International Domain Names (IDNs)

• What Chinese domain extensions do you support?

  We support several Chinese TLDs or top-level domain extensions. Most are new TLDs that have recently been released. .CN - China's country code domain (ccTLD) (Latin version). .中国 - China's country code domain (ccTLD) (Chinese version). .公司 - Chinese version of .COM. See more generic TLDs similar to .COM. .网络 - Chinese version of .NET. .机构ž„ - Chinese version of .ORG. .在线 - Domain for general Chinese websites. 在线 is Chinese for "online". .中文网 - Domain for general Chinese websites or Chinese language version websites. 中文网‘ is Chinese for "Chinese language website". .世界 - Domain for general Chinese websites. 世界•Œ is Chinese, Korean, & Japanese for "world". .移动 - Domain for Chinese mobile websites. 移动 is Chinese for mobile. See also .MOBI. .WANG - Domain for general Chinese websites as well as personal website for people with the name Wang. "Wang" roughly translates to "website" and is also a popular name in China. See more personal TLDs. See our full list of TLDs that we support. We also have many other TLDs that support domain names in Chinese. Check out our IDN page to see the languages supported by our TLDs.

• What is an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)?

  Internationalized domain names (IDNs) are domain names that either: are written in languages/scripts using Latin letters with diacritics (accents marks such as é or ü) or do not use the Latin alphabet at all IDNs allow native speakers of non-Latin based scripts to access the Internet in their own language. Since Internet usage is rising around the world and the world is full of many different languages and scripts (Chinese being the most spoken language!), IDNs offer a great way to connect with your target market no matter what they speak! We support many domain extensions that offer IDNs in a variety of languages. To see a list and search for an IDN domain, visit our IDN page. We also support several IDN extensions in a variety of languages. See a list of our IDN extensions. Please note that IDNs are represented in punycode, which puts the IDN into the character set A-Z and 0-9, to connect with the domain name system (DNS).

• What is an internationalized top-level domain (IDN TLD)?

  An internationalized top-level domain (IDN TLD) is a top-level domain (TLD) that uses characters other than A-Z from the English alphabet (also known as non-ASCII characters). IDN TLDs allow for characters to the right of the dot to be from the Arabic alphabet, be Chinese characters, or even simply have the proper accent marks. For example, .닷컴 is the equivalent of .COM in Korean and .संगठन is the equivalent of .ORG for Hindi speakers. IDN TLDs are different from Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) because they are to the right of the dot in a domain name. IDNs are to the left of the dot. Both ASCII and non-ASCII TLDs support IDNs. See a list of which TLDs support IDNs and search for one on our IDN search page. In addition to IDN TLDs, there are also IDN ccTLDs. What internationalized domain extensions in other languages do you offer?What is punycode?

• Did the rules for .COM and .NET IDNs change?

  Yes, there are new rules concerning .COM and .NET Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) registrations. These rules were changed on 03/21/2005. Listed below are the rules that were put into place: Verisign, the central registry of .COM and .NET, is taking a more restrictive approach as to what characters are permitted within IDN registrations that contain the ENG and GER language tags. Specifically: Domains registered with the language tag of ENG will only be allowed for registrations that consist of characters a-z, 0-9, and -. The reason why we are retaining the ENG table is that in the future, we could add characters to the table which would make registrations using them in an IDN. However, in the interim, no new IDNs could be registered with a language tag containing the ENG value. Domains registered with the language tag of GER will only allow for registrations that consist of characters a-z, 0-9, -, ä, ö, and ü. The ß character will continue to be disallowed however, as is currently the case, following the IDNA RFCs. At this time, existing registrations that are tagged as ENG or GER will remain in the zone and unaffected by this change. No changes in the future are envisioned except as noted in the following. With the exception of characters 0-9 and the dash, domains that commingle Latin and Cyrillic characters for any language tag will no longer be permitted. At this time Verisign will not be making any changes to existing registrations that commingle Latin and Cyrillic characters. However, there may be a need in the future to place any existing registrations on REGISTRY-HOLD, for they may no longer comply to registry specifications.

• I was searching for a domain and received a "charset problem" message. What does this mean?

  This error means that our system was unable to parse the domain name you are searching. In most cases, the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) you entered combines two different languages. Sometimes combining characters from two different languages into one IDN is not allowed. Our system will try to match your entry to all languages before issuing this error.

• What is an IDN variant?

  An Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) variant is an alternative form of the domain name. The most common example is if you register a Chinese domain name. Chinese has two scripts for the same character, simplified and traditional. Someone may have already registered the simplifed version of a domain, preventing you from registering the traditional version. Unfortunately, due to the current design of Verisign, the central registry for .COM, .NET, .CC, and .TV, we cannot check if a variant exists ahead of time. We can only try to register the domain and if a variant exists, we get an error message (though sometimes you will see a variant error message in our search results if we received this error on that same domain name recently). Then we automatically give you an account credit for any domains we could not register.

• What Arabic domain extensions do you support?

  We support several Arabic TLDs or top-level domain extensions. Most are new TLDs that have recently been released. .شبكة - Arabic for "Internet". See more generic TLDs. .بازار - Arabic for "Bazaar" or "Market". See more shopping related TLDs. .SO - Somolia's country code domain (ccTLD). See more ccTLDs. See our full list of TLDs that we support. We also have many other TLDs that support domain names in Arabic. Check out our IDN page to see the languages supported by our TLDs.

• Can I filter my IDNs by language?

  Yes, we do have a language filter for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). To filter your domain names by language, please follow these steps: Sign in to your Dynadot account. Click “My Domains”, then “Manage Domains” from the left-side menu bar. Click "Filter Domain", then select "IDN Filter". Please select the IDN you would like to view. We can filter by the following language options: Ascii, CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean), Arabic, Russian, Hindi, European, and Other, which includes any languages that don't fall under the listed categories. Once you've made your selection, click on "Add Filter" and your domain list will adjust accordingly. Please note that this filters by both domain name and domain extension. So, for example, if you own dynadot.中国, it will be listed under the "CJK IDN" filter.

• What is a .CA IDN Variant Bundle?

  The central registry for .CA allows these additional characters for IDNs: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, œ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, and ÿ. When a .CA IDN is first registered, all variants of that IDN including the ASCII domain are reserved for the registrant to optionally register in the future. For example, if the domain çïrâ.ca is registered, only the same registrant can register cirâ.ca or cira.ca. Each domain in the bundle will be treated as a separate registration and costs the same as a new domain registration. The only difference is when changing the registrant Whois contact or transferring the domain, all domains in the bundle must be set to the new registrant or be transferred.

• What French domain extensions do you support?

  We support several French TLDs or top-level domain extensions. Most are new TLDs that have recently been released. .CA - Canada's country code domain (ccTLD). See more ccTLDs. .IM - Used as short for "immobilier" in French, which means real estate. See more real estate TLDs. .IMMO - Also used as short for "immobilier" in French, which means real estate. .MAISON - Domain for real estate websites specifically focused on buying, selling, and renting homes. "Maison" is French for "house" or "home". See more home related TLDs. .QUEBEC - Regional domain for Quebec, Canada's predominantly French-speaking province. See more regional TLDs. .SARL - French language version of LLP, stands for Société à responsabilité limitée .VIN - French for wine. See our full list of TLDs that we support. We also have many other TLDs that support domain names in Frnech. Check out our IDN page to see the languages supported by our TLDs.