Find a domain name or a holder using Whois

The specific search engine for the domain name database, Whois, the contraction of “Who is?”, contains administrative and technical information associated with a domain name.

Whois: the database of domain names and holders

Whether you’re looking for information on an existing domain name or looking to register one, the Whois database is the indispensable tool that enables you to:

• Instantly test the availability of a domain name or its alternative spellings;
• View useful information on a name that has already been registered: holder, administrative contact and technical contact, registrar, expiry date of the current registration and associated technical parameters (website, nameservers, etc.).

The domain name allows the identity of a brand, a person or even a project to be expressed on the internet. We therefore recommend that you take your time in checking the available addresses and testing the spelling variants before taking the plunge. For businesses, it is customary to reserve several names (with a hyphen or accent, for example) in order to protect a brand, since the ‘first-come-first-served’ rule applies to domain names.

Data accessible in Afnic’s Whois

Afnic’s Whois allows you to conduct searches for domain names ending in .fr or .re as well as in .tf, .yt, .pm and .wf and to access the following administrative and technical information:

• Status: inactive or active, i.e. associated with one or more active Internet resources such as a website or an email address
• DNSSEC: inactive or active in order to secure the processes of domain name resolution against malicious online activity (identity theft, cyberattacks, etc.)
• Registrar
• Creation and expiry dates
• Nameservers (DNS): servers in charge of resolving domain names, allowing an IP address to be found from a domain name
• Holder: the natural or legal person at whose behest the domain name was registered and is maintained. The holder holds the rights and responsibilities associated with the domain name
• Administrative contact: this may be the holder or a third party (natural or legal person, including the registrar). It is mandatory to designate an administrative contact upon registration and throughout the life of the domain name
• Technical contact: this will generally be the registrar

In order to protect the privacy of natural persons, the name and contact details of private individual holders of domain names are masked by default in the Whois database. In practice, it is up to the registrar in charge of the domain name to apply the masking by default and without charge at the time of registration. Information on the technical contact is always public, while information on the administrative contact is public only if the contact is a legal person. It is possible to submit a request for disclosure of personal data, under certain conditions, to our teams.

Afnic associated services

Whois is an essential tool as it enables us to respond to two of the five essential services entrusted by the French State to Afnic, namely:

• The directory service allowing information associated with each domain name to be found;
• The trustee service to ensure continuity of access to .fr data, which belong to the State and de facto to the French people.

We therefore pay very special attention to this in order to ensure availability rates close to 100%, and have developed several associated offerings:

• a free service providing access to the list of domain names registered daily under .fr, .re, .tf, .yt, .pm and .wf, available and renewed once a week;
• a paid Data Access Qualified Service, SQUAW (Service QUalifié d’Accès au Whois), to access, under certain conditions, the list of domain names registered under .fr with additional information (registrars and names of holders, except where disclosure is restricted);
• and specific services for registrars and professionals in the domain name industry.