.at is the

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

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

(

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 tw ...

) for

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. It is administered by

nic.at nic.at GmbH, based in Salzburg, is the domain name registry for the country code top-level domain .at. "AT" is the ISO 3166 country code for Austria. Nic.at is owned by the Internet Foundation Austria and has 30 employees. From 1988 until 1998, ...

Second-level domains

The .at top-level domain has a number of

second-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a second-level domain (SLD or 2LD) is a domain that is directly below a top-level domain (TLD). For example, in , is the second-level domain of the TLD. Second-level domains commonly refer to the organ ...

s: However, it is also possible to register directly at the top level.

Known domain hacks

Given the number of English words that end with -at, this presents the possibility for many

domain hack A domain hack is a domain name that suggests a word, phrase, or name when concatenating two or more adjacent levels of that domain. For example, and , using the domains ''.bot'' and ''.le'', suggest the words ''robot'' and ''example'' respective ...

s. Many Austrian

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

s were registered for English words that end with "at". Domain hacks treating "at" as a word in its own right (such as ''arrive.at'') are widespread. As of today, there are very few such

s left available on the domain prime market as the result of domain name speculation. Most of them can be bought on the domain secondary market. Only a few of these

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

are actually used. Some known examples of the Austrian

s are: * donteat.at, a popular Foursquare service * hailst.at, official website of Mississippi State Bulldogs athletics

Properties

An .at-Domain can be between one and 63 characters long. Registrations of

internationalized domain name An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacrit ...

s are accepted. In 2007, it was made possible to register domain names containing only numbers. The .at-Domain started using

DNSSEC The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a suite of extension specifications by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing data exchanged in the Domain Name System ( DNS) in Internet Protocol ( IP) networks. The protoco ...

in 2011 in order to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

's data. Before August 2016, it was only possible to register .at-Domains with three or more (two for co.at, ac.at, gv.at, or.at) characters.

References

External links

NIC.AT Website

Private Individuals

.at Registrars Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:At Internet in Austria Telecommunications in Austria Country code top-level domains Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members Internet properties established in 1988 1988 establishments in Austria de:Nic.at he:סיומת אינטרנט#טבלת סיומות המדינות sv:Toppdomän#A