The first step in finding any online resource through a domain name is to consult the "whois record." This record is a kind of file that is maintained by the "registrar" of the domain, and filed with the root servers which are operated by the domain name registry. The registrar is usually the company the domain was registered (purchased) through and the registry is the organization that keeps track of all domain names, regardless of which company was used to register them. For example, easyDNS is a registrar, and currently Verisign is the registry for all .com and .net domain names.