: One way of getting some initial information is to look at the domain's registration record. This sometimes gives you clues about whose server the website is hosted on by looking at the DNS

One way of getting some initial information is to look at the domain's registration record. This sometimes gives you clues about whose server the website is hosted on by looking at the DNS server entries. You can look up these records at any whois service, such as whois.net.
In the cases where the DNS server does not give any answers on the hoster, you can often trace the range of IP addresses being used back to a specific provider using an IPWhois search. If you start at the ARIN WHOIS Database Search it will either tell you who owns the netblock, or will refer you to a different search such as at APNIC. You can also get the netblock owner and other interesting statistics by running a "What's that site running?" query at NetCraft

Yet another way of tracing where a site is hosted is to look at its MX (mailserver) DNS entries. Although these are not as tightly linked to the web site as they used to be with the advent of third-party email services like Google Apps, they can often still provide useful information. To look this information up, you need to use a tool called NSLOOKUP. This is available on many operating systems, or you can use an online version like the one at Kloth.Net. Type in the domain name you're interested in (example.org, not example.org), and choose to run an MX query.

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