Top level Domain
each name of a Domain in the Internet consists separated names of a consequence of through points. The English designation Top level Domain (range translates highest level; Abbreviation TLD) designates thereby the last name of this consequence andthe highest level of the dissolution of name represents . If the computer is called for example www.wikipedia.org, then org the Top is level Domain of this computer name.
In the Domain Name System so mentioned (DNS) the complete names and concomitantly the TLDs are referenziert anddissolved, thus a clear IP address assigned. The registration place puts on thereby a data base entry over the owner, who WHOIS - inquiries over minutes of the same name, similarly for a directory, makes possible.
TLDs can be divided thereby in three main groups:
- general TLDs (towards Eric TLD s; gTLD s) and
- country-specific TLDs (country code TLD s; ccTLD s).
- area-specific TLDs
country-specific TLD designators consists thereby always of two letters, general and area-specific TLDs consists of two or more letters.
Table of contents |
general Top level Domains
- .aero - aeronautics, for in that Aviation active organizations - world-wide
- .arpa - TLD of the original Arpanets, now uses as ADDRESS and Routing parameter AREA
- .biz - business, only for companies - world-wide
- .com - commercial, originally only for US firms, now freely foreveryone - world-wide (*)
- .coop - cooperatives (cooperatives) - world-wide
- .edu - educational, only for educational facilities (for example www.mit.edu) (*)
- .gov - government, only government organs of the USA (for example www.whitehouse.gov) (*)
- .info - information supplier - world-wide
- .int - International government organizations (for example www.nato.in t or www.eu.in t)
- .jobs - jobs, only for companies with employments offered - world-wide
- .mil - military, only for military mechanisms of the USA (for example www.army.mi l) (*)
- .mobi - mobile, representation of the web pages particularlyfor mobile terminals, sTLD - world-wide
- .museum - museums - world-wide
- .name - only for natural persons or families (private people) - world-wide
- .net - net administrative mechanism - world-wide (*)
- .org - organization, originally for not-commercial organizations reserves, in the meantime generally approved- world-wide (*)
- .pro - professions (lawyers, tax counsel, physicians, engineers) - only for occupational groups mentioned of the USA, Canada, Germany and the united kingdom
- .travel - for the journey - industry (z. B. Travel agency, Airlines etc.)
(*) = originally the only TLD, due to
the liberals the assignment rules for the TLDs .com , .net , .org , .info as well as (with smaller restrictions) .biz and (recently) .name, existed, is the original meaning of these TLD howeveras far as possible lost come. Such TLD refers not necessarily to an appropriate use. Thus the ICANN calls this TLDs also „unsponsored, open and unrestricted “ (unsponsored TLD: uTLD). Something similar applies by the way also to many ccTLD (see below, misuses).The TLDs .aero, .coop and .museum however is subject to certain restrictions and of the ICANN accordingly also as „sponsored “ is described (sponsored TLD: sTLD).
.arpa the TLD should be original only a temporary solution during the mechanism of the DNS in the Internet,however the later dissolution of these Domain than unpractical turned out. The Subdomain in ADDR ARPA is world-wide in the use, in order to make a dissolving possible of a IP address into a Domainnamen (reverse lookup), a further Subdomain, e164.arpa, becomes for ENUM,the addressing of Internet services over telephone numbers, uses.
country-specific Top level Domains
it gives over 200 ccTLDs. Each country possesses exactly one two-mnemonic code according to ISO 3166.
Exceptions:
- the united kingdom possesses two TLDs (.uk and .gb)
- also Åland has as autonomous province of Finland since March 2006 with .ax its own TLD
- as only stateless area possesses the geographically defined Antarctic the TLD .aq
- Ascension has its own TLD .ac, although it does not stand on the ISO list, butto pc. Helena (.sh) belongs.
- The palestinensischen autonomy areas have their own TLD with .ps, although they formally belong to Israel.
Changes:
- .cs in former times for Czechoslovakia one used, one assigned in the meantime for Serbia and Montenegro.
- .zr for Zaire 2004 became outthe root servers far away (now .cd)
the moreover still three obsolete TLDs for reasons of the accessibility are active:
- Serbia and Montenegro possessed the TLD .yu, today .cs are used.
- In the Russian federation beside .ru also still .su operated
- Osttimormomentarily Andorra changes .ae - Arab emirates combined .af - Afghanistan .ag -
area-specific Top level Domains
.cat
as only speaking and culture community of the world possesses the Catalan language and culture with .cat oneown Top level Domain.
.eu
the TLD .eu for European union is konnektiert since May 2005.
Although European Union is reserved for the European union in ISO 3166, it does not concern here one ccTLD in the actualSense, since the European Union is not a country. In addition, it is none gTLD, since it applies only to a defined area.
The registration of one .eu Domain is permissible only over accredited Registrare of the EURid.
First trademark owners have the possibilityto leave several valid requests before-register themselves, should their label name with the same Domain deal, win the faster. Official registration start for this was the 7. December 2005.
To 7. February 2006 started the phase for company names and other rights, since that7. April 2006 is possible it to register other Domainnamen.
misuses
above all very small and/or poor countries marked their Domains out, by handling not only their assignment politics very liberal, but apply actively the registration of the Domains.The Domainmarkt partly develops to a lucrative business, as the registration fees are set partly clearly over the actually resulting costs.
