Top level domain individuals. Types of top level domains

We continue to master the concept of domains. Today we will consider a topic quite important for a novice webmaster from a practical point of view. However, as usual, nothing complicated. Just read the article carefully.

What are the different levels of domain names?

Domains, depending on their place in the network, are divided into levels or, in other words, domain zones.
First comes the ROOT DOMAIN - as we already know, the most important domain name level.
Then they go

Top level domains.

Such as .RU, .NET, .COM, .BIZ, .ORG and others.
This domain zone includes INTERNATIONAL DOMAINS, or COMMON TOP LEVEL DOMAINS. The most famous of them are .COM, .ORG, .NET. If interested, read about this in additional materials.
Also, the top-level domain zone includes two-letter ones, provided for use for a specific country.
For example, domain.RU - allocated for Russian Federation, domain.DE - for Germany and so on.

Please note that top level domains are not for sale. They have already been assigned and distributed.

Second level domains.

This is the unique part of the domain name that stands immediately before the top-level domain and is separated from it by a dot. The uniqueness of a second-level domain is determined by the fact that there cannot be two identical second-level domains. When registering, a name is selected and if it is already taken, you will be denied registration.

Note. The domains site and vseohostinge.com are not the same, as they belong to different domain zones .ru and .com

Second-level domains are precisely those domains that are sold. But we'll talk about this in another article.

Third-level domains, also known as subdomains or subdomains.

Third level domains are any Domain name within a second level domain. For example: test.site B in this example test is a third-level domain.

A third-level domain is quite a popular thing in our country. For owners of second-level domains hosted on paid hosting, this is the opportunity to place as many subdomains as they like for free within the purchased disk space, of course.

For fans of free hosting, there are many services where you can get this hosting. But the address will be in a third-level domain.

LET'S SUM UP:

So, let us fix that domains are divided into domain name levels in accordance with the hierarchy of domain zones. In practice: in articles, on websites of hosting companies, we will most likely encounter

TOP LEVEL DOMAINS, such as: .RU .COM .RF and many others ;

SECOND LEVEL DOMAINS, such as, for example, domains like DOMAIN.RU or DOMAIN.COM or DOMAIN.RF;

THIRD LEVEL DOMAINS (SUBDOMAINS), such as, for example, domains like SUBDOMAIN.DOMAIN.RU or SUBDOMAIN.DOMAIN.COM or SUB-DOMAIN.DOMAIN.RF .

TOP LEVEL DOMAINS are not for sale, they are already allocated and fixed. But from among them you can choose suitable area when registering a domain.

SECOND LEVEL DOMAINS need to be registered and purchased. You need to come up with a second-level domain yourself, provided that exactly the same one has not already been registered by another person.

THIRD LEVEL DOMAINS are overwhelmingly free. But, one might say, they are shareware. As a rule, where serious business begins, there is always something to pay for. In addition, third-level domains are not registered on specific people, that is, you are not the full owner of such a domain. However, that’s not what we’re talking about today. I hope you don't get confused about domain name levels now.

Generic TLDs (gTLDs) are created for the entire Internet community. Initially, only eight gTLDs were created: COM, NET, ORG, INT, EDU, GOV, MIL and ARPA (the ARPA domain was created for the time necessary to implement the domain name system, but it turned out to be not a temporary phenomenon; it is still “lived in” reverse zones). Then, in 1984, when the domains were approved, it was written in the documents that such a number “will be sufficient, and the emergence of new domains is unlikely.” However, the growth of the Internet has exceeded expectations, and therefore the need of the global Internet community for a number of top-level domains has increased. In 2001, it was decided to introduce seven more new gTLDs: INFO, BIZ, NAME, COOP, MUSEUM, AERO and PRO. Currently, these domains are fully operational.

ICANN has yet to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the domain zones introduced in 2001, but ICANN experts believe that it is inappropriate to wait for such conclusions and delay the approval of new domains. At the same time, ICANN also opposes the hasty introduction of new domains. The experience of introducing domains approved in 2000 shows that highly specialized domains like MUSEUM can be implemented quite quickly. In “large” zones, the problems of cybersquatting, as well as ensuring the stable operation of new domains, are extremely acute. Therefore, the process of introducing such zones requires a comprehensive analysis, and so far ICANN is opting for highly specialized domains. At a meeting in Amsterdam in late 2002, the ICANN Board approved the idea of creating several new top-level domains.

In April 2004, ICANN announced the start of consultations, during which anyone could submit their objections or comments regarding the creation of new domain zones. Big number proposals were submitted to a panel of independent experts, and applications for the creation and administration of new gTLDs intended for specific types of activities were expressed by 10 organizations, each of which contributed $45 thousand for filing an application. Interestingly, the proposal to create a TEL domain came simultaneously from two companies: the American Pulver.Com and the English Telname Limited London. Both of these companies expressed a desire to become the administrator of the new domain. ICANN gave preference to the English corporation.

In 2005, 10 new sTLDs received ICANN approval. These include the following special sponsored limited domains (Sponsored Top-Level Domains, sTLDs): TRAVEL, JOBS, CAT, ASIA, MOBI, TEL. Most of them are already registering domain names.

At the same time, the corporation does not intend to limit the number of future zones in advance. Initially, the initiative to increase the number of first-level domains came from ICANN itself, which is thus trying to meet the needs and optimize the network experience for Internet users.

