What is the real WHOIS url?

So many fakes

[jpell]

Hello Everybody,
I am no longer comfortable having my WHOIS info made available to the pubic. I was looking for their URL and found whois.net, whois.com, whois.org and a host of others. What is the official WHOIS website url and also what is your take on using a service that "cloaks" your personal information in the WHOIS database? I have a very diverse site, nothing within a million miles of ever being considered racey, however, as it grows and I watch my visitors increase, I wonder more and more if I should use one of these services. Any personal recommendations would be most greatly appreciated as well. Thanks in advance.
JPell

[Lisa]

www.internic.net is the OFFICAL whois of the department of commerce
www.verisign-grs.com is the OFFICAL whois of COM and NET Registry
www.pir.org is the OFFICAL whois of ORG registry
www.whois.biz is the OFFICAL whois of BIZ registry
www.whois.info is the OFFICAL whois of INFO registry

But none of these are the offical whois of the actual domains. For that information you need to go directly to the registrar who is handling the domain registration. Their whois is considered the offical one. What it says at the registry is not offical.

[sidyadav]

what is your take on using a service that "cloaks" your personal information in the WHOIS database?

What do you mean "cloaks" the personal information?

Its a service searching the database of the registered domains in a registrars database. So , for example, If I wanted to sue a company which has copied my site's content, I could just check the whois of that domain and contact the maintainer. Pretty useful.
Donno how this service "cloaks" your personal information though. Its not like its giving away your credit number.

Whois.sc [register.com] - They have pretty relevant WHOIS info in my opinion. So does Register.com [register.com]

I don't use any others - it takes 5 minutes just to check whois, enter verification code, etc.

And also, what do you mean by "fake" info? All the WHOIS I've seen so far are correct. In what way are some of them "fake"? Care to give an example?

Sid

[bcolflesh]

networksolutions.com/en_US/name-it/private.jhtml

As for fake - well, you can register w/any info you like - doesn't have to be real - just the anonymous email addy to confirm it.

[jpell]

Thanks Lisa for all of your helpful information. By "cloaks" for (sidyadav), I mean entities that list their address and name in place of your personal information in the WHOIS directory for a fee. Rather than seeing John Doe 123 Smith Street, Anywhere USA, 55555, their address would be seen instead. I was wondering if it has any affect on PR as well as any rights to the domain and content.

[jpell]

Hello bcolflesh,
Thanks for that bit of information. I was always under the assumption that if your information wasn't verifiable by Big Brother Technology or "BBT" as I shall phrase it, you might be branded as a fraud, and get a lower ranking. It's a shame that webmasters are coerced into thinking they have to post personal information just to register a domain name.

[GeorgeK]

[domainsbyproxy.com...] offers a solution if you want to mask your WHOIS.

[robert adams]

as far as I know (and that aint much) page rank has nothing to do with domain registration info.

luck,
robert

[sidyadav]

was that PR as in "PageRank" or PR as in "Public Relations"?

Sid