Bit of a Bizarre question

Where I work I've sort of become the designated I.T consultant :D so I've been doing a bit of networking round the office which basically involved me connecting three cables to our new BT wirless router and inserting a disc ;) but now I find myself building and setting up a website, my problem is that we already have a site which was taken down because most of the staff in the pictures don't work there anymore and we've changed premises, the site was built about 8 years ago and the guy who set it up now lives in Japan and no one can get in touch with him but my boss wants to keep the domain name, is there a way that I can find out who the domain name is bought or rented off? I've tried going through company bills but this company turns over in excess of 2 mill£ a year and I'm not even sure if the bill would be in the same name as the company that we get it off making it a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack:(
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Look up the domain name in the whois database.

If the domain name ends in uk use the nominet whois search.

If it's .com/.org/.net start at network solutions, you may need to query the registrar that domain is registered with.

Thanks for the reply, I tried both those links but did'nt get a result :( its also says that www.cf-ceilings.co.uk is already taken so at least I know its still live somewhere out there :unsure: My gaffer also seems to think that he bought the name rather than rented which i find hard to believe but would explain me not being able to trace a direct debit but most are on a pay monthly basis.
Can u trace that web address??
Btw when I try the cf ceilings web site I get a BT broadband office site which is which isp were on I dunno how this fits into the scheme though.

You don't put the www part into whois.

Domain Name:
cf-ceilings.co.uk

Registrant:
C.F. Ceilings Ltd.

Registrant's Address:
Carleton House
136 Gray Street
Workington
Cumbria
CA14 2LU
GB

Registrant's Agent:
British Telecommunications plc t/a British Telecom [Tag = BTNAMES]
URL: http://www.btconnect.com

Relevant Dates:
Registered on: 24-Aug-2000
Renewal Date: 24-Aug-2006
Last updated: 10-Aug-2004

Registration Status:
Registered until renewal date.

Name servers listed in order:
dns01.gpn.register.com 69.25.142.1
dns02.gpn.register.com 216.52.184.230
dns03.gpn.register.com 63.251.92.193
dns04.gpn.register.com 64.74.96.242
dns05.gpn.register.com 212.118.243.118


www.cf-ceilings.co.uk is pointing at a bt connect web server
home.btconnect.com [193.113.209.61]

It's returning 404 suggesting there is no index.html file on the server

>we already have a site which was taken down because most of the staff in the pictures don't work there anymore

Whoever deleted the site should have to access details necessasary to
upload replacement pages, otherwise you are going to have to contact bt connect and do whatever you have to to convice them you are the legit owner of the domain and get them to give you a username and password for their server or let you transfer the domain elsewhere.

Thanks thats a great help:cool: I'm not sure who took the site down but the details they left for the login was the ftp address and password for our BT free webspace so I'm guessing here that after changing our broadband package we probably did'nt add the domain name to our account but its already transferred to BT, I'll ring tomorrow.
Thanks again:)