In order to optimize the implementation of new gTLDs, the corporation decided to develop clear rules governing this process. Work on them began in 2005 and takes place with the active participation of the Internet community.

In September 2007, the ICANN GNSO division responsible for supporting generic domains developed a special draft document that regulates the legal, technical, economic and other aspects associated with the introduction of new top-level domains.

In July 2008, this document was approved. Now the procedure for creating domain zones will become simpler, faster and more accessible. The initiators of the innovation claim that the project will, first of all, solve the problem of occupancy of easy-to-remember names in existing domain names.

Approximate start dates for these programs (“New gTLD”): final version"Applicant Guidelines" for new top-level domains should appear by December 2009, which means that official applications for domains will begin to be accepted in the first days of 2010.

You can find out more information regarding the process of developing rules for creating new domain zones.

ICANN President Paul Toomey explained the need to introduce new domain zones as follows: "It's all a matter of choice. The world around us is very diverse, we want to be able to reflect this diversity on the Internet - in particular, with the help of domain zones".

Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)

Generic Domains

gTLD
Purpose

The COM, NET, ORG domains are the first general top-level domains that appeared in 1984 according to the decision of the international organization ICANN, created by the world community to distribute the address space of the Internet. Initially, seven gTLDs were created: COM, NET, ORG, INT, EDU, GOV, MIL, of which the COM, NET and ORG domains were the most widely used.

Initially, the COM domain was intended for commercial organizations, the ORG domain for non-profit organizations, and the NET domain for everyone involved in the development of networks and telecommunications technologies. However, over time, domain registration in these zones has become completely free, and anyone can register a domain in them.

The COM and NET generic domains are administered by VeriSign, and the ORG domain has been managed by the non-profit organization PIR since early 2003.

The domains INT, EDU, GOV, MIL also appeared in 1984 and immediately became “special” or, as experts call them, “restricted use”.

The INT domain was created exclusively for the registration of domain names by international organizations. The decision to register domains in this zone is made by the international organization IANA, subject to the registrant's compliance with a number of requirements. This domain is the only one of the first special ones in which foreign (in relation to the United States), including Russian organizations, can register a domain name.

The EDU domain contains over 5 thousand names, and like the GOV and MIL domains, it is under the control of the US government. Previously, only four-year universities and colleges were eligible to register a name in the EDU domain, but now smaller US educational institutions will join them. Registration is free of charge. Until recently, both management and technical support for the EDU domain was provided by VeriSign. Now this company has only technical support, and domain policy is determined by Educause, a non-profit association representing the interests of more than 1,800 universities, colleges and other institutions of higher education in the United States.

The GOV domain was created exclusively for federal government agencies USA, and the registration of domain names in this domain is handled by the Government Network Information Center Government-Wide Registration Service.

The MIL domain is under the control of the American government, in particular the US Department of State Security. Specialists of this particular Department maintain a database of domain names for the MIL domain, intended only for military organizations and institutions responsible for the country's security.

The INFO domain is one of the new generic top-level domains that were added to the existing list of gTLDs by ICANN in 2001. The INFO domain is designed for everyone who wants to post information about themselves, their company, product or service on the Internet. “Information” (from English information) is a universally recognized term, easily translated into various national languages of the world. Organizations, individuals, trade marks, public projects will certainly benefit from using the INFO domain.

According to data published by Afilias LLC, which is tasked with maintaining the INFO zone registry, three months after the start of domain registration in this zone, about 60 thousand domain names were registered, of which 60% were Europeans (leaders in the number of names) or other non-Americans . Representatives of Afilias explain such popularity of INFO in the European market by the fact that the word INFO is intuitively understandable to people speaking almost any language. Some numbers: of the already registered addresses, Europe accounts for 52%, North America- 40%. By country: USA - 39%, Germany - 20%, Switzerland - 7%, UK - 6%. Today there are about 5 million domains in the INFO zone.

While Afilias maintains the INFO domain registry, more than 70 registrars collect applications and fees. Registration began in July 2001, and most of the largest companies have already registered domains with their names. In Russia, you can register second-level domains in the INFO zone with the company RU-CENTER.

The BIZ domain (from the English word business - business, business, commercial activity) is one of the new generic top-level domains, intended for commercial organizations, enterprises and corporations that somehow represent themselves on the Internet. Until now, the COM domain, opened for registration in 1984 and which includes almost 70 million domain names, has been and continues to be used in the meaning in which the BIZ domain should act. The widespread interest shown during the pre-registration of second-level domains in the BIZ zone showed that corporate users are really interested in the sites of this zone, seeing in them an additional opportunity to disseminate information about their activities among clients and business partners. Analysts note that demand for this service has exceeded expectations. The emergence of a new domain zone is important step to solve the problem of domain shortages that have arisen as a result of oversaturation of traditional zones (COM, NET, ORG). There are 1.7 million domains in the BIZ zone.

The domain is supported by NeuLevel. In Russia, you can register second-level domains in the BIZ zone with the company RU-CENTER.

On October 17, 2001, ICANN signed an agreement with the MUSEUM Domain Management Association (MuseDoma) to manage the generic top-level domain MUSEUM. Of the seven top-level domains adopted by ICANN in November 2000, three are special domains: MUSEUM, AERO and PRO. The MUSEUM domain was the first of them to work in international system domain names. This special domain is intended for museums, as well as organizations of various forms of ownership related to the museum business. In addition, private individuals professionally associated with this field of activity can register a domain.

