Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Questions

1. What are Internationalized Domain Names?
2. When will .ORG IDNs be available?
3. What languages/scripts will be available for registration?
4. How can I register an IDN?
5. What kind of Cyrillic IDN can be registered?
6. Which registrars offer IDNs for .ORG?
7. How much does it cost to register IDNs?
8. What browsers support IDNs?
9. Why will Cyrillic IDNs registered before 21 March 2011 be locked?
10. How are IDNs displayed in WHOIS?

1. What are Internationalized Domain Names?

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain/host names that are represented with native language, non-ASCII characters. The native language domain name is followed by the top-level domain (TLD), such as .ORG. An example of an IDN is: müller.org.

2. When will .ORG IDNs be available?

.ORG German script IDN registrations have been available since 15 January, 2005 and.ORG Danish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean (Hangul), Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Swedish script IDN registrations have been available since 23 July 2005. .ORG Spanish language script IDN registrations became available on 03 March 2007 and .ORG Chinese IDN registration on 23 January 2010.

PIR will launch the Cyrillic IDN registrations for .ORG on 19 February 2011 at 19:00 UTC on a first-come, first-served basis.

3. What language scripts will be available for registration?

.ORG Danish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Korean (Hangul), Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish script and Chinese IDN registrations are now available, and .ORG Cyrillic IDN registrations will be available on 19 February 2011, in compliance with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) IDN standards and Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) IDN guidelines.

PIR will inform registrars as additional language scripts are available for registration.

4. What kind of Cyrillic IDN can be registered?

A Cyrillic Domain Name (in native script) must contain at least three (3) Cyrillic characters. You may choose Cyrillic characters, numbers (0-9) or hyphen (-) to compose your Cyrillic Domain Name. The length shall be limited within 63 characters (EPP limit).

The following languages will be supported as part of Cyrillic IDN support. Request to register a Cyrillic IDN MUST specify one of the following language tags:

PIR will RESERVE maximum of twenty five (25) preferred variants in all Cyrillic languages regardless of which language tag is used for the primary domain name. Variant activation will NOT be supported initially. PIR will communicate when variant activation /support will become available.

If a Cyrillic IDN registration request will result in creating more than twenty five (25) variants, the request for registration will be rejected and you must a chose a Cyrillic IDN that limits the variants to minimum of one (1) and maximum of (25)

5. How can I register an IDN??

To register a .ORG IDN, go to a PIR-authorized and Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar. (See our list for registrars that offer IDNs.) The unique IDN is then placed into the PIR .ORG registry database by the registrar.

6. Which registrars offer IDNs for .ORG?

See the list of registrars offering .ORG IDN registrations.

 
7. How much does it cost to register IDNs?

The retail pricing for all domains is set by the registrar.

8. What browsers support IDN?

The new Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE7), Netscape 7.1, Mozilla 1.4, Firefox 1.0 and Opera 7 are anticipated to be IDNA compliant browsers. Subsequent versions of these browsers are also expected to contain this same functionality.

Further questions about IDN compatibility should be directed to your registrar.

9. Why will Cyrillic IDNs registered before 21 March 2011 be locked?

.ORG Cyrillic IDNs registered between 19 February 2011 and 21 March 2011 will be placed on Server Hold, Server Update Prohibited, Server Renew Prohibited, Server Transfer Prohibited and Server Delete Prohibited until 20 April 2011 to allow any Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) disputes to be initiated. While locked, the domains will not resolve and cannot be updated, deleted or transferred. This will provide intellectual property owners an opportunity to identify any potential infringements. Please contact your registrar for further details.

10. How are IDNs displayed in WHOIS?

The "domain name" field displays the registered IDN in Punycode (e.g., xn--probestck-w9a.org). Three additional fields follow at the end of the PIR WHOIS query results:

IDN-Tag: The IDN-Tag of the IDN as determined by the registrant (e.g., "de" for German).

Unicode Hex: The IDN in Unicode Hex format (e.g., U+0070 U+0072 U+006F U+0062 U+0065 U+0073 U+0074 U+00FC U+0063 U+006B).

Unicode HTML: The IDN in HTML entity format (e.g., probestück).

To convert domain names from Punycode to Unicode -- or vice versa -- go to the "Punycode Converter."

Example of an IDN Display in WHOIS with reserved variants:

Domain ID:D137-LRMS

Domain Name:XN----638A490M.ORG

Created On:01-Oct-2008 19:36:02 UTC

Expiration Date:01-Oct-2010 19:36:02 UTC

Sponsoring Registrar:LibertyRMS Co. (R2-LRMS)

Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED

Status:INACTIVE

Why .ORG

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