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About DNS Raven
Free tools for the registration data behind domain names, IP addresses and AS numbers.
What it does
DNS Raven looks up who registered a domain, when it was created and when it expires, what its status codes mean, which nameservers it uses and whether it is signed with DNSSEC. It does the same for IP networks and autonomous systems, checks lists of domains for expiry, age and registrations, explains EPP status codes, converts internationalised names and lists every top-level domain.
How lookups work
Lookups use RDAP, the Registration Data Access Protocol that replaces WHOIS. WHOIS needs a connection to port 43, which no web page can open; RDAP works over HTTPS. To find the right server, DNS Raven reads IANA's RDAP bootstrap files, bundled with the site as a snapshot taken on . For .me and .io, whose registry RDAP server is not listed by IANA yet, it uses rdap.identitydigital.services after checking that it answers for those TLDs.
Your browser then sends the query straight to that server: only the domain name, IP address or AS number. For .com, .net and other registries that keep a thin record, it also asks the registrar's RDAP server that the registry links to. No request goes through a DNS Raven server, because there isn't one: the site is static files, and everything else happens in your browser.
What it shows
Only what the servers return. Redacted fields stay redacted, placeholders are not presented as names, and when a lookup fails the page says what happened: no RDAP service, a plain-HTTP server browsers block, a server that does not allow browser requests, a rate limit or a timeout.
Analytics
The site uses Cloudflare Web Analytics, which counts page views without cookies or cross-site tracking and never receives what you type into the tools. There are no ads and no accounts.
Details are on the privacy page.