Reverse Whois Report Support Q&A Part II
As the Reverse Whois report is one of our most widely used products, we wanted to write a ‘Part II’ from the April 21st blog post on this topic and review additional important product and membership aspects that users often ask about. If you have further questions about Reverse Whois reports, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
What are the options for Whois Reports? What is the difference?
As most users are aware, we present two versions of this report — the ‘current only’ version and the ‘current and historical’ version.
The difference lies in the scope of your search. For ‘current only’ reports, you’ll get a list of domain names where your search term is in the current Whois record for that domain.
For ‘current and historic’ reports, we look back in time to find domain names with Whois records that matched your search at some point in the past. You’ll also see Whois record dates listed when you choose historic. We also provide access to those matched historic Whois records directly from the purchased report.
This snap shot example below provides the preview of the information we present prior to purchase.
The dates listed will reflect records we have compiled over time that contain the specific target term for the search. This will show the dates of Whois records that contain the search term. This will allow the user to know if their search string was associated to names in the past. They do not necessarily reflect that the search string term is contained in the current registrant. Users confirm this by looking at the current record which is also provided. Verifying current registrant data at the domain name registrar also validates the information.
The ‘preview’ will show the dates of Whois records that contain the search term. That’s the focus of the Whois report – it’s looking for Whois records, not domains, and it’s returning the records it found. That’s why you don’t see records in this list for “DomainTools LLC” before 2010 –we didn’t start adding that to our Whois records until about that time. Matching records will be presented in the actual report. Members who purchase access to Whois history, either with their membership or via a la carte items, have access to the full ownership history, not just the current results.
The snapshot of the report below details that the historical records we have matching the target search term will be presented in the report. A real Whois History contains all the domains’ history when the search term is or is not contained.
Is a Standard or Professional membership required in order to view the Whois report historical records?
When viewing a report containing historical records, one of the key features is that you do not actually need a Standard or Professional membership to view the historical Whois records. However, a free user account is required. This is very helpful for those users who are only interested in the Reverse Whois service; no additional membership purchase is required. As long as the report exists in the user account, direct access is granted to the specific records that were presented in the report. Users who have a paid membership will also be able to view the entire Whois history for the name they selected from the report.
Are Reverse Whois reports included with DomainTools memberships?
Reverse Whois reports are available to any user without requiring a paid membership. That is one of the benefits of using Reverse Whois.
We also provide a complimentary Registrant Alert for the term in the report that you purchased. You will receive an alert when a new Whois record is discovered that matches your search term, or your search term is removed from a Whois record where it was previously listed. This can be a powerful tool to keep your valuable Whois reports up-to-date at a very reasonable cost.
If you ever have questions about the information presented in the Reverse WHOIS reports, we welcome you to contact the Support Team at DomainTools.com
via memberservices@domaintools.com.