The

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. ...

net is a

generic top-level domain Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of ev ...

(gTLD) used in 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 ...

of 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 ...

. The name is derived from the word ''network'', indicating it was originally intended for organizations involved in networking technologies, such as

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

s and other

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

companies. However, there are no official restrictions and the domain is now a general-purpose namespace.

History

is one of the original top-level domains (the other six being , , , , , and ) despite not being mentioned in RFC 920, having been created in January 1985.

Verisign Verisign, Inc. is an American company based in Reston, Virginia, that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the authoritative registry for the , , and generic top-level d ...

, the operator of after acquiring

Network Solutions Network Solutions, LLC, formerly Web.com, is an American-based technology company and a subsidiary of Web.com, the 4th-largest .com domain name registrar, with over 6.7 million registrations as of August 2018. In addition to being a domain name ...

, held an operations contract that expired on 30 June 2005.

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several dat ...

, the organization responsible for domain management, sought proposals from organizations to operate the domain upon expiration of the contract. Verisign regained the contract bid and secured its control over the registry for another six years. On 30 June 2011, the contract with Verisign was automatically renewed for another six years. This is because of a resolution approved by the ICANN board, which states that renewal will be automatic as long as Verisign meets certain ICANN requirements. As of May 2022, Verisign continues to manage .net.

Registration

Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and

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 also accepted. The first created .net domain name is nordu.net. It was created on 1 January 1985 according to the public records, and

NORDUnet NORDUnet is an international collaboration between the national research and education networks in the Nordic countries. Members The members of NORDUnet are: * SUNET of Sweden * UNINETT of Norway * FUNET of Finland * Forskningsnettet of D ...

has used this domain name since 1985. Net extension is the most preferred gTLD just after .com. Total registered domain names with net extension are 13.0 million as of Q2 2024. As of 2024, it is the fourth most popular top-level domain, after , and . The .net domain rose from fifth to fourth place as a result of the .tk domain ceasing to accept registrations.

References

External links

List of accredited registrars
{{DEFAULTSORT:NET Generic top-level domains Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members Internet properties established in 1985