A private sub-domain registry allocates

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

s in a subset of 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 or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned t ...

under a domain registered with an ICANN-accredited or

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all ...

registry. Most of the private sub-domain registries operate based on an

ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...

name that is a subdomain of a higher-level domain. Some of these registries combine the

domain registry A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a do ...

and the

domain registrar A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic top-level domain (gTLD) registry or a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registry. A registra ...

functions in the administration structure, while others distribute domains via third-party registrars.

Operation

Private registries operate at a technical level identical to official domain registries using the well-known principles of operation of the Domain Name System. In addition, the registries may also operate a

WHOIS WHOIS (pronounced as the phrase "who is") is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomou ...

service to publish domain name information.

History

The idea for an independent global domain name registry stems from a series of conversations between one of CentralNic's original founders and the late Jon Postel, one of the founding fathers of the modern Internet. Postel suggested the use of ''.UK.COM'' to compete with ''.CO.UK'', at a time when the proposed price of the latter was about $300. After the use of ''UK.COM,'' other ISO Country codes ending in ''.COM'' were also established such as ''AU.COM'' (Australia) and ''HK.COM'' (Hong Kong)UDR (Hong Kong) – registry website
/ref> and many other countries. In 2011, CentralNic established the country code second-level domain ''.COM.DE''. Even though that domain is very similar to official ccSLDs, like ''COM.AU'' or ''COM.PL'', it has no official status since it is not operated by

Denic DENIC eG is the manager of the .de domain, the country-code top-level domain for Germany. It was founded in 1996 and is organised as a non-regulated not-for-profit cooperative. DENIC provides the Domain Name System (DNS) as well as registrat ...

, the official registry service provider of ''.DE'' domains.

References

{{WebManTools Domain Name System Domain name registries

Operation

History

See also

References