The concepts of “museum” and others are given in a number of definitions of the Code established by the International Council of Museums, which was one of the founders of the MuseDoma Association. “Museum” is defined as a non-profit organization in the service of society, acting for the benefit of its development, open to public visits for the purpose of studying material evidence of various human activities, the environment and the aesthetic pleasure of visitors. “Museums” include institutions containing collections of living specimens of plants and animals (botanical and zoological gardens, aquariums), planetariums and technology parks, non-profit galleries and art exhibitions.

In addition to the institutions designated by the term "museums", archaeological, ethnographic, historical and natural monuments and nature reserves should be included. Organizations engaged in museum activities in the ICOM Code are understood as international, national, regional or local associations of museums; management structures or public organizations responsible for their work; non-profit institutions or organizations attempting to preserve, research museum wealth, conduct educational and other activities related to museums and museology, as well as cultural centers and other objects that contribute to the preservation and collection of tangible and intangible resources of the heritage of mankind, its creative activities.

In the ICOM Code, persons professionally associated with museology are defined as employees of museums and institutions equivalent to museums who have received specialized training or have equivalent practical experience in any field of museology.

The registration procedure in the MUSEUM domain is slightly different from the registration procedure in other top-level domains. The domain management association MUSEUM has stated that it has a fairly strict policy for this domain. MUSEUM Domain Administrator The MuseDoma Association will not formally register second-level domains; the right of each applicant to register a domain in the MUSEUM zone will be considered individually. Domains can be registered through ICANN-accredited organizations authorized by the MuseDoma Association. The number of ICANN-accredited registrars that will be selected to register domains in the MUSEUM zone has already been determined, but will be subject to periodic review.

On November 16, 2001, a number of Internet addresses were activated in the new MUSEUM zone. MuseDoma hopes to use domain-specific second-level domain names to create an online directory of museums by type, geographic location and specialty. Thus, domestic museums can already register a third-level domain in the moscow.museum and russia.museum domains.

Domain NAME is intended for anyone who would like to register their first and last name on the Internet as a domain name. The administrator of the domain zone is the English company Global Name Registry Limited, accredited by ICANN.

Global Name Registry began registering second-level domains in the NAME zone on January 14, 2004. The first domain names in this zone appeared two years earlier - back in January 2002, but initially only third-level domains were offered for registration in the NAME domain. So, the address for an individual looked like this: first name.last name.name. And only from January 14, 2004 it became possible to register a second-level domain of the form name.name.

The NAME domain is intended exclusively for individuals and not for companies. The president of GNR hopes that with the start of registration of second-level domains, the system will receive a huge influx of users after two years of confusion. The Global Name Registry intends to make the NAME domain "the standard for custom domains." The domain administrator is available to all users at [email protected] and is ready to answer any questions.

Organizations and individuals connected in one way or another with the aero industry can register a domain in the AERO zone:

space industry;
public and private airlines;
airports and airfields;
air cargo transportation enterprises;
logistics companies for air companies;
air traffic system services;
aircraft crews;
air transport unions;
aviation clubs (flying clubs) and their members;
aviation consultants;
educational institutions and information structures aviation;
aviation industry associations and other representative organizations;
aviation insurance associations;
aviation legislative associations;
aviation media;
civil aviation control structures;
computer systems for reserving and selling air tickets;
government agencies responsible for maintaining aviation operations, providing assistance to airlines and weather bureaus;

This list can be expanded at the discretion of the domain administrator.

AERO is one of seven new top-level domains approved by ICANN on November 16, 2000. The administration of this domain zone, intended for use mainly in the airline and travel industry, is entrusted to the international telecommunications group Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques SITA, which unites more than 50 air carriers years.

SITA was selected by ICANN to specifically create generic domain top level for air transport. This will enable the use of Internet technologies to improve the efficiency and security of commercial electronic transactions in the airline industry, which is the first of many to receive its own gTLD.

SITA, as the administrator of the AERO domain, has developed a policy for this domain zone, which provides for the gradual pre-registration of domains for various groups of third-level domains in second-level domains. To date, the domain administrator himself has reserved about 500 second-level domain names, grouping and designating general concepts Aeroindustry Before submitting an application for domain registration in the AERO zone, you must prove your affiliation with the airline industry.

On March 18, 2002, preliminary registration of domain names began in the new AERO zone: until September, domain names consonant with trademarks and company names were registered, then registration opened in 88 second-level domains, divided into three groups:

airlines;
government and management organizations;
individuals professionally related to the aviation industry.

This structuring makes it easier for users to search for web pages of various airlines. For example, the current website of Sheremetyevo Airport is located at www.sheremetyevo-airport.ru, while most people search on sheremetyevo.ru, which is occupied by a cargo carrier company. Now Moscow airports can register domains that are convenient for searching them on the Internet. For example, sheremetyevo.airport.aero.

By the end of 2002, registration was opened for other aviation groups such as freight and supply, education and sports, media and pilots, etc.

