Where do whois servers get their data and can a site owner control the info about their site?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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)