# CheckWhois

> CheckWhois is a public domain and IP lookup tool that explains registration, DNS and HTTPS information in plain English.

A domain lookup combines RDAP/WHOIS registration information, DNS records, likely hosting-network information and HTTPS certificate and redirect checks, where available. A public IP lookup shows network registration information.

## Pages

- [Domain and IP lookup](https://checkwhois.com/): Enter a domain, website URL or public IP address.
- [Results guide](https://checkwhois.com/docs): Illustrative results explaining hosting organisations, registrars, nameservers, MX mail records, contact form email routing problems, addresses, HTTPS response codes and certificate details.

## Interpreting results

The organisation associated with a website's IP is often its hosting or network provider. "cPanel hosting detected" or "Plesk hosting detected" means the website's server answers on those control panels' ports; it is not reported for sites behind Cloudflare. A CDN or proxy can hide the origin host. This field does not prove website ownership. The domain registrar manages registration and may differ from the DNS, hosting and email providers.

MX records direct incoming email to mail servers or gateways. Lower preference numbers are tried first. They do not verify individual mailboxes or guarantee delivery.

CheckWhois also checks for a web server delivering a domain's email locally. When a website is on a cPanel or Plesk server but the domain's DNS and email are hosted elsewhere (for example Cloudflare DNS with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365), the web server may deliver contact form emails and messages between its own accounts to local mailboxes instead of the real provider, while external email arrives normally. CheckWhois asks the website's server for its own MX records and warns only when that server answers authoritatively with MX records pointing back to itself and also runs a mail server on port 25. The fix is to set the domain's mail routing to remote (cPanel: Email Routing, Remote Mail Exchanger; Plesk: disable both mail and DNS for the domain). See https://checkwhois.com/docs#email-routing.

The HTTPS check follows each redirect and reports the response code at every step, with the certificate the server presented for that address: issuer, validity dates and the names the certificate covers. A 403 response frequently means the site's bot protection refused an automated check rather than a fault a visitor would see. See https://checkwhois.com/docs#status-codes and https://checkwhois.com/docs#certificate.

Lookup failures do not prove a domain is available to register. Public registration contacts can be redacted. Results can be cached and reflect the time of the check. A valid HTTPS certificate does not establish that the website itself is trustworthy.

The guide uses fictional example data, not live results. Live lookup pages and JSON endpoints are not documentation or a supported bulk API.