The domain .nato was a

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the ...

(TLD) in the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that use ...

(DNS) of the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

. The domain was added in 1990 by the Network Information Center for use by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, based on the rationale that none of the then-existing

top-level domains A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the ...

adequately reflected its status as an

international organization An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states a ...

. Soon after this addition, however, Paul Mockapetris, the designer of the DNS, suggested to NATO representatives that ''nato.int'' would be a better choice. The TLD .int was created for the use of international organizations, and NATO switched to using ''nato.int''. Without use, the TLD ''.nato'' was removed in July 1996.

References

External links

nato.int
- NATO Homepage Generic top-level domains NATO {{Compu-domain-stub