.so

Last updated
.so
SO domain logo.svg
Introduced28 August 1997
TLD type Country code top-level domain
StatusActive
Registry SONIC
SponsorSomali Network Information Center
Intended useEntities connected with Flag of Somalia.svg  Somalia
Actual useRecently re-established
Registration restrictionsLimited to institutions and organizations in Somalia, residents of Somalia, others who have a legitimate, clear and provable connection to Somalia
StructureRegistrations can be made via authorized registrars
DocumentsSomalia .so
Dispute policies .so domain name registration policies
WIPO
Registry website sonic.so

.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. [1] It was launched through various accredited registrars around the world.

Contents

On 11 July 2013 the ISO 3166-1 code for Somalia changed to reflect the SO used for the ccTLD.

On July 8, 2015, the .so ccTLD registry was transferred to the Somali Network Information Center (SONIC), [2] which introduced new limitations on purchasing .so domain names by persons and organizations not affiliated with Somalia. [3] [4] As a result, several registrars suspended the registration of new .so domain names. [5]

On March 9, 2018, Somalia's newly established telecom regulator The National Communications Authority (NCA) took full control of the country's top-level internet domain (dotSO) from the Somali National Information Center (SONIC) and Cloudy Registry, who ran the operations and the management of the domain Registry. [6]

History

Overview

Due to the civil war in Somalia, operations of this domain were previously officially delegated to Monolith Innovation Group, a company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, [7] which is now defunct. The domain remained delegated to this company, even though it was defunct, until April 17, 2009, at which time the .so domain record was changed in the root zone to point to the servers of the new registry operator, the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications in Somalia. [8]

The demise of Monolith (ml.org)

Monolith Innovations, as a domain name server, was popular in the mid-1990s.

Second-level domain registrations at the time were (by modern standards) relatively expensive. Monolith operated various projects which allowed small sites to obtain an Internet address of the form example.ml.org at effectively no cost instead of paying full price ($50US in the first year) for a domain like example.com, example.org or example.net [9]

The domain name record for .so was initially created on 28 August 1997, at or near the peak of the ml.org service's popularity. At the time, the potential benefits seemed more than apparent. By taking responsibility for a country code domain, Monolith could have become able to issue *.so domains at second-level for little or no cost, providing a viable alternative to the higher Network Solutions pricing of that era.

According to ml.org's founder, Aveek Datta, in 1998, "I've personally been trying to create a global FREE top level domain. Whether or not this becomes a reality is another question; money talks and big bucks are being waved about in the registry battles." [10] However, the ml.org service ceased operations at the end of 1998 due to "technical and organisational problems" which included major server failures. [11] Its second-level domains remain registered to Aveek Datta, president of the former Monolith Innovations Group, but appear not to be in active use. [12] Throughout the domain's history, a one-page placeholder site at the nic.so address claimed that "no .SO domains are available and we are not looking for any registrar partners." [13] [14]

However, the DNS servers for the domain name were badly configured,[ citation needed ] so the nic.so address was only available intermittently.

Relaunch

On February 3, 2009, ICANN approved redelegation of the .so domain to the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. [15] In ICANN's meeting minutes, it was revealed that Aveek Datta, the former registry operator, had disputed the redelegation request but he did not respond to ICANN's request to verify his connection with the former company.

The new registry operator relaunched the .so domain on November 1, 2010. Requests to become a registrar can already be submitted using the recently launched website of .SO Registry. [1]

Transfer

On July 8, 2015, the .so ccTLD registry was transferred to the Somali Network Information Center (SONIC). [16] On March 9, 2018, Somalia's newly established telecom regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA) took control of the domain name from SONIC and Cloudy Registry, who ran the operations and the management of the domain Registry. [6] [17] Somaliland banned use of this TLD as a result of the 2018 transfer. [18]

Name spaces

The .so domain currently offers thirteen namespaces: the second-level-space .so is intended for general purpose usage, and the third-level-space .com.so, .me.so, .net.so and .org.so are set aside for commercial entities, individuals, networks, and not-for-profit organisations, respectively. [19] There also exists .edu.so for higher education institutions; .gov.so for government entities; .sch.so for schools; [20] and .gm.so, .hs.so, .jl.so, .pl.so, and .sw.so for Galmudug, Hirshabelle, Jubbaland, Puntland, and South West states respectively.