With the approval of seven new top-level domains in 2001, ICANN selected a registry company for each of them. RegistryPro became the PRO domain registry. In the PRO domain, second-level domains have been created.med.pro, law.pro, etc., in which licensed and accredited specialists in the relevant field can register domain names. RegistryPro is constantly expanding the list of professions for which its own subdomain has been created. Also in the new domain space there will be subdomains associated with geographic location. Research has shown that it is preferable for professionals to have websites with domains in the PRO professional zone. More than 35 million licensed professionals: lawyers, doctors, accountants in countries with a high level of Internet development will ensure the rapid filling of the PRO domain zone.

The PRO domain is intended to create areas on the Internet for professionals in various fields of activity. For example, a qualified physician could register the domain JamesRClarke.med.pro, which would let users around the world know that he is accredited in the medical field. At the same time, the lawyer can register for himself the domain name JamesRClarke.law.pro. In addition, the new domain zone is available to professional companies and associations, which can register domain names in the PRO domain that are consistent with the names of companies or their trademarks.

In April 2003, priority registration of second-level domain names in the PRO domain began for owners of intellectual property - trademarks, and in the fall of 2003, open registration of domain names began in the PRO domain. Thus, the PRO domain became the last domain of the seven new generic domains approved by ICANN in 2001 to be open to the general public.

The TRAVEL domain was approved by ICANN in April 2005 from the New York trade group The Travel Partnership Corp. The TRAVEL zone is intended for travel agencies, tour operators, airlines, hotel chains and everyone involved in the travel, excursion and recreation industry. The new domain is designed to unite the entire tourism industry on the Internet in a single domain space. Industry domains will only be available to organizations that have documented involvement in the tourism sector, which can serve as a guarantee to users that the company they are contacting actually has the authority to engage in tourism activities. At the same time, the official registrar of the new domain, the New York company Tralliance, a division of the Internet holding Theglobe.com, stipulates in advance that it will not engage in criminal investigations in the event of inappropriate behavior of any of the domain owners. It is noted that the domain is not intended for anyone's personal travel websites.

From the beginning of October 2005, the domain name registration period began in the TRAVEL domain. To avoid cybersquatting, applications from registered trademark owners were considered first. Subsequently, the domain zone was completely open, but in two years only 25 thousand domain names were registered in it. Experts explain this by the fact that domains in this zone are expensive, the domain itself consists of 6 letters, and there are strict rules.

To obtain a domain, an organization must document its involvement in the tourism sector, this gives users guarantees that the company they are contacting actually has the authority to engage in tourism activities. The domain is not intended for personal travel websites.

The problems of communication between employers and employees are well known. Job seekers need direct access to information about in-demand professions and job openings. A specialized domain zone with names like companyname.jobs is intended specifically for posting such information. Such sites directly provide job seekers with the necessary information about a possible career in a particular company and facilitate the job search process. In turn, employers can post on the Internet the most detailed information about the requirements for job applicants, thereby reducing the time of castings and interviews.

Go Daddy Group Inc., the founder of a number of registrar companies, is ready to cooperate with the SHRM Society for Human Resources Management in the development of the JOBS domain. SHRM has submitted a corresponding application to ICANN and is ready to act as a sponsor of the new top-level domain, and Go Daddy is ready to take on the technical side of ensuring the functioning of the JOBS domain and the registration of domain names in the new “personnel” zone.

Time will tell whether representatives of SHRM, Go Daddy and ICANN will be able to find mutual understanding. It remains to be added that ICANN approved applications for the creation of top-level domains JOBS and TRAVEL as the first of a number of others.

On September 16, 2005, ICANN approved the creation of the CAT domain, intended for members of the Catalan linguistic and cultural community. A non-profit organization, Fundacio puntCAT, was created to manage the new domain.

Since February 2006, trademark owners have been able to register domains in the CAT zone, and since April 2006, open registration of names has started. In November 2007, the Catalan zone exceeded the mark of 25 thousand registered domains.

Names in the CAT zone are available to individuals and legal entities who:

already have an Internet resource in Catalan;
have special code(ENS);
they plan to create an Internet resource aimed at popularizing Catalan culture;
have written recommendations from three individuals who have registered a domain in the CAT zone, or one legal entity.

To register a name, it is enough to fulfill one of the above requirements. Registration is carried out through accredited registrars, who have the right to independently set its cost.

Besides Latin letters and Arabic numerals, 11 is allowed in the domain special characters existing in the Catalan language. In this case, the total number of characters in the name should vary from three to 63.

The TEL domain is intended to store contact information directly to DNS. Domain owners can independently determine what contact information to place on their domain (for example, phone numbers, website and email addresses, and instant messaging service numbers such as ICQ or Windows Messenger). The domain is managed by Telnic, a London-based communications company.

The TEL domain combines traditional means of communication and new technologies, which makes it possible to use telephony, VoIP, instant messaging, email, SMS and other forms of Internet communications. The company's specialists have prepared a universal text and navigation system for contact information of Internet users.

Priority registration in the TEL domain started on December 3, 2008. At the end of March 2009, the zone opened to everyone. Today there are more than 200 thousand names in .TEL.

By the way, this is not the first attempt to launch a TEL domain. A previous application, submitted back in October 2000 by VoIP popularizer Jeff Pulver, was rejected in 2004. Pulver's idea was to simply translate already unique phone numbers into Internet addresses. However, this would cause a conflict with existing scheme ENUM company, which offers to combine phone numbers and DNS.

