How do I determine the site owner for a Purdue website?

Overview

This how-to article outlines the process for determining the owner of a website. The easiest ways to do this are shown first, followed by more general approaches.

Instructions

First you will need the address (also known as the URL, or Uniform Resource Locator) of the website. You can get this from your browser's address bar while you're viewing the web page. Once you have that:

1. If you haven't already, look in the KB article "Who can answer questions about content/change requests on Purdue's websites?" to see if the site is listed. That will show you the owner directly. The article may not mention the full URL you are looking for, but the owner of the top level of the site should still be the best contact for any page within it.
   • If changes to the site are needed or you want to request access to make changes to the site, follow the instructions in that KB article to contact the site owner to request changes.
   • If there is an issue with the site or the site is down during business hours, click the "Purdue IT Request" button on the right to open a ticket with Purdue IT Web Services, and then call the Purdue IT Service Desk to escalate the issue.
   • If there is an issue or outage after hours, please send an email to Purdue IT Web Services and follow the instructions in the auto-reply.
2. If there wasn't a match in step 1, look in the KB article "How do I find out who can update or edit a Purdue web site?" and follow the instructions there if you haven't already. Those instructions show you how to use a simple, web-based tool (Service Reports) that can show the owners and developers of any website hosted by Purdue IT Web Services.
   • If changes to the site are needed, directly contact the site owner or a developer listed by the Service Reports tool to request changes.
   • If you need access to edit the site yourself, click the "Purdue IT Request" button on the right to open a ticket with Purdue IT Web Services.
   • If there is an issue with the site or the site is down during business hours, click the "Purdue IT Request" button on the right to open a ticket with Purdue IT Web Services, and then call the Purdue IT Service Desk to escalate the issue.
   • If there is an issue or outage after hours, please send an email to Purdue IT Web Services and follow the instructions in the auto-reply.
3. If you can't find the site owner with either of the above methods, the site is not hosted by Purdue IT Web Services, but may be supported by another part of Purdue IT. Read the rest of this article for tips on finding a contact for the site.

Step 1: Find the Host Name

A URL is composed of 2 or more parts. To find the host name, look for the part after "http://" or "https://", but before any additional slashes. Most browsers will highlight this part of the URL, or in some cases only show that part of the URL. Here’s an example with the host name in bold text:

https://www.google.com/search?q=purdue+university

If there’s no "http://", "https://", or similar in front, then the first section before a slash (if any) is the hostname.

Step 2: Find the IP Address

Once you have a host name, you can look up its IP address. You can do this by using a web tool like https://www.nslookup.io, but this only works for public-facing sites. You can also use a command line tool like "nslookup", which can look up anything your computer can see.

Using a Web Tool

1. Navigate to https://www.nslookup.io or a different online DNS lookup tool.
2. Type the hostname you found into the field labeled “Domain name”, leaving everything else alone.
3. Click "Find DNS Records".
4. Look in the "A record" section that appears.  On the top left, you’ll find the IP address (IPv4 Address).  See the picture below:
    

If you don’t see any information, that either means the site is private to Purdue or it means you don’t have the correct host name. If you’re sure you have the correct host name, you can look up the IP from a computer at Purdue using a command line tool.

Using a Command Line Tool

1. Open the command line program for your operating system, which almost always has "Terminal" in the name. For example, Windows calls it "Windows Terminal", while macOS calls it "Terminal". Use your operating system’s search function to find it if you don’t know where it is.
2. Type the command “nslookup” followed by a space and then the host name.
3. Press enter (or return).
4. The results will come in two sections. The first just shows the DNS server you’re querying. The second contains the results, and is usually starts with “Non-authoritative answer”.
   
   

For both of the above examples, see that the IP address for www.purdue.edu is 128.210.7.200.

NOTE:  If you see an error message from nslookup that contains “NXDOMAIN”, that most likely means the host name is invalid. Verify you have the correct host name and try again. Common problems are typos or including (or forgetting) a “www” when it should not (or should be) in the name.

Step 3: Determine Who Supports This Site

Now that you have the IP address, it’s a matter of knowing what IP address ranges belong to who. Here’s a quick reference of common ranges (x means any number between 0 and 255):

Anything outside the above ranges is probably not supported by anyone at Purdue.

Still need help?  Click the 'Purdue IT Request' button to start a ticket.