WHOIS

The WHOIS service provides the necessary information for people seeking to contact the registrant of a domain (or registrar contact) for problem solving etc. As WHOIS is a public service, DNS Belgium has put some limits on the number of queries in each time frame.

It is also possible to retrieve domain name information using the EPP interface. This interface allows for more detail and controlled information. We encourage registrars to use this interface to retrieve information on domain name status and other information.

Command-line WHOIS

Connection strings for the WHOIS service are available here

The information provided is limited. The service reacts as described below.

The protocol for WHOIS is: the domain name being queried with the trailing “.vlaanderen” or “.brussels”.

Available information:

• If the status is AVAILABLE or NOT ALLOWED, Domain not found returned.

• If the domain status is NOT AVAILABLE, information about the domain name is returned:

  • Domain name, containing the U-label in case of an IDN name

  • A-label, only if it concerns an IDN name

  • Dates associated with the domain name, such as creation date and updated date

  • Registrar

  • Domain status

  • Registrant contact

  • Admin contact

  • Technical contact

  • Name servers

  • DNSSEC status

The response always ends with the last updated date of the WHOIS database.

Limitations:

• For the registrant, only state/province and country are available.

• No information for admin and technical contact.

• Rate limit: 100 queries per second with a leaky bucket system.

• Quota: 10.000 queries per IP/day.

Examples

Unix/Linux users can use the regular whois script with the following parameters:

whois -h whois.nic.vlaanderen -p43 nic.vlaanderen
whois -h whois.nic.brussels -p43 nic.brussels

• h to specify the WHOIS server to use

• p the port to use (standard WHOIS port is 43)

Others can use the simple web based WHOIS.

Web based WHOIS (simple)

A simple web service is available on the same host via https protocol.

Public website whois services

On the DNS Belgium website it is possible to check the availability of a domain name and view domain name details.

Availability service

The web based check is available on the top of our public website homepage. The user fills in the domain name and clicks the “check availability” button.

Possible actions

See Registrar suggestion.

Domain name already registered

The end user can request more information about the domain name. By clicking on ‘Show details’, he or she will be directed to the WHOIS.

WHOIS service

The WHOIS service is available on our public website. The user fills in the domain name and clicks on “Show details”. On the next screen, one can see the details of the domain name.

Available information:

• Domain name (non-IDN) or U-label and A-label (IDN)

• Domain Status

• Dates associated with the domain name, such as creation date and updated date

• Registrant Contact

• Registrar

• Name servers

• DNSSEC status

Limitations:

• The contact details of private registrants/onsite contacts are not displayed, instead a contact form is available.

• Maximum 100 queries per IP address per day.

Possible actions

If you have a complaint regarding the WHOIS details of the domain name, you can file a complaint via this page.

If you want to contact the registrant of the domain name, you can do this via the contact form. Please note the registrant is not obligated to give you an answer.

The registrant of the domain name can request a certificate from DNS Belgium here. The registration certificate provides the details of the private individual or organisation who/which is registered as the registrant of the .be domain name, as stated in DNS Belgium’s registration system, at the time the document is requested. The certificate, containing the U-label of the domain name in lower case, is sent to the e-mail address of the registrant.

Note

DNS Belgium reserves the right to change the limits for WHOIS if we feel that the services are being abused/attacked.