The decision to introduce a new sponsored top-level domain, MOBI, was made at the ICANN meeting in Luxembourg in the summer of 2005. Following pressure from mobile phone manufacturers as well as Microsoft, ICANN approved the creation of a new top-level domain on the first day of the Luxembourg conference. The new MOBI domain zone is intended for sites and services aimed at working with mobile phones and wireless devices.

Initially, the appearance of the MOBI zone was scheduled for the first half of 2006. Websites that are planned to be hosted in the MOBI domain must at least support WAP technology or similar to it, that is, have all the attributes specific to working with mobile phones - the ability to work on small screen, predominantly text content and high loading speed.

The new domain zone was sponsored by the Mobi JV consortium, which united Microsoft, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica Movilies, Hutchinson 3, as well as the GSM Association. "As MOBI enters the widespread use stage, mobile phone manufacturers will have additional incentive to develop new functionality for mobile devices, and the market opportunity for these devices will increase," the companies said in a joint statement.

According to the management of Western registrars, the MOBI indicator in the site name serves as a guarantee that the site works correctly on a mobile device. Mobile device manufacturers hope that large quantity web resources will be optimized for PDAs and smartphones, the more users will upgrade their phones.

Neil Edwards Executive Director Mobile company Top Level Domain Ltd. (mTLD), said that today, most people have mobile devices with Internet access rather than computers connected to the Internet. The creators of the new domain promise that the special MOBI zone will facilitate Internet access for mobile device users, of whom, according to some forecasts, there will be over 1.3 billion by 2008.

Nowadays, most sites on the Internet are designed for viewing on desktop computers and are not at all designed for downloading from mobile devices. Regular websites can be a terrible experience when viewed on mobile phones. The new domain will make it possible to highlight sites on the Internet that are accessible and convenient for all mobile device users.

Open registration for the MOBI domain began in October 2006, and in May 2007 there were 500 thousand domain names. Citizens of 104 countries have already become owners of domain names in this zone.

Mobile Top Level Domain has developed rules and guidelines for providers based on open standards. These recommendations are designed to ensure normal operation of websites on any mobile phone. Some of the recommendations have already been published on the website mtld.mobi.

The decision to create a domain zone for the Asia-Pacific region was made by ICANN in October 2006. The administrator of the ASIA zone was the non-profit organization dotASIA, which developed the rules and procedure for registering names in the new domain.

On October 9, 2007, the first stage of priority registration of domain names started in the ASIA zone, during which it became available to owners of used trademarks that were registered before March 16, 2006. During the first stage, more than 15 thousand applications were received from those wishing to obtain a domain name. The new zone turned out to be so popular that competition arose for the right to own some domains: more than one application was submitted for 622 names. Australia became the leader in the number of registered domains (3,450 domains).

On November 13, 2007, the second priority registration period began: it became available to all legal entities resident in the Asia-Pacific region. Also, holders of trademarks registered before December 6, 2006 were able to obtain a domain name in the ASIA zone. In addition, copyright holders were given the opportunity to register as a domain name not only an identical designation, but also all the different spellings of their trademarks. Initially, it was planned to complete the second stage of priority registration on January 15, 2008, but the excitement around domain names in the new zone was so great that the stage was extended until January 31. The final opening of the new zone occurred on March 26, 2008.

Top level domains are the starting points from which Internet domain names begin.

Since each Internet domain name consists of several parts, separated by dots and written in reverse order, then the top-level domain (TLD) is the final part of the domain name, separated by dots. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is com (or COM, since domain names are case-insensitive).

The creation, maintenance and administration of top-level domains was initially handled by the IANA organization, led by Jon Postel, operating under a contract with the US Department of Defense. After his death, these issues were transferred to another international organization ICANN - the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and the functions of the contractor were transferred to the US Department of Commerce. ICANN currently maintains and manages all DNS address space on the Internet except restricted TLDs, which are directly managed by US government agencies.

Technically, top-level domains are accessible through a system of root DNS servers controlled by ICANN.

Top-level domains can be divided into several classes:

Country Top Level Domains

Country code domains, unlike all other top-level domains, always consist of two letters and, as a rule, correspond to country codes enshrined in the ISO 3166 standard.

The history of the emergence of top-level domains for different countries as follows:

* July 24: domain.us, USA.
* July 24: domain.uk, UK.
* October 24: domain.il, Israel.

* February 1: domain.ec, Ecuador.
* February 26: domain.bo, Bolivia.
* September 3: domain.ag, Antigua and Barbuda.
* September 9: domain.py, Paraguay.
* November 25: domain.pe, Peru.
* December 24: domain.co, Colombia.

Domains belonging to a group of countries

* .asia - Asian countries, including Australia.
* .eu - European Union.

General purpose top level domains

* .aero - for subjects of the air transport industry.
* .biz - only commercial organizations.
*.cat - for use by the Catalan linguistic and cultural community.
* .com - commercial organizations (without restrictions).
* .coop - cooperatives.
* .edu - higher educational establishments, recognized as such by the US Department of Education.
* .info - information resources (without restrictions).
*.jobs—recruitment agencies.
* .mobi - for sellers and suppliers mobile content and services related to mobile communications.
* .museum - museums.
* .name – individuals.
* .net - organizations related to the functioning of the Internet (without restrictions).
*.org - non-profit organizations(no limits).
*.pro - certified professionals and related topics.
* .tel - services that include communication between telephone network and the Internet (added March 2, 2007).
* .travel - for tourism business entities.

