.nl 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 top-level domain 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 ...

(ccTLD) for the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is one of the most popular ccTLDs with over six million registered .nl domains . When cwi.nl was registered by Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica on 1986-05-01, .nl became the first active ccTLD outside the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Registry

Since 31 January 1996, .nl domains are registered by the (SIDN, in English: Foundation for Internet Domain Registration Netherlands), based in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

. Most registrars are ISPs, IT service bureaus and media service bureaus, but several large enterprises with many brand names have also become a registrar, or participant as SIDN calls them, which is a quite uncommon phenomenon in 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. ...

industry. Registrars have to pay SIDN a fee for each domain since 1 April 1996, until then registration was free. SIDN does not deal directly with registrants. In the early days, most of the registrants were universities and research departments of large companies, such as .

Second-level domains

Official second-level domains do not exist. A number of companies have taken the opportunity to register domains like co.nl and com.nl, using them to sell third-level domains. These are not affiliated with SIDN. Individuals were allowed to register a second-level .nl domain since 2003. As a forerunner, individuals were allowed to register a

third-level domain In the Domain Name System (DNS) hierarchy, a subdomain is a domain that is a part of another (main) domain. For example, if a domain offered an online store as part of their website it might use the subdomain. Overview The Domain Name System ...

since 2000. Such 'personal domains' had the form of . They never became popular, and registration has been suspended since 2006. Because there were only around 500 of such domains registered, in contrast to about 5 million second-level domains, SIDN announced the discontinuance of personal domains as of 2008 on 4 July 2007.

Technical limitations

Unlike the majority of top level domains, .nl requires each nameserver to use a unique

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

. There must be at least two nameservers set, meaning at least two different IP addresses must be used. Other TLDs with this requirement are .ca and .cn.

Other country-code TLDs under the Kingdom of Netherlands

* .an – ccTLD for the former multi-nation

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

federation * .aw – ccTLD for

Aruba Aruba, officially the Country of Aruba, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the southern Caribbean Sea north of the Venezuelan peninsula of Paraguaná Peninsula, Paraguaná and northwest of Curaçao. In 19 ...

* .bq – ccTLD for the

Caribbean Netherlands The Caribbean Netherlands (, ) is a geographic region of the Netherlands located outside of Europe, in the Caribbean, consisting of three special municipalities. These are the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba (island), Saba,"Bonair ...

(

Bonaire Bonaire is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially Public body (Netherlands), "public body") of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west (Windward an ...

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

, and Saba) * .cw – ccTLD for

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

* .sx – ccTLD for

Sint Maarten Sint Maarten () is a Countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean region of North America. With a population of 58,477 as of June 2023 on an area of , it encompasses ...

References

External links