Today the telephone rings. Do you merely answer? Chances are you check the caller-id. Apart from avoiding annoying calls, it provides management capabilities. While annoying calls may disturb you, they don’t ruin your life, give viruses, or phish accounts. If only the same could be said of contacts that pop up on your website or in your e-mail. Enter WHOIS. WHOIS behind that domain? The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requires registration to the WHOIS database. But Network Solutions has taken WHOIS to a higher level, identifying owners of IP addresses. It will help locate the availability statistics for a domain, of course. It will also help to identify the source of potential criminal activity. If you’ve ever been “phished,” you’re aware of how much that can help. WHOIS offers free public database listing of websites’ owners, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and expiration dates. If privacy is a concern, then Network Solutions, for a fee, will function as proxy, providing private domain registration and inserting their contact information in place of yours. Not content to stop there, they also provide an enhanced business listing where you can advertise in the WHOIS database. What better way to drive more traffic to your site? Go directly to the Network Solutions’ ecommerce store to engage this service. But use the service from your browser when you need the added protection and management that WHOIS can provide. It’s the next best thing to caller-id for the Internet. Two thumbs up!
