The authoritative public record for a domain is the whois record, which is a text file listing basic information regarding the domain. This record identifies the owner of the domain name and lists a set of individuals responsible for the domain, called contacts, as well as the nameservers which keep the domain functioning. The first section of the whois, labeled "registrant", shows either the company or the individual who is the owner of the domain.

Below the contact information are a series of dates showing when the domain was registered, last modified and when it will expire. The expiry date is of particular importance as it indicates the date by which the owner must renew their domain by or risk losing ownership of it. Following that are the nameservers, which allow the servers responsible for the domain to be found.

Whois records may look slightly different than this depending on what kind of domain you're looking at and what interface you're looking through, but the same basic sections will show up.