| Reseller Help: General Domain Help : Ownership & Disputes | |
| Can you explain the purpose of the different domain contacts? | |
| If new domains aren't on some whois servers, can they be registered elsewhere? | |
Q:Can you explain the purpose of the different domain contacts? | |
A:When you do a whois lookup on a domain registered with OpenSRS, there are 4 sections: Registrant, Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, and Billing Contact. Here's a sample output of a whois lookup from http://rrc.tucows.com/whois/ # whois tucows.com Registrant: TUCOWS.COM Inc. 96 Mowat Avenue Toronto,ON M6K 3M1 CA Domain Name: TUCOWS.COM Sponsoring Reseller; for Technical Support with respect to this domain contact: Tucows.com, ace@tucows.com 416-535-0123 Administrative Contact: Gray, Ed egray@tucows.com 416-535-0123 Technical Contact: Admin, DNS dnsadmin@tucows.com 416-535-0123 Billing Contact: Malcolm, Bruce bmalcolm@tucows.com 416-535-0123 Record last updated on 16-Nov-2001. Record expires on 06-Sep-2006. Record Created on 07-Sep-1995. Domain servers in listed order: CNS1.IDIRECT.COM 207.136.66.20 CNS2.IDIRECT.COM 207.136.80.18 The previous information has been obtained either directly from the registrant or a registrar of the domain name other than Network Solutions. Network Solutions, therefore, does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Registrant (a.k.a. Organization): This is the Company name and mailing address of the "owner" of the domain (domains are really leased, not owned, and only a lawyer can interpret the legal ramifications of "ownership" in this context for your legal jurisdiction). Usually this is the end user, the customer of an OpenSRS RSP. In the OpenSRS standard domain order template this is combined with Administrative Contact under the header "Contact Information". Sponsoring Reseller: This section only shows in our whois info. The current reseller info is displayed here. This can be adjusted in the Resellers web page under "Reseller Whois Information" It is very important that this info be up to date as this is probably how your cusotmers will get a hold of you. Administrative Contact: The Administrative Contact (commonly called the admin contact) is essentially the controller of a domain name. This is the name and Email address of the person who manages the domain using the OpenSRS management interface: http://manage.opensrs.net/ In the Network Solutions' original domain model, an email acknowledgment from the admin contact was all that was required to process most changes to a domain name. Under the OpenSRS model, the admin contact is, in most cases, the person with the username and password required to make any changes to the domain name, including nameserver changes and changes in domain ownership. It is assumed for most purposes that the administrative contact is always the person who holds this authority in the OpenSRS system. The admin contact is usually the end user (registrant) or the end user's technical person. Technical Contact: For an OpenSRS registered domain, this is usually the name and Email address of the RSP (reseller) of the domain. The RSP is responsible for supporting their customers and can Email a lost login/password to the Admin contact through the Resellers web interface: http://resellers.opensrs.net. They also handle Renewals. Billing Contact: The name and Email address of the person who pays the bills. This is probably the end user's accounts payable person. This address is used for all renewal notices. In the OpenSRS standard domain order template, there is a checkbox to make this the same as "Contact Info". If you do a whois lookup on another registrar's server, you get one other piece of information: Registrar:This refers to the domain Registrar. All domains registered through OpenSRS will show Tucows, Inc. as the Registrar. OpenSRS operates as a business unit of Tucows, Inc. Here's some examples of other public whois servers with a Web front-end: Network Solutions: http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois Whois.net: http://www.whois.net/ Uwhois.com - search gTLDs (.com, .net, and .org) and (most) ccTLDs (.ca, .fr, .mx, .us, etc.): http://www.uwhois.com/ APNIC (Asia Pacific) whois: http://whois.apnic.net/ ARIN (North and South America, Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa) whois: http://www.arin.net/whois/index.html RIPE (European) whois: http://www.ripe.net/cgi-bin/whois | |
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Q:If new domains aren't on some whois servers, can they be registered elsewhere? | |
A:No, absolutely not. Most whois servers are just informational reflections of the root nameservers, it can take several hours for them to catch up with newly-registered domains. It's the root nameservers that make the difference in who owns a domain, not whois. OpenSRS, Network Solutions, and other ICANN Registrars have the same access to the root servers that keep track of Internet domains, their contact information, and their nameserver designations. Some whois servers update before others. Once you register a domain with OpenSRS, either with the Web interface or the OpenSRS client software scripts, you can try going to Network Solutions and registering the same domain. If you've successfully registered a domain with OpenSRS, the very instant thereafter no one will be able to register that same domain with Network Solutions or any other ICANN registrar. Because our whois server works on the same real-time system as registrations, It is always up to date for OpenSRS domains. OpenSRS whois | |
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