Where Is My Domain Name Registered? How Domain Name Registration Works & How to Find Out Who Really Owns Your Domain Name
Welcome to the Web
So you’ve decided that you need a website. You’ve put a lot of thought into what the site will be about, who the target audience is, and how you’ll be able to keep it updated. You’ve got the color scheme down and even what the images on the site will be. You even have a name.
If you’re like most folks who are setting up a website these days, you probably went to investigate website hosts and costs and maybe you even found one. However, when someone asks where your site is or where your domain name is registered, you may actually draw a blank. In this article, you asked “where is my domain name registered?” and we answer it.
Where is My Domain Name Registered?
To understand where a domain name is registered, you need to know who owns domain names. You, as the owner of the website,
actually do not own your domain name. Wait, backup. What exactly is a domain name? A domain name is the written version of where your website is on the Internet. Computers speak in numeric numbers, such as IP addresses; however, we as humans do not speak in numeric numbers. The domain name system - or DNS - was created to help people get to web addresses withou trying to remember the long string of numbers that the computer needs to find it.
Think of it like a phone number. When your friend calls, it doesn’t come up on your phone as 349-498-3456, it comes up as Pete or Mary; that’s how the DNS works. Instead of typing in the numerical IP address for a website, you would type in www.brighthub.com or www.google.com. When you sign up for a web hosting site, they take your website name and its address and place it within the DNS directory. This is how you ‘register’ your website.
Your domain name is actually registered with the hosting company that you signed up for. This can be anyone from Go Daddy to DreamHost; these companies are usually accredited by ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - which coordinates the DNS. When you sign up with a hosting company, such as Go Daddy, will ask for information from (contact info) and then registers your website through their company.
When you want to know who the register is, you can do a search by going to WhoIs.com. WhoIs is a search directory that lists where certain websites are registered. For instance, the picture above is the register information for SPANTENNA.com, my personal website. The site itself is registered through Go Daddy, though it is hosted by another company; however many hosting companies also provide domain name services.
Image content @ author, S.P.A.N.T.E.N.N.A