Registrars

SONIC maintains a list of officially accredited local [21] and international [22] registrars.

See also

Related Research Articles

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

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.

The domain com is a top-level domain (TLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in the first group of Internet domains at the beginning of 1985, its name is derived from the word commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for subdomains registered by commercial organizations. Later, the domain opened for general purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.cd</span> Internet country code top-level domain for the Democratic Republic of the Congo

.cd is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It was created in 1997 as a replacement for the .zr (Zaire) ccTLD, which was phased out and eventually deleted in 2001.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.ae</span> Country code top-level domain for the United Arab Emirates

.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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.af</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Afghanistan

.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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.bh</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Bahrain

.bh is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Bahrain. It is administered by the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Bahrain (TRA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.jp</span> Internet country-code top level domain for Japan

.jp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Japan. It was established in 1986 and is administered by the Japan Registry Services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.il</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Israel

.il is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of Israel, administered by the Israel Internet Association and managed by NIC - ISRAEL, which hosts the DNS root server and manages the Israeli Internet Exchange, that supports IPv4 and IPv6.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.co</span> Internet country-code top level domain for Colombia

.co is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Colombia.

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.uz</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Uzbekistan

.uz is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Uzbekistan. Registry services were formerly operated by Euracom GmBH, but were later redelegated to UZINFOCOM. Registrations are taken directly at the second level, but the former registry also advertised the availability of registrations at the third level beneath co.uz and com.uz, and some domain names under other second-level names such as org.uz also exist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.ky</span> Internet country code top-level domain for the Cayman Islands

.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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.ly</span> Internet country-code top-level domain for Libya

.ly is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.md</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Moldova

.md is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Moldova introduced on March 24, 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.na</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Namibia

.na is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Namibia corresponding to the two letter code from the ISO-3166 standard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NIC México</span>

NIC México or NIC.MX is the non-profit organization in charge of the registry for the .mx country code top-level domain (ccTLD). NIC Mexico is also responsible for the National Internet Registry which manages the allocation of IP address space to Mexican internet service providers.

References

  1. 1 2 "SO Registry". Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 2010-09-18.
  2. ↑ "Migration - SONIC". Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  3. ↑ "OpenProvider: Upcoming Changes to SO Domains". Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  4. ↑ ".so domain names". Gandi.net. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  5. ↑ "About .so Domains". uk.godaddy.com.
  6. 1 2 "Somalia's new telecom regulator takes control of top-level domain - Xinhua | English.news.cn". Archived from the original on March 9, 2018.
  7. ↑ "IANA | .so - Somalia". 2007-10-23. Archived from the original on 2007-10-23. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  8. ↑ ".so Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Archived from the original on October 23, 2007. Retrieved March 30, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Monolith Internet Services". 1998-01-22. Archived from the original on 22 January 1998. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  10. ↑ "Monolith Internet Services". 1998-01-22. Archived from the original on 22 January 1998. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  11. ↑ "Monolith Network Status". 1998-12-01. Archived from the original on 1 December 1998. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  12. ↑ "Monolith Interim Services". 1998-12-12. Archived from the original on 12 December 1998. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  13. ↑ "NIC.SO". 2000-10-24. Archived from the original on 24 October 2000. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  14. ↑ "NIC.SO". 2005-02-20. Archived from the original on 20 February 2005. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  15. ↑ "Preliminary Report Resolutions of Special Board Meeting - ICANN". www.icann.org. Retrieved 2022-02-25.
  16. ↑ "Migration". Archived from the original on 2015-07-22. Retrieved 2015-07-22.
  17. ↑ "NCA Takes Full Control of Somalia's ccTLD (DotSO)".
  18. ↑ "Somaliland retaliates top-level domain take-over, bans dotSo extensions". Goobjoog News English. 11 March 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
  19. ↑ ".SO Registry". Archived from the original on 2014-10-31. Retrieved 9 Sep 2014.
  20. ↑ "sch.so".
  21. ↑ "Local Registrars". sonic.so. 20 September 2023.
  22. ↑ "International Registrars". sonic.so. 20 September 2023.

Commons-logo.svg Media related to .so at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.