.be WHOIS Lookup
.be is the country-code extension of Belgium, administered by DNS Belgium. Look up a .be address and see what the record contains.
- 1.494 extensions
- IANA 1601 ICANN accredited
- 2 protocols — RDAP and WHOIS
Your IP address 216.73.216.31
.be WHOIS Lookup: Records Held by DNS Belgium
.be is Belgium's country code extension, delegated into the root zone on 5 August 1988 and operated by DNS Belgium. Queries are answered on port 43 by whois.dns.be. In our measurement on 12 August 2026 the reply carried eleven fields, arriving as indented blocks: registrant, registrar, name servers, keys and flags.
The status line does a different job here. In most registries status is a word describing whether the registration is active; DNS Belgium instead uses the vocabulary of availability — for the registered address we measured the line reported the name as taken, and when we asked about an unregistered name it reported it as free. The EPP codes familiar from generic extensions do not sit on that line at all but in a separate flags block, which in the record we measured held a transfer lock.
On the date side there is a single field: the registration date. No expiry date and no last-updated time appear at all. That registration date is also written in an unusual way — as readable text beginning with the day name and running through an abbreviated month — so machine parsing needs a rule of its own. The registrant block is closed and points to the registry's own web interface. To compare neighbouring records, see the .nl WHOIS lookup and .eu WHOIS lookup pages.
About the .be extension
- Extension
- .be
- WHOIS server
- whois.dns.be
- RDAP endpoint
- This extension has no RDAP endpoint in the IANA bootstrap registry.
- Registry
- DNS Belgium vzw/asbl
- Delegated
- 5 August 1988
- Fields measured
- 11 fields (12 August 2026)
- Withheld
- Expiry date, last-updated time and registrant details
- RDAP
- IANA's bootstrap registry defines no endpoint for .be
WHOIS FAQ
What does the status line mean in a .be record?
It reports directly whether the name is taken. Most registries use the status field for a value describing whether a registration is active; DNS Belgium chose the vocabulary of availability instead. In our measurement the line reported a registered address as taken, and an unregistered name as free. That line sits at the very start of the raw reply and appears exactly as it stands in the raw output tab of the result screen.
What does the flags block in a .be reply show?
It shows the locks on the record and carries the same EPP codes used by generic extensions; the record we measured held a transfer lock. This is separate from the status line: status says whether the name is taken, flags say which operation is blocked. If a .be address will not move to another registrar, this is where to look — and the party that set the lock is the registrar managing the name.
Does a .be record carry an expiry date?
No. In the 12 August 2026 measurement the reply held only the registration date; fields for an expiry date and a last-updated time were absent entirely. IANA's RDAP bootstrap registry defines no endpoint for .be either, so there is no second channel. If you need to track the term of a .be address, your registrar's own record is the only reliable source.
Why is the .be registration date written so unusually?
Because DNS Belgium writes it as readable text rather than in machine form: it opens with the day name, continues with an abbreviated month and ends with the year. Every generic extension uses the ISO layout in UTC. If you parse .be output with a tool of your own, a date parser written for .com cannot read that line and you will need a rule of its own.
Does a .be WHOIS lookup show the domain holder?
It does not. The registrant block is present in the reply but its content is closed, and the registry points to its own web-based interface for queries. The registrar block, by contrast, is open and carries the organisation's name and website. If you need to report something about a .be address, that registrar's own channel is the route that works.
What is the keys block in a .be record for?
It is set aside for the domain's DNSSEC key material; in the record we measured the block was present but empty, meaning the name was not signed. The extension itself is a separate matter: the .be zone holds a DS record in the root and is signed. Whether an address is signed can be seen from this block or straight from a DNS query, which is what the DNS tab on the result screen uses.