Try it now - WhoIs.ws Domain Name Tool.
You do not own your domain name. You licence it from the organisation that controls the domain name registers.
You can look up the name of the organisation or individual that is listed as the current licensee of a domain. Or you can use a tool that looks up multiplt registries at the same time. This is where the WhoIs tool comes in very useful. It also provides details such as traffic indicators, performance rankings, renewal dates, available domains, domain history and much much more.
You probably paid for a 2 year licence but shorter or longer licences are sometimes available. By checking the domain registry you can make sure that you are the listed owner. This ensures you retain control over the domain and to which website the domian directs users to. You will also have the first and exclusive rights to renew the licence when it comes up for renewal. If you do not renew the licence before expiration, the licence becomes publicly available once again.
Independentwebadvice.CO.UK is owned by Nominet, the registry organisation for the .co.uk domain name extension. Independentwebadvice.COM is owned by verisign, the organisation that controls the .com domain extensions.
We have the licence for these two domain names (more technically accurate to call these hosting names). We chose to ignore other extensions such as .net, .org, .info and all the other two letter country codes from around the world. We really wanted the domain name 'IWA' but unsuprisingly this was already licenced.
Really, it could not be easier. Simply type your domain name into the search box and click the button. For instance, to search for this website I would type in independentwebadvice.co.uk (although adding www. or http://www. will not make any difference. The extra bits are simply ignored).

The domain name owner and the renewal dates are in the main results listings, which are marked in the image below with a red box. This tool is great for finding out about your competitors too.

The amount of information available varies from site to site, but the options tabs (along the top) offer more details (where available) about the domain name being searched for. These are worth exploring too, there are tabs for an Archive of registry changes, for further Information, for alternate domain name Suggestions and a Web Search for pages related to the domain.
