tool.

Our WHOIS page lets the public see who is the owner (the "registrant") of a particular domain name as well as other information about the domain name. Some of this information is maintained by SuperbRegistrar (the "registrar") and some is maintained by the "registry."

Please note that the WHOIS lookup does not necessarily indicate a domain's availability. Only information for domains registered with SuperbRegistrar will be available using our WHOIS lookup. To check the availability of a domain name, go to http://www.superbregistrar.net.

Information Listed on WHOIS

ICANN requires ALL data (name, address, phone, email) for admin and technical contact while only requiring name and address for registrant. We require ALL data for ALL contacts. Willful provision of false or misleading data is grounds for cancellation.

That said, designation and use of a role contact for name, such as DNS admin, or FOR SALE, is not a material breach of the RA, and therefore acceptable as long as all other fields are in compliance.

There are many reasons for maintaining correct WHOIS data, such as, to protect intellectual property rights, renew and manage domains, prevent abuse (spam) and malicious/illegal conduct (harrassment, child porn, lible, etc.)

The bottom line is that when we get a complaint, we are contractually required to investigate and take reasonable steps to ensure data is either legit, or if not, then it is corrected, especially when complaint comes from ICANN.

Information publicly available

Information about who is responsible for domain names is publicly available to allow rapid resolution of technical problems and to permit enforcement of consumer protection, trademark, and other laws. The registrar will make this information available to the public on a WHOIS site. It is however possible to register a domain in the name of a third party, as long as they agree to accept responsibility. Ask your registrar for further details.

It is an ICANN requirement that the WHOIS contact information be made available to the public. By default, the billing contact information displayed will be the contact information for your account.

You can, however, edit the billing contact information on individual domains so that it is different from your account information. This can be configured during registration of a domain by clicking the configure button.

You can use the Auxiliary Billing Contact field to display a different billing contact to the public.

SuperbRegistrar informs that domain has expired but WHOIS indicates not expired

When a domain expires, the registrar is billed for the renewal of that domain. This allows the registrar to retain the domain in case it was an unintentional expiration. This allows the previous owner to have time to renew the domain. The name is expired as far as you (the previous registrant) are concerned because you haven't actually paid for that renewal. Technically you are no longer the owner, and the domain will become inactive - this includes email and your website will go down as well.

If the WHOIS record indicates it has expired, and shows the previous registrant information, this means the registrant has not paid SuperbRegistrar for the renewal yet. It will still show next year's date, only because the registry has actually been paid for the renewal by SuperbRegistrar.

Once you pay SuperbRegistrar to renew the domain, it will be added back to your active list of domains, and it will no longer show as expired. Once an expired domains is renewed, it can take up to 48 hours to become active again. Please renew your domain before the actual expiration date to avoid unintentional expirations and down time.

WHOIS domain availability

When a domain shows up as being available in the WHOIS, but when you register it, it says that is has been taken, this is because the WHOIS search is not an accurate indicator of domain availability. The WHOIS lookup is simply a database of contact information for domains registered with SuperbRegistrar. If a domain is registered through any of the other hundreds of registrars, it would not show up in SuperbRegistrar's WHOIS lookup.

The best way to tell if a domain is available is by attempting to register it. During that process, our system contacts the registry for the domain status and the registry tells us whether it is available.

If you wish to find the registrar of a domain ending in .com or .net that is not registered through Superb Registrar, you could search for the domain on the Verisign Global Registry web site.

WHOIS contact information requirements

The WHOIS for .org, .biz, .info, .us and .name domains must be complete, accurate and valid to fully resolve outside the current registrar of record's WHOIS database.

These TLDs require the following:

• Valid FULL first and last name
• Valid phone and fax number (see below for more information)
• Valid email address
• Valid and complete postal address

Phone requirements:
Contact Telephone Number and Fax Number length acceptance: This will allow the maximum of 14 characters following the county code, for example:

• +1.{14 characters}
• +12.{13 characters}
• +123.{12 characters}

VALID US or Canadian Telephone example: +1.4258838860 (SuperbRegistrar's registration will automatically insert the +1., +12., and the +123. before the phone number, so you do not need to type those characters).

INVALID US Telephone example: +1.425.883.8860 OR +1.425-883-8860

Changing WHOIS information for CentralNic xx.com domains

CentralNic is the registry for domains such as us.com or de.com. If you would like to change the WHOIS information for these domains, CentralNic does not allow the registrant name to change. If you sell or give the domain to someone else, you must first delete the name, and then get the new registrant re-register the domain as a new name.

However, CentralNic is working to make this process easier. Therefore, if you need to change the registrant information on one of these domains, please submit a case from the account where the domain resides. We will work directly with you and the registry to find the best solution.