The first country, which let its Domains register freely, was 1998 Tonga. The attack was enormous, becauseat the time good names were not to be had under com for a long time any longer easily, and others ccTLDs had partially very strict registration conditions. In addition interesting Domainnamen arose, itself very well as short as a result of the ending .TOURLs to use left, as come.to or go.to.
The most well-known foreignused ccTLD is .TV, which is marketed as Television. In addition its own company DotTV was created, who is the Domain marketed and at that the State of Tuvalu joint owner. ThisCoup brought 50 millions to the dwarf state $ at one blow and annually further 5 millions $; thus among other things the entry to the United Nations was paid. Tuvalu appreciates the Domainverkauf even with its own stamp.
Also different countriesand/or. the companies, which marked their TLDs out, try to create a market, as abbreviations are invented, which are to place the address into a context, which was originally not given. Thus for example the Domain .WS ( Samoa) becomes as WebSitemarketed, although such an abbreviation is completely uncommon.
A further characteristic represents ccTLD .tk , Domains under these Top level Domain can be registered free of charge and one receives still to E-Mail - addresses in addition. The sides become in the pre-setting alsoAdvertisement provided, one can switch these off however..tk Tokelau stands for the area - there however the Internet connection on the islands very badly and the technical development is rather backward, becomes only few Domains with the own ccTLD of thatInhabitants used by Tokelau themselves.
Also ccTLD .ag the island state Antigua and Barbuda are applied the use intended by the operator apart from also purposefully for companies in the German-speaking countries, in order to clarify their legal form of a corporation (AG).
On the other hand become sometimesAbbreviations regionally purpose-alienates, although that is perhaps not at all conscious to the respective NICs. Thus Domains under .SH ( pc. become. Helena) for Schleswig-Holstein or the canton work living, such under .BY (white Russia) for Bavaria, .PL (Poland) for Pfalz or such under .BE (Belgium) for Berne uses.
By this kind of misuse also the first city got its own TLD: Los Angeles possesses for some time the rights of the Domain .la, thoseactually for Laos exists.
alternative root DNS
it gives in the Internet also organizations, which operate alternative name servers, over which additionally to, the quasi-official TLDs further TLDs controlled specified above by the ICANN available is. A crucial disadvantage thereby is,that such addresses for conventional Internet users are not attainable. Also they are ignored by search machines such as Google. A further disadvantage is that the name areas of two operators can collide, like for example with .biz - Domains of the Pacific root.
The project open NICto unite tried thereby the alternative systems, however the ICANN TLDs regards as priority and accepts neither konfligierende nor private name areas.
- Open NIC - own TLDs are: .glue, .indy, .geek, .null, .oss and .parody
- age NIC - TLDs are: .exp, .llc, .lnx, .ltd, .med, .nic, .noc,.porn and .xxx. The ICANN plans to release however to at the end of 2005 .xxx as official TLD.
- The Free Community network uses the TLD .fcn
- Pacific root TLDs, which are attainable over open NIC name servers: .ais, .bali, .belize, .bio, .cal, more.career, .chem, .children, .costarica,.ind, .job, .lib, .medic, .nomad, .npo, .ppp, .sat, .satcom, .satnet, .scuba, .socal, .stream, .work and .www. However .biz, .cars, were not accepted .corp, .etc, .family, .food, .jobs, .ocean, .men, .ngo, .not, .online, .wine and .women because of name conflicts, as well as the private TLD.pacroot
the moreover one gives it also the European “open root server network “. It makes available an independent alternative (with IPv6 - support) to the ICANN - root servers.
statistic instructions
at the end of March 2006 were under the most important TLDsthe following number of Domains registers:
- .com: 50,1 million
- .de: 9,7 million
- .net: 7,5 million
- .uk: 4,8 million
- .org: 4,5 million
- .info: 2,6 million
- .nl: 1,9 million
- .eu: 1,7 million
- the new TLD .eu counts to 13. April 1.5 million.
Web on the left of
- http://www.denic.de/ - German registration place for Domainnamen with the ending .de
- http://www.denic.de/de/domains/statistiken/domainvergleich_tlds/index.html - source for the statistic instructions
- http://www.switch.ch/id/ - Swiss registration place for Domainnamen with the endings .ch and .li
- http://www.nic.at/ - Austrian registration place for Domainnamen with the ending .at
- http://www.eurid.eu/ - European registration place for Domainnamen with the ending .eu
- http://www.internic.net/
- http://www.icann.org/
- http://www.icann.org/tlds/ non-country-specific Top level Domains
- http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm
- http://www.opennic.unrated.net/
- http://www.aufrecht.de/3869.html - contribution for the legal meaning of the Top level Domains afterGerman right… http://www.xanady.de/ext/Downloads/ - SQL file
- with all country-specific TopLevel Domains http://www.tk/ - “
- sartorius.at ” registration place for Domainnamen with the ending .tk [(Tokelau) free]
- http://www.nic.de.vu/ - registration place for free Domainnamen with the ending .de.vu
- http://www.smartdots.com/ - registration place for free Domainnamen with thatEnding .de.tc, .net .tc, .com .tc etc.