Restricted Domains

* .gov - US government.
* .int - interstate organizations (except .tpc.int).
* .mil - US Army.
* .arpa - Internet infrastructure and, previously, addresses in the closed (military) part of the US Internet.
* .root - the domain is registered in the root DNS servers controlled by VeriSign, but its purpose has never been commented on. Apparently it is used only for internal purposes.

Outdated and unused domains

* .nato - a structure of the international organization NATO - is currently not used, at least on the publicly accessible part of the Internet, from where it was removed in July 1996.
*.web is a domain designated by IANA for use by Image Online Design, a private commercial registrar. Due to public protests, the root servers of this domain were never connected to common system DNS Currently, they continue to function, and on the registrar’s website there is a message that it is allegedly undergoing the procedure of registering this domain with ICANN.
* .csnet is a domain intended for communication with the Computer Science Network, a university and scientific mail network in the United States. Apparently ceased to be used after the merger of CSNET and BITNET in 1988.
* .ddn is a top-level domain intended for use in the American Defense Data Network. Was planned, but never implemented.

Reserved domains

According to RFC 2606, the following four top-level domains are reserved for various purposes, so that they are never used as real domain names in the global DNS:

* .example - reserved for examples.
*.invalid - reserved for use in obviously invalid domain names.
* .localhost - reserved to avoid conflicts with traditional use of localhost.
*.test - reserved for use in tests.

A number of older systems also use a top-level domain - * .local for addresses used within one machine or local computer network. For addressing current computer Also, quite often, the address.localdomain is used.

Common pseudodomains

These domains were not present in the DNS address space, but they are commonly used when forwarding mail from the Internet to networks with a different addressing method. To process mail sent to addresses in this domain, the mail software on the specific machine through which the mail is sent must be configured accordingly.

* .uucp - for gating to machines accessible using UUCP.
* .bitnet - for sending mail to the BITNET network.
* .fidonet - for sending mail to the Fidonet network. Currently, due to changes in generally accepted routing practices between the Internet and Fidonet, the domain.fidonet.org is usually used instead of this pseudo-domain.

Under development

In June 2005, ICANN announced the approval in principle of several new TLDs, the implementation of which is now at various stages of implementation - some of them have already begun their operation and are present in the list of general purpose domains, the following domains are not yet operational:

* .post - postal services.

* .xxx - sites for adults. ICANN leadership ultimately voted against the ".xxx" domain by a vote of nine to five. Currently, the issue of introducing this top-level domain has entered the stage of litigation between commercial structures interested in its creation and government agencies (primarily the Department of Commerce) of the United States.

* .рф - In 2010, it is planned to open a general registration for the first Cyrillic domain.

Proposals for the .mail domain are under consideration.

Currently, ICANN has also begun to consider proposals for the implementation of top-level domains in national languages - and the proposals already submitted are not at all limited to the principle of “one language - one domain”. Thus, the submitted proposals for TLDs in Persian include 15 TLDs for various purposes.

Alternative and additional top-level domains

In theory, anyone can install and start using their own DNS root servers. In practice, various groups of individuals and organizations periodically appear on the Internet and open Alternative DNS root servers for public use. As a rule, these systems supplement the generally accepted set of domains with a number of new first-level domains, sometimes they supplement technical implementation. For example, before the DNS was extended to allow the use of national alphabet characters in domain names, several attempts were made to create additional systems DNS, with domain names, including the first level, containing characters of a particular national alphabet, such as the Russian domain ya.ru. These attempts have not become widespread, but a number of such projects continue to exist to this day. Since ICANN traditionally ignores alternative projects, its own activities in issuing new top-level domains at one time led to a conflict around the .biz domain, for the administration of which there were already two “historical contenders.” As a result, a number of alternative DNS systems refused to recognize domains registered in the ICANN .biz variant and full compatibility of their address space with the ICANN DNS was lost.

Additional top-level domains can be used by specialized software, usually within the same computer, to intercept and subsequently process part of the Internet access. For example, the .onion domain is used by the anonymous Tor network to intercept and subsequently route calls to hidden services of this network, and the .i2p domain is used by software anonymous network I2P.

In recent years, they have become so integral to our lives that we perceive them in the same way as a telephone number or Mailbox. Using this name, you can go to the desired site and thus find out all the information we are interested in or make required action. This is the same chain with which we can find what we need. However, few people know how domains work and what they are.

What is a domain?

The domain is the transformation of the IP address of the server containing the resource that we are looking for by entering the domain name. Essentially, in order not to remember an address like 192.193.0.0, addresses like domen.com were launched. With their help, you will agree, using the Internet has become much easier and more convenient. Many have even managed to build a business on this, which consists of selling beautiful and easy-to-remember domain names. After all, with such a name, it is easier for customers to remember the site, and a similar name can be mentioned in advertising.

Domain Hierarchy

Built according to hierarchy, divided into special levels domains. There can be as many of them as you like, because the name administrator is able to independently create so-called subdomains - domains lower in the hierarchy like poddomen.domen.ru. The next subdomain will look like this: poddomen.poddomen.domen.ru and so on. Thus, low-level domains are formed.

When mentioning a top-level domain name, it should be noted that this is, roughly speaking, its ending. For example, there is the highest level of a domain, it is called the first. These are zones.com, .net, .ru or .club, .travel and others. Ordinary users can only order registration in these zones, and only the organization that manages ICANN domain names can create their own zone.

