Domain name registry

A domain name registry, also referred to as Network Information Centre (NIC), is part of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Web which converts domain names to IP addresses. It truly is an organisation that manages the registration of Domain names within the top-level domains for which it is actually responsible, controls the policies of domain name allocation, and technically operates its top-level domain.

Domain names are managed under a hierarchy headed by the online world Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which manages the top rated on the DNS tree by administrating the information inside the root nameservers.

IANA also operates the .int registry for intergovernmental organisations, the .arpa zone for protocol administration purposes, and other essential zones for instance root-servers.net.

IANA delegates all other domain name authority to other domain name registries for example VeriSign.

Country code top-level domains (ccTLD) are delegated by IANA to national registries such as DENIC in Germany, or Nominet in the United Kingdom.

Operation

Some name registries are government departments (e.g., the registry for the Vatican www.nic.va ). Some are co-operatives of world wide web service companies (like DENIC) or not-for profit corporations (which include Nominet UK). Other individuals operate as commercial organizations, for instance the US registry (www.nic.us).

The allocated and assigned domain names are created obtainable by registries by use on the Whois method and by way of their Domain name servers.

Some registries sell the names directly (like SWITCH in Switzerland) and other people rely solely on registrars to sell them.

Policies

Allocation policies

Frequently, domain name registries operate a first-come-first-served program of allocation but may well reject the allocation of certain domains on the basis of political, religious, historical, legal or cultural motives.

As an example, inside the United states, between 1996 and 1998, InterNIC automatically rejected domain name applications depending on a list of perceived obscenities.

Registries may perhaps also control matters of interest to their nearby communities: by way of example, the German, Japanese and Polish registries have introduced internationalized domain names to let use of local non-ASCII characters.

Dispute policies

Domains that are registered with ICANN normally need to use the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP), nevertheless, DENIC involves persons to work with the German civil courts, and Nominet UK offers with Intellectual House and also other disputes through its own dispute resolution service.

Expense of registration

The price of domain registration is set by every individual registry.

Second-level domains

Domain name registries may possibly also impose a system of second-level domains on users. DENIC, the registry for Germany (.de), will not impose second level domains. AFNIC, the registry for France (.fr), has some second level domains, but not all registrants must use them, and Nominet UK, the registry for the United Kingdom (.uk), involves all names to have a second level domain.

Registrants of second-level domains often act as a registry by offering sub-registrations to their registration. For example, registrations to .fami.ly are provided by the registrant of fami.ly and not by GPTC, the registry for Libya (.ly).
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.