.net WHOIS Lookup
.net is a generic extension run by the same registry as .com. Look up a .net address and see which fields its record carries.
- 1.494 extensions
- IANA 1601 ICANN accredited
- 2 protocols — RDAP and WHOIS
Your IP address 216.73.216.31
.net WHOIS Lookup: Registry and Registrar Records
.net is a generic extension delegated on the same day as .com — 1 January 1985, according to IANA — and it is run by the same operator, Verisign Global Registry Services. Queries are answered by whois.verisign-grs.com, while the RDAP endpoint is separate: a dedicated .net path under rdap.verisign.com. In our measurement on 12 August 2026 the reply format was identical to .com, field for field. That is not coincidence but one registry infrastructure applying a single template to two zones.
What matters in practice is that the reply points somewhere else. The registry record tells you which registrar sold the name and names that registrar's own WHOIS server, where registrant data lives if it lives anywhere. The record we sampled carried no person or organisation field at registry level, yet returned creation, update and expiry dates in full along with six separate status codes. The same chain on the .com side is shown on the .com WHOIS lookup page.
About the .net extension
- Extension
- .net
- WHOIS server
- whois.verisign-grs.com
- RDAP endpoint
- https://rdap.verisign.com/net/v1
- Registry
- Verisign Global Registry Services
- Delegated
- 1 January 1985
- Registry model
- Thin — the reply refers you on to the registrar's own server
- Published fields
- Creation, update and expiry dates, registrar, abuse contact, name servers, status
WHOIS FAQ
Does a .net WHOIS lookup reveal the registrant?
Not at registry level. Verisign runs .net as a thin registry and never holds the registrant's name, address or email; in the 12 August 2026 measurement none of those fields were present in the reply. Instead the record names the WHOIS server of the registrar that sold the domain. Our lookup follows that step for you, though most registrars have published records belonging to natural persons in redacted form since 2018.
Can I calculate a .net domain's age from its WHOIS record?
You can. The reply returns the registration moment in Creation Date with second-level precision; the record we sampled showed a date in 1999. Alongside it, Updated Date marks the last change to the record and Registry Expiry Date gives the end date. Our result screen derives the domain age and the remaining time from those three, so there is no need to work the arithmetic out by hand.
Why is .net WHOIS output identical to .com output?
Because the same operator runs both zones. Verisign applies one reply template, the same field names and the same ordering across the two extensions. The only registry field that tells them apart is the zone suffix on the record identifier. The practical benefit is real: a parser written for .com works unchanged on .net. No such commonality exists across country code extensions, where every registry writes its own format.
Where is the RDAP endpoint for .net?
IANA's RDAP bootstrap registry routes .net to its own path under rdap.verisign.com — the same server family as .com, but a distinct endpoint. In the 12 August 2026 measurement that endpoint answered and returned the record as JSON. The real benefit of RDAP here is format rather than scope: because the same data arrives structured, it is far more reliable for automated systems than free-form text.
Who sets the status codes on a .net domain?
They come from two places, distinguished by their prefix. Codes beginning client are set by the registrar managing the name, and because the registrar set them it can also lift them on request. Codes beginning server are set by the registry and cannot be lifted by a registrar. The record we measured carried three of each kind: delete, transfer and update were locked at both layers at once.
How does an available .net name appear in a lookup?
Query a name that is not registered and Verisign returns a short reply stating that no match was found, with no dates and no name server fields at all. That means the name looks available to register. Reading such an answer from a stale cache would be a real risk, which is why we keep results for apparently available names for only five minutes, against six hours for registered ones.