Second level domains

A second-level domain is a name consisting of two words, separated by a period. For example, this is the site domen.com or domen.travel. This name is the shortest possible (in the hierarchy), and therefore the most prestigious.

As a rule, the second level in all zones is paid. But there are exceptions to all rules, including this one. Zones such as .tk, .ml, .cf and .ga can be registered for free. For example, anyone can take possession of the name domen.tk without paying any registration fee (of course, if such a name is available). A free second-level domain differs from paid ones (for example, .com) in that among the latter there is much less spam and hacker sites that commit fraud on the Internet. This means that search engines, and users will still give preference to sites that have a paid second-level domain. Moreover, registering the same.com is not so expensive - only 15-20 dollars. This amount is paid once for the entire year. Anyone who starts their own website is able to find so much money. And it’s worth it, because by registering such a name, the user will not worry that his free second-level domain can be closed, “hijacked,” and other illegal actions. For the vast majority of Internet projects, this is extremely important.

Difference between domains of the same level

Probably every user has encountered sites in different domain zones many times. To be honest, there are several hundred zones themselves. These are global domains like .com, .net, .info; regional (assigned to a specific country) .us, .it, .fr; it is also a variety of thematic domains. IN Lately By the way, there are many more of them. These are zones such as .aero, .travel, .apple, .club and many others.

If we talk about the difference between all these zones, then first of all we should note the visual effect that the domain brings. “Yandex,” for example, was initially located on.ru, after which it opened its “mirrors” in all other global zones. This allows not only to protect the brand (after all, by entering an address in any zone, the user gets to a single search portal), but also make the site thematic, divide it depending on the zone in which it is in demand. For example, the Ukrainian domain "Yandex" leads to Ukrainian version website (yandex.ua); Belarusian - on yandex.by and so on.

When choosing a top-level domain for your website, do not forget about the theme of the site. Accordingly, select the domain for it. For example, the .club zone is perfect for a club address, and the .aero zone is often used for an airline address.

Why create subdomains?

So, a logical question arises: if the top level of a domain is, roughly speaking, “good,” then why are subdomains needed - names that are an order of magnitude lower in the hierarchy? After all, it is logical that the names of sites like poddomen.domen.ru are remembered less well.

Yes it is. Indeed, remembering such a name is much more difficult than just domen.ru. However, this does not prevent you from creating separate projects on subdomains. For example, for an online store that sells various things, it is quite advisable to create the names kraska.magazin.ru, plitka.magazin.ru. This will make it easier for the buyer to navigate, and easier for the administrator to separate certain product categories.

In addition, the existence of subdomains makes life easier for webmasters who promote websites. So, in the case of increasing the number of links for one subdomain, part of this link mass (which, by the way, search engines are very fond of) is transferred to the main name. And this is obviously very profitable in terms of promotion costs.

Where to find a cheap domain?

The question of where to find and register a top-level domain cheaper arises for many webmasters. This is relevant primarily for those who intend to launch several projects and for this reason, of course, want to save on the total cost of domain names. This can be achieved only in two ways: registration with registrars offering lower prices, or wholesale registration. There are companies that provide name registration at a lower cost.

As a rule, prices fluctuate, which means these lists are constantly updated. They are run by various bloggers and news domain topics. As for registering in bulk, it is recommended to do this with trusted, old companies that have been on the market for at least ten years. So you will not only get favorable price, but also a guarantee that all domains will, simply put, be in good hands.

How do you set up a domain?

Setting up a domain name is the final stage that every webmaster goes through when launching their website. This is quite simple to do: you just need to specify the NS records of your hosting (as a rule, these are two servers that look like ns1.domen.com and ns2.domen.com). They should be entered into the recorder panel.

In addition, on the hosting side it is also necessary to bind to a registered domain. This is done in the order control panel by simply entering a name. After this, you will need to wait from several hours to a couple of days for the records on the domain zone administrator’s side to be updated and the domain to be visible in the visitors’ browser.

Hello, dear readers of the blog site. This blog has detailed information. After or while reading this publication, I advise you to read that article so that a complete picture emerges. I also advise you to read my publications on the topic of what and means.

Today we have a question on our agenda - what is domain or domain name(essentially, these are synonyms). Well, it's actually simple. This is the name for the site, which is assigned to it instead of the difficult-to-remember IP address of the server on which this site is hosted (see). Enter this name in the address bar of your browser and the site will open.

But the difficulties arise precisely in the details. What are they, how does it all work, what domain zones are, how to understand what level domain and which of them can be registered, where this can be done and which zone to choose. There are a lot of questions and I will try to answer them all in this “small note”.

What is a domain?

As I mentioned above, domain is the name for the site..162.192.0. And besides, imagine the situation. You have placed your website on a hosting server (see what this is above) and received an IP address. But, moving to another hosting, the IP will change, which will cause a disaster. But in the case of domain names, this will not happen. Why?

The fact is that there are thousands of DNS (domain name system) servers on the Internet, which will state that the domain site is accessible at the IP address 108.162.192.0. If I move to another hosting, I’ll go to the domain name registrar panel (where I bought it), change something, and it will be written in all DNS servers on the Internet that the site needs to be searched at a different IP address. Convenient right?

