With the new shared registration system model, the nature of the WHOIS server has changed. Traditionally, the InterNIC maintained the WHOIS server for .com, .net and .org domain names, and a single query returned full whois data including registrant, administrative contact, billing contact, technical contact, and nameserver information.

The Old Way:

A single query returned full whois data.

The New Way:

In the multi-registrar model, each registrar maintains a WHOIS server containing contact and nameserver information for domains registered with them. The InterNIC maintains a central, registry WHOIS server, which simply contains nameserver and registrar information for all .com, .net and .org domains.

The output from the registry WHOIS query will indicate the website address and WHOIS server address for domain's registrar of record, where full contact information can be found.