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I have doing some searching on how whois actually works and I still don't have a clear understanding on how it works.

Say I am running a whois server, how would I then procure all the names of the domains and their IP addresses?

If I have launched a site www.xyz.com would that record appear in a whois server even if I didn't explicitly want it? If so how ? How would the whois server get the details of my site?

Do I have to submit any documents to an Internet authority so people can find the whois information about my site?

Are all name servers and whois servers linked throughout the world?

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f I have launched a site www.xyz.com would that record appear in a whois server even if I didn't explicitly want it ? If so how ? How would the whois server get the details of my site ?

Basically, WHOIS is a tool with which you can look up data stored by ICANN, which is normally the data of the registrar of the domain name and of course who registered the domain name.

You can use fake data however it depends on your registrar and the registry if they offer this feature and allow this.

Do I have to submit any documents to an Internet authority for people whois information about my site ?

If you have a domain name you actually already have!

Are all name servers and whois servers linked throughout the world ?

No, these two are unrelated.

  • registrar = where you registered your domain name, e.g. GoDaddy
  • registry = the organization which manages the DNS server for a TLD (such as .com, .net and .org)
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  • -: Okay then I have two questions. First is all the information related to domain names stored at ICANN ? ie are all the domain names of the world stored centrally at ICANN ? Secondly according to what you have said, if I wanted to run a whois server then I would have to apply to ICANN right ? Is that free ?
    – Sreyan
    Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 19:10
  • @Sreyan 1: Yes and 2: no. For more information about hosting your own WHOIS server: cubrid.org/blog/cubrid-appstools/…
    – William
    Commented Nov 14, 2014 at 19:14
  • I don't understand. Why is it not required to contact ICANN ? My whois server will actually be querying ICANN right ?(Correct me if I am wrong) So basically setting up a whois server means querying ICANN right ? The link that you have given me describes how to set up a whois server it does not tell you about the details about how whois works.
    – Sreyan
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 11:08
  • @Sreyan Sorry, but I'm not exactly sure how it queries data either. One question: why do you want to setup your own WHOIS server?
    – William
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 11:10
  • I didn't want to setup one. I just wanted to know how the whole process worked. Any idea where I might get info on how whois queries data ?
    – Sreyan
    Commented Nov 15, 2014 at 11:18

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