Convenient, but probably not yet clear. The main thing you need to understand is a name for a site is a very important thing and it is for life (as a rule, although you can transfer the site to another domain if you wish, this is not easy). Whatever you name the boat, that’s how it will float. True, not only the name is important, but also the level of the domain, as well as the zone to which it belongs. Is it unclear again? Well, let's take things in order.

How a domain name works

Let's start with the basics. The domain record (site name) must include all levels of nesting of the domain (all zones it belongs to) so that it is unique and does not cause confusion.

There are two main domain name registration rules:

The zones that a given domain belongs to are listed from right to left.
Dots are used as separators.

It might look like this, for example:

Net.blog.site

We get a fourth-level domain net, which is part of the third-level domain zone “blog”, which is part of the second-level zone “ktonanovenkogo” belonging to the first-level zone.ru. Nonsense, right? (my wife, who checks errors in the article, will be happy to confirm this).

What domain levels are distinguished?

Root domain(zero level) is considered empty entry, denoted simply by a dot (.). In theory, full record domain name should always end with a dot, but in most cases it is omitted (as if meaning) and instead of writing: site.
They use the already well-established relative notation of domains (without a dot at the end):
Next comes the first level - this is usually regional(national) domains (.ru, .su, .ua, .us, .de, .fr, etc.) or thematic(.com, .edu, .org, .net, etc.). But there are also first-level domain names that include national alphabets(for example, .рф).
Second level- these are already the same domains that you and I we buy(we register with special registrars). Their prices vary not only depending on their belonging to a particular first-level domain (for example, xxxxxxx.ru is usually cheaper to buy than xxxxxxx.com), but also depending on the registrar (or its reseller - retailer).
Third, fourth, etc. — you no longer need to buy them (as a rule) and can be created independently (without registering anywhere) based on the purchased second-level domain. For example, I can create a name like this for a new site - forum..forum..

Let me explain all this again For example:

. (dot) - zero (root) level domain
ru - first level, also called top level domain or zone
website - second level domain name
blog.site - third level domain
net.blog.site - fourth level

Top (first) level domains

Apart from the zero level (root domain), because this is emptiness, then the base is the so-called zones or top-level domains(the name of any site begins with them, although it seems that it ends with them - but not the point). They can't be bought to an ordinary person, but it is from these zones that we will choose when purchasing a second-level domain (name for our website).

So what are they?

First (highest) level domains, assigned to countries, which are usually among a hell of a lot smart people are called by the abbreviation Cctld, meaning country code top-level domain. Russia has two of them:
1. su - a rudiment left over from Soviet Union and now representing the resource space in Russian
2. ru - originally assigned to Russia
Domains with national alphabets, which are usually abbreviated Idn (internationalized domain name). In Russia it is zone.rf. In fact, their names are still written in English characters (recoding occurs), but this is, as it were, hidden from view. However, if you enter the address in your browser: http://ktonanovenkogo.rf/
and after going to this site, copy its address from the address bar, you will get completely indigestible nonsense:
Http://xn--80aedhwdrbcedeb8b2k.xn--p1ai/ It turns out he looks so unpleasant. And it is in this form that it will have to be added to different services(like), and not in the form of someonenew.rf. This needs to be taken into account. Yes, other problems are possible, although not obvious at first.
Upper generic domains, usually called Gtld, which means generic top-level domain, are registered (sold) regardless of the country in which the webmaster lives. The most used of them:
1. .com - for commercial projects
2. .org - for non-profit websites of various organizations
3. .net - for Internet-related projects
4. .edu - for educational institutions and projects
5. .biz - only commercial organizations
6. .info - for all information projects
7. .name - for personal sites
8. .gov - for US government agencies

How and where you can register (buy) a domain in top-level zones

As a rule, you can’t get second-level domain names just like that (and it’s better not to try, because the name for the site is too important to risk registering it with someone unknown). They cost money. Moreover payment is made annually, and then the domain lease needs to be renewed.

Let me draw your attention once again - buy second level domain names, and everything above - you can create on their basis yourself. This is usually done in the panel of your hoster in the subdomains section - these are third and higher level domains, such as blog..blog.site.

There are not so many such companies (prominent examples include RegRu And WebNames), but they may have a whole network of resellers (partners) who will select and sell domains on their behalf. If you are not satisfied with the current reseller in some way or you have any tension with him, then by contacting the registrar, you can choose another reseller or go directly under the wing of the registrar.

At all no limits You can buy domains in the public zones .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .name. In the .edu, .gov and .mil zones, this opportunity is provided only for institutions, as well as state educational and military institutions. There are also a number of specialized first-level domains, for example, .travel, .jobs, .aero, .asia.

Second level domain names in these public areas can be purchased from any registrar(not only national), which, in fact, is what some resources use, which may have conflicts with copyright holders. The same torrent was forced to move to the public zone org, because its resource was blocked in the national domain zone ru.

Second level domains - employment verification and Whois

There are already about half a billion domain names registered on the Internet in various zones, so choosing a good (short, simple, sonorous) name in the right zone is now very easy. not an easy task(just like it's difficult). A third of the registered names are not used at all, because they were purchased for resale (successful domains can be expensive on the secondary market - sometimes many millions of dollars).

Domain name occupancy check

Therefore, the first thing you should do when selecting a suitable domain for your website is . This can be done at different registrars (the result will be the same, since they use a common database).

Below are released in this moment domains(click on price for detailed view):

Good luck to you! Before see you soon on the pages of the blog site

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