How to manage WHOIS data for your domain name

Every domain name has registration data: who the holder is and how to reach them. That information comes from WHOIS, the public register of domain registrations. This guide explains what WHOIS is, which data is public and how to manage WHOIS data for your domain in the LJPc customer portal. That way you keep your contact details correct and up to date, set the right registrant and avoid problems when you renew or transfer a domain.

What is WHOIS data?

WHOIS is a public system that lets you look up who registered a domain name. For each domain it holds information such as:

• The holder (registrant): the person or organisation the domain is registered to.
• Contact details: the name, address, email address and phone number of the holder and any contact people.
• The registrar: the company where the domain is registered. For your domains, that is LJPc.
• Key dates: the registration date and the expiry date of the domain.
• The nameservers: the servers that handle the domain's DNS.

Since early 2025, the old WHOIS protocol for generic top-level domains such as .com and .org has been replaced by RDAP (Registration Data Access Protocol). RDAP delivers the same registration data in a more modern and better secured way. In everyday use we still talk about WHOIS data. For .nl domains, SIDN, the organisation that manages every .nl domain, continues to offer its own WHOIS lookup.

Registrant, administrative and technical contact

WHOIS has traditionally distinguished several contact roles. For most domains, the registrant is the most important one:

• Registrant (holder): the legal owner of the domain. This role decides who controls the domain name, which makes it the most important one.
• Administrative contact: the point of contact for administrative matters around the domain, such as renewals and policy questions.
• Technical contact: the point of contact for technical matters, such as the nameservers and DNS settings.
• Billing contact: the address for invoices. At LJPc, invoices go through your account rather than this field.

Since the GDPR came into force, the administrative and technical contacts play a smaller role for many domains. The registrant always remains the deciding party. At LJPc you therefore manage your WHOIS contacts, meaning your registrant details, and link the right contact to each domain as its holder.

Which WHOIS data is public?

Not all registration data is visible to everyone. Privacy rules decide what is shown publicly, and that differs by type of domain.

.nl domains

For .nl domains, SIDN does not show the personal data of private holders in the public WHOIS. The name of a private holder has not been shown since 2016, and the other details of private individuals have been withheld for even longer. If the holder is a business or organisation, the name is shown. What stays public in any case is the domain name, its status, the registrar, the key dates and the nameservers. So for a .nl domain you do not need a separate, paid privacy service: privacy for individuals is built in by default. Separate privacy and proxy services have not even been allowed for .nl since October 2023.

Generic domains such as .com and .org

For generic top-level domains, the personal data of private holders has been redacted by default since the GDPR. Only parties with a legitimate, verified reason can request the full data. Your details must still be correct at the registry, even when they are not shown publicly.

Why accurate WHOIS data matters

Correct contact details are not just convenient, they are also required. A few reasons to keep them up to date:

• It is required. For generic domains, ICANN requires the data to be accurate and current. Incorrect or outdated data can lead to suspension of the domain.
• Verification. When you register a new generic domain or change your name or email address, you receive a verification request. If you do not respond within 15 days, the domain can be temporarily suspended. Your website and email then stop working.
• Renewal. Reminders about the expiry date go to the holder's email address. If that address is wrong, you miss a renewal and risk losing your domain.
• Transfer. If you want to transfer your domain to LJPc or to another registrar, confirmations and authorisation requests go to the contact details. If those are wrong, the transfer stalls.

How to manage WHOIS data in the customer portal

At LJPc you arrange all of this in the customer portal. When you became a customer or registered your first domain, the portal automatically created a WHOIS contact based on your account details. You can view, edit and complete that contact, and add as many extra contacts as you need.

1. Log in to the customer portal.
2. In the Services menu, open WHOIS contacts. You can also go to the Hosting and domain names page and select the WHOIS contacts tab there.
3. You now see an overview of your WHOIS contacts, showing each contact's name, organisation, country and the number of linked domains. The contact with the Default label is used for new registrations.
4. Want to add a contact? Click New contact and fill in the details: name, an optional organisation, address, postal code, city, country and phone number. Write the phone number in international format, for example +31.612345678. Then click Save.
5. To edit an existing contact, use the pencil icon. Change the details and click Save.

The portal automatically sets your WHOIS contact's email address to your personal portal inbox. That way, correspondence from the registry, such as verification and renewal messages, arrives centrally in your customer portal and nothing gets lost. Some extensions ask for extra data. For certain TLDs the registry may require additional information, which you fill in on the same form under TLD-specific properties.

Set a default contact for new domains

Do you register domains regularly? Then set a default contact. In the overview, click the star icon (Set as default) next to the contact you want. The Default label moves to that contact. New domain registrations will then use it as the registrant automatically. That is handy when you register a domain and link it to your hosting.

Change the registrant of an existing domain

Want to set a different contact as the holder for a specific domain? Go to Services, then Domains, and open the domain. Next to Registrant you see the current contact. Click Change, choose the right contact and confirm your choice. Please note: a contact that is still linked to one or more domains cannot be deleted. Link a different contact to those domains first.

When should you update your WHOIS data?

Update your details as soon as something changes. Think of situations like these:

• You have moved, or your business address has changed.
• You have a new email address or phone number.
• Your company name or legal form has changed.
• The domain needs to be registered to someone else, meaning a new holder.

For generic domains such as .com, keep the following in mind: if you change the holder's name, organisation or email address, a temporary 60-day transfer lock can apply. You then cannot transfer the domain to another registrar for 60 days. This transfer lock does not apply to .nl domains.

Not sure how to proceed, or unsure which details you need to change? Feel free to contact LJPc support. We are happy to help.