Windows XP and DOS - Display Whois Information in a DOS Prompt or Batch File

SUMMARY: Display whois information for a domain or IP address directly from the DOS prompt without having to open a web browser.

In Unix, the whois command allows you to query remote databases to determine the owner of an IP address or domain. This sometimes contains business administrative and technical contacts, as well as a business address and phone number.

Unfortunately, Windows XP users normally must rely on third-party websites to access this information such as Whois.Net or Internic Whois.

However, Windows XP users can download a substitute for the Unix whois command, available from the Sysinternals site, part of Microsoft Technet.

Simply download the zip file Whois.zip, unzip the contained executable to your main Windows directory, and you can query for information using the following command:

whois DOMAIN_OR_IP

Where DOMAIN_OR_IP is a domain name or IP address.

For example, the following displays whois information about Google:

whois google.com

If you wish to query a particular whois server, add the name of the server after the domain name or IP address.

* Download Sysinternals Whois

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