History
The .ls domain was established and first delegated on 13 January 1993, with the National University of Lesotho as the sponsoring authority. Initially, Rhodes University acted as the registry and hosted the primary name server, a situation that continued until September 2012.
In April 2012, the sponsoring authority changed from the National University of Lesotho to the Lesotho Communications Authority, the national communications regulator, in line with the newly promulgated Communications Act (No. 4 of 2012). In January 2016, a non-profit company, the Lesotho Network Information Centre (LsNIC) was established to take over registry operations. Re-delegation of the zone was completed by IANA in March 2017.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and Internet numbers.
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a domain name. Most registries operate on the top-level and second-level of the DNS.
.ie is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) which corresponds with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for Ireland. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) list the Computing Services Computer Centre of University College Dublin as its sponsoring organisation for the .ie domain. Since 2000 the business of administrating the domain registry has been handled by IE Domain Registry Limited. Domain name registration is open to individuals located in, or with a significant connection with, any part of the island of Ireland.
.al is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Albania. It is administered by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority of Albania (AKEP).
.bh is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Bahrain. It is administered by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Bahrain (TRA).
.bv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) reserved for the uninhabited Norwegian dependent territory of Bouvet Island. The domain name registry and sponsor is Norid, but .bv is not open for registration. .bv was designated on 21 August 1997 and was placed under the .no registry Norid. Norwegian policy states that .no is sufficient for those institutions connected to Bouvet Island, and therefore the domain is not open to registration. It is Norwegian policy not to commercialize domain resources, so there are no plans to sell .bv. Should the domain later come into use, it will be under the regulation of the Norwegian Communications Authority and follow the same policy as .no.
.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.
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).
.vg is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the British Virgin Islands. Because it allows registration at the second level, and does not require the registrant to be associated with the British Virgin Islands, it has also been used by piracy related websites such as The Pirate Bay, and video gaming related blogs and websites.
.it is the national top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Italy.
.ky is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Cayman Islands. The code was chosen as other possible options had already been allocated. Registration was limited to residents and registered companies in the Cayman Islands with a local address, but this restriction was removed in September 2015. The Cayman Islands also has the international three-letter code CYM and has won a bid to be awarded the .cym domain in a future expansion of the top-level domain space.
.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.
.lc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Lucia, sponsored by the University of Puerto Rico and created on September 3, 1991. The registry is operated by Afilias and markets towards companies structured as LCs, LLCs or PLCs due to the possibility of a domain hack, such as CompanyName.L.LC and supposedly better names.
.md is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Moldova introduced on March 24, 1994.
.na is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Namibia corresponding to the two letter code from the ISO-3166 standard.
.no is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Norway. Norid, the domain name registry, is based in Trondheim, is owned by the state-owned Uninett and operates under supervision of the Norwegian Communications Authority. As of December 24, 2022 there were 843,749 registered .no domains. Organizations with a presence in Norway and registration at the Brønnøysund Register Centre are limited to 100 domains each. Individuals residing in Norway may register in the second-level domain priv.no and, as of June 17, 2014, directly under .no. Other second-level domains exist for organizations of certain types, such as municipalities and schools. The strict regulations have resulted in near-absence of cybersquatting and warehousing.
.nr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Nauru. Domains must be paid, and can be ordered from CenpacNet, Nauru's Internet service provider.
.tz is the Internet country code top-level domain for Tanzania. Historically and due to poor Internet Infrastructure, most top level domains in Africa were and some are still being technically managed by foreign experts. Through a consultative process, Tanzania Network information Centre (tzNIC), a not-for-profit company was established and registered to administer and manage the operations of the Tanzania country code top level domain. tzNIC is a limited company with two founding members – the Tanzania Communication Regulatory Authority and the Tanzania Internet Service Provider Association.
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores and delivers database content in a human-readable format. The current iteration of the WHOIS protocol was drafted by the Internet Society, and is documented in RFC 3912.
.me is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro.
Lesotho 
