Registering a Domain Name, Part 3. Is it available?

When you've made the decision on the domain name you want to register, use a WHOIS service to find out it the domain name is available. Most webhosting companies provide this service on their websites but the ones we look at will give you a lot more information like who it's registered to, for how long and nameserver details of the webhost.

WHOIS for .IE Domain Names

1. Go to www.iedr.ie - the IE Registrars website. (Alternatively you can use allwhois.org who will provide WHOIS results for any domain TLD.)
2. Find the WHOIS Search box on the column on the right hand side
3. Enter the name only (without the www. and without the .ie at the end) into the text box and hit Search. We'll try butchcassidyandthesundancekid
4. If the domain is not registered you will see:
   Not Registered - The domain you have requested (butchcassidyandthesundancekid.ie) is not a registered .ie domain name
   Great! you're good to go get a webhost and register your .ie domain name
5. If the domain name is already taken, the WHOIS details for Registrant('owner'), Admin Contact and Technical Contact will come up as you can see in Diag 1 below for a search for webmentor.ie. You will also get the nameserver information of where the website is being hosted. Notice that the contact details for Admin Contact and Technical Contact comes up as NIC Handle code. You can see who the person is by referring to the NIC Handle information given at the bottom. iedr.ie don't provide the Billing Contact information. If it's your domain name, you can ring them and they'll tell you who your Billing Contact is. If you bought from a reseller, they will be your Billing Contact.

Diag 1. WHOIS information on webmentor.ie from domainregistry.ie

WHOIS for All the Rest

The WhoIs service on iedr.ie only looks up .ie domain names. If you need to check on other TLDs, you can use the WHOIS service from allwhois.org who will provide WHOIS results for any domain TLD, including the .ie domain.

1. Go to allwhois.org
2. Enter the domain name into the textbox provided (without the www.) and hit the Search button to start the search (eg eircom.net - as in Diag 2 below). Be patient, it might take a few minutes as they search the entire internet...
3. If the domain is available you should see something like:
   No match for domain "SPAGHETYANDHOOPS.COM"
   In which case it's available for registration.
4. If the domain is taken, however, allwhois will show you the details of registration. (unless a private registration has been done, in which case you won't get much info except for the fact it has been registered. Some Registrars permit private domain name registration so that WHOIS information reveals nothing personal.)

Diag 2. WHOIS information for any domain from allwhois.org