Introduced | 16 October 1997 |
---|---|
TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
Status | Active |
Registry | AFGNIC |
Sponsor | Ministry of Communications and Information Technology |
Intended use | Entities connected with Afghanistan |
Actual use | Some use in Afghanistan |
Registered domains | 5960 (26 August 2020) [1] |
Registration restrictions | Third-level names have restrictions based on which second-level name they are beneath. |
Structure | Registrations are taken directly at the second level or at the third level beneath various second-level subdomains |
Documents | ICANN MoU; Policies |
Dispute policies | Dispute resolution procedures |
Registry website | nic.af |
.af is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Afghanistan. It is administered by AFGNIC, a service of the UNDP. As of 26 August 2020, .af was used by 5960 domains. [1]
Registration is made directly at the second level, or on the third level beneath various categorized subdomains at the second level. Third-level domains have restrictions based on which second-level domain they are registered under. Registration on the second level is unrestricted, but more expensive. All fees are higher for international registrants.
The .af domain was delegated to Abdul Razeeq in 1997, a year after Taliban fighters had captured Kabul and founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. NetNames of London initially maintained the domain following an agreement with the IANA. [2] Razeeq later disappeared, halting some services. The domain was reopened on March 10, 2003, as a joint program between UNDP and the Afghan Ministry of Communications. [3]
With the fall of Kabul in 2021, the .af domain again came under the control of the Taliban. ICANN said it "defers decision making to within the country". [4] [5]
In 2024, a number of .af domains including "broke.af" and "queer.af" went offline. The Afghan Ministry of Communications and IT said that they were registered through Gandi, a France-based domain name registrar, and cited Gandi's failure to make payments as the reason for suspension. [6]
.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Area in 2014, after the regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement, and hence is also available for any person, company or organization based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium originally consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, joined later by the national registry operator of the Czech Republic. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.
.us is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States. It was established in early 1985. Registrants of .us domains must be U.S. citizens, residents, or organizations – or foreign entities with a presence in the United States or any territory of the United States. Most registrants in the U.S. have registered for .com, .net, .org and other gTLDs, instead of .us, which has primarily been used by state and local governments, even though private entities may also register .us domains. The domain is managed by Registry Services, LLC, a domain name registry, on behalf of the United States Department of Commerce.
.ca is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. The domain name registry that operates it is the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us.
.ae is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United Arab Emirates. It is administered by .aeDA which is part of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority of UAE (TDRA).
.tl is the current country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for East Timor (Timor-Leste). It is administered through the Council of Country Code Administrators (CoCCA) and second-level registration is available through resellers worldwide with no local presence requirement.
.ws is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Samoa. It is administered by SamoaNIC, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Samoa.
.je is the country code top-level domain for Jersey. The domain is administered by Island Networks, who also administer the .gg domain for neighbouring territory Guernsey. In 2003, a Google Search website was made available for Jersey, which uses the .je domain.
.tp was the listed Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for East Timor. The letters refer to Timor Português or Portuguese Timor, the name of the present independent nation when it was an overseas territory of Portugal. The domain .tp was officially launched in December 1997 by connect.ie, an internet service provider based in Dublin, Ireland, in cooperation with the East Timorese authorities in absentia, while East Timor was under Indonesian authority.
.co is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia.
.fk is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Falkland Islands.
.tw is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Taiwan. The domain name is based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code TW. The registry is maintained by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC), a Taiwanese non-profit organization appointed by the National Communications Commission (NCC) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication. Since 1 March 2001, TWNIC has stopped allowing itself to sign up new domain names directly, instead allowing new registration through its contracted reseller registrars. As of May 2023, there are 17 registrars.
A sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) is 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, alongside country-code top-level domains (ccTLD) and generic top-level domains (gTLD).
.zm is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Zambia. Registrants of .zm domains must "have a presence in Zambia".
.vi is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the U.S. Virgin Islands.
.so is the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Somalia. After a long absence, the .so domain was officially relaunched on November 1, 2010, by .SO Registry, which is regulated by the nation's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It was launched through various accredited registrars around the world.
.ly is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya.
.na is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Namibia corresponding to the two letter code from the ISO-3166 standard.
Internet in Afghanistan is available in all of its 34 provinces, and is used by over 9 million people as of 2022. The internet officially became available in 2002 during the presidency of Hamid Karzai. Prior to that year, it was prohibited because the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believed that it may be used to broadcast obscene, immoral and anti-Islamic material, and because the few internet users at the time could not be easily monitored as they obtained their telephone lines from neighboring Pakistan.