Left · the labs.llc tool
WHOIS, side by side
The registry lookup on labs.llc against ICANN's own tool, who.is and Whois.com, with a verdict under every row.
Right · set against
- ICANN Lookup
ICANN's registration-data lookup for domains, IP networks and AS numbers, built on RDAP.
page checked 2026-09-27 20:02 UTC - who.is
Free WHOIS, RDAP, DNS and IP lookups, with paid history reports, monitoring and an API.
page checked 2026-09-27 20:02 UTC - Whois.com
Domain and IP ownership lookups from a company that also registers domains.
page checked 2026-09-27 20:02 UTC
1 · The tool
What it is, and who it is for
A WHOIS page answers two questions: who holds a name, and when it runs out. The labs.llc WHOIS, part of the site's domains desk, answers them from the authorities themselves. It asks the registry, follows the referral to the registrar, resolves the DNS and traces each address to its network, then lays the parsed report beside the untouched records so the reading can be checked.
It suits domain owners, buyers doing their homework, IT and security staff, and reporters working out who is behind a website.
2 · The workings
How it works
The work happens in a same-origin PHP relay on the labs.llc server (domains/whois/api.php, engine in lib/engine.php); the browser draws the result. A report takes up to three rounds of concurrent questions: IANA's WHOIS for the ending, cached a week; then the registry's RDAP, its port-43 WHOIS and a DNS-over-HTTPS resolver at once; then, in full mode, the registrar, Team Cymru, the regional internet registry and the nameservers. A quick reading gets eight seconds, a full one twenty.
- data.iana.org: TLD list and RDAP bootstrap files
- publicsuffix.org: the Public Suffix List
- whois.iana.org, per ending
- the ending's registry RDAP and port-43 WHOIS
- the registrar's RDAP and WHOIS servers
- dns.google (DNS-over-HTTPS)
- whois.cymru.com (IP to network)
- the regional internet registry's RDAP, e.g. rdap.arin.net
Where the work happens: A server relayapi.php on labs.llc puts the questions; your browser draws the report and keeps any history.
3 · The test
What we ran, and what came back
Run against a local copy of labs.llc build 537, byte-identical to the live site. Times are UTC.
| What we did | When (UTC) | What came back |
|---|---|---|
| Full report for wikipedia.org | 2026-09-27 19:58:35 | HTTP 200, 34,074 bytes in 1.70 s. Registered, on the RDAP record; created 2001-01-13, expires 2027-01-13; registrar MarkMonitor Inc. (IANA 292). 14 sources consulted, 0 errors; network AS14907, Wikimedia. |
| The list of every ending | 2026-09-27 19:58:49 | HTTP 200 in 0.012 s: 1,438 endings in the root zone, 1,200 of them with an RDAP service. |
4 · Side by side
Row by row against ICANN Lookup, who.is, Whois.com
3 to labs.llc3 elsewhere0 level
01Where the answer comes from
Registry RDAP, registry WHOIS and DNS are asked together, then the registrar: 14 sources logged for wikipedia.org. Every report keeps the untouched RDAP JSON and WHOIS text, and logs each server with its status and time; the .org registry answered in 691 ms, MarkMonitor in 605 ms.
Evidence: engine.php lines 5-11; index.html lines 715-730; test at 19:58:35 UTCICANN Lookup is built on RDAP and offers a WHOIS lookup if the RDAP query fails, per ICANN's announcement of the tool. Its FAQ says results come live from registries and registrars.
who.is offers WHOIS and RDAP as separate lookups.
labs.llc asks both protocols at once and keeps the evidence beside the answer. ICANN's tool has the better claim to neutrality: it is ICANN's own official lookup.
02What else is in the report
DNS records, graded mail security (SPF, DMARC, MTA-STS, TLS-RPT, BIMI), DNSSEC, and the network behind each address: for wikipedia.org, AS14907 from ARIN.
Evidence: measured dns and network keys, 19:58:35 UTCwho.is has DNS records, nameserver and IP lookups, each as its own tool.
ICANN Lookup also looks up IP networks and AS numbers from the same box, per its FAQ.
The others offer several of these pieces as separate lookups; labs.llc puts them in one report about one name.
03When a lookup fails
A timeout is “Unknown”, never “Available”; DNS silence proves nothing. A redacted owner stays redacted: the page lists four answers it refuses to give.
Evidence: engine.php lines 16-18; index.html lines 1230-1270Whois.com pairs its lookup with availability checks and name suggestions.
ICANN Lookup prompts a WHOIS query when RDAP does not answer.
labs.llc commits in code to the strict reading. We did not provoke failures on the others, so this row records a promise, not a contest.
04Who held the name before
Nothing. It reads the record as it stands today, so an ownership change last year is out of its reach.
who.is sells a Domain History report built from WHOIS and RDAP snapshots going back to 2007.
who.is does this and labs.llc does not.
05Buying the name
A lookup, not a registrar: an unregistered name gets advice on where to check it, not a buy button.
Whois.com lets you register, transfer or check availability of a name from the same site.
If the next step is buying, Whois.com is one step shorter.
06Watching and volume
No alerts. Batch mode runs a pasted list or file three at a time as quick readings; each reader is capped at 40 quick readings a minute and 1,500 a day, and at 12 full reports a minute and 400 a day.
Evidence: cache.php lines 370-371; whois-ui.js line 1848who.is sells Pro Website Monitoring for up to 10 domains, alerting on downtime, DNS changes and certificate expiry, and a Pro API.
For monitoring or bulk work, who.is's paid tiers go further.
5 · The shortcomings
Where it falls short
- No historical WHOIS: past owners are invisible.
- Rate limits of 12 full reports a minute and 400 a day per reader (quick readings: 40 a minute, 1,500 a day).
- It does not sell or reserve names.
- A full report relies on many outside servers inside a 20-second deadline, so a slow registrar can leave panels partly empty.
6 · The verdict
Which side, for which job
Left: labs.llc WHOIS
Pick the labs.llc WHOIS to see where every field came from, with DNS and mail security alongside, from a page that prefers “Unknown” to a guess.
Right: elsewhere
Pick who.is for the record as it stood years ago, ICANN Lookup when you need the official answer to cite, and Whois.com when you mean to buy.
Of the four, the one that shows its working: registry and registrar asked directly, raw records kept, every server timed. Not a history service, not a shop.
Try WHOIS on labs.llc