.uk

Last updated

.uk
DotUK domain logo.svg
Introduced24 July 1985;39 years ago (1985-07-24)
TLD type Country code top-level domain
StatusActive
Registry Nominet UK
Sponsor Nominet UK
Intended useEntities connected with the United Kingdom
Actual useVery popular in the United Kingdom
Registered domains10,508,932 (9,314,572 third level and 1,374,360 second level) (January 2024) [1]
Registration restrictionsNo general restrictions. Some second-level domains have specific restrictions.
Structure
Dispute policies .UK Domain Disputes
DNSSEC yes
Registry website theukdomain.uk

.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.

Contents

As of April 2021, it is the fifth most popular top-level domain worldwide (after .com, .cn, .de and .net), with over 10 million registrations. [2] [3] [4] [5]

.uk has used OpenDNSSEC since March 2010. [6]

History

In October 1984, RFC 920 set out the creation of ccTLDs using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. [7] "GB" is the UK's ISO 3166 country code. However, the UK academic network Name Registration Scheme, JANET NRS, had defined "UK" as the top-level domain a few months before the compilation of the ISO-derived list. Consequently, .uk was chosen and registered on 24 July 1985. [8] [9] .gb was reserved but never widely used and it is no longer possible to register domains under that ccTLD.

As with other ccTLDs in the early days it was originally delegated by Jon Postel to a "trusted person" to manage. Andrew McDowell at UCL was assigned .uk, the first country code delegation. [8] In time, he passed it to Willie Black at the UK Education and Research Networking Association (UKERNA). Originally, domain requests were emailed, manually screened by and then forwarded to the UK Naming Committee before being processed by UKERNA. Membership of this committee was restricted to a group of high-end ISPs who were part of a formal peering arrangement.

The Naming Committee was organised as a mailing list to which all proposed names were circulated. The members would consider the proposals under a ruleset that insisted that all domain names should be very close if not identical to a registered business name of the registrant. Members of the Naming Committee could object to any name, and if at least a small number of objections were received, the name was refused.

By the mid-1990s the growth of the Internet, and particularly the advent of the World Wide Web was pushing requests for domain name registrations up to levels that were not manageable by a group of part-time volunteers. Oliver Smith of Demon Internet forced the issue by providing the committee with a series of automated tools, called the "automaton", which formalised and automated the naming process end to end. This allowed many more registrations to be processed far more reliably and rapidly, and inspired individuals such as Ivan Pope to explore more entrepreneurial approaches to registration.

Various plans were put forward for the possible management of the domain, mostly Internet service providers seeking to stake a claim, each of which were naturally unacceptable to the rest of the committee. In response to this Black, as the .uk Name, stepped up with a bold proposal for a not-for-profit commercial entity to deal with the .uk domain properly. Commercial interests initially balked at this, but with widespread support Nominet UK was formed in 1996 to be the .uk Network Information Centre, a role which it continues to this day.

The general form of the rules (i.e. which domains can be registered and whether to allow second level domains) was set by the Naming Committee. Nominet has not made major changes to the rules, although it has introduced a new second level domain .me.uk for individuals.

Until 10 June 2014 it was not possible to register a domain name directly under .uk (such as internet.uk); it was only possible as a third-level domain (such as internet.co.uk).

However, some domains delegated before the creation of Nominet UK were in existence even before 10 June 2014, for example mod.uk [10] (Ministry of Defence), parliament.uk [11] (Parliament), bl.uk [12] and british-library.uk [13] (the British Library), nls.uk [14] (the National Library of Scotland), nhs.uk [15] (The National Health Service), and jet.uk [16] (UKAEA as operator of the Joint European Torus experimental fusion tokamak).

Currently, management of the .uk domain name is delegated by IANA to Nominet UK. [17] It is possible to directly register a domain name with Nominet UK at £80+VAT as of 2021, [18] but it is faster and cheaper to do it via a Nominet-accredited domain registrar costing in the region of £10+VAT in 2021. [19]

.uk right of registration

New registrations directly under .uk have been accepted by Nominet since 10 June 2014 08:00 BST; however, there was a reservation period for existing customers who already had a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or .plc.uk domain to claim the corresponding .uk domain, which ran until 06:00 BST on 25 June 2019. [20]

If a domain was registered before 23:59 UTC on 28 October 2013 the user had the rights to the equivalent .uk domain (providing there was no other corresponding .co.uk, .org.uk, me.uk, .ltd.uk, .plc.uk or .net.uk registered). [20] For example, if "your-company.co.uk" was held since 2 October 2013, the registrant of 'your-company.co.uk' had the reserved right of registering "your-company.uk", up until 06:00 BST on 25 June 2019. 123-reg and NamesCo both created such domains for their customers for free but then began demanding payment in September 2019. [21]

Second-level domains

Active

.co.uk, .ltd.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .nic.uk, .org.uk, .plc.uk and .sch.uk are managed by Nominet UK and except for .nic.uk are available for registration by the public (though they all carry various degrees of restrictions). Other second-level domains are managed by various government agencies, and generally more strongly controlled. [24]

Inactive

Rejected

Allocation of domain names

Allocations are on a strict first-come, first-served basis to qualified applicants. There are no territorial restrictions: applicants need not have any connection to the UK other than those outlined below for .ltd.uk and other restricted domains.

.co.uk is by far the most used of the domains, followed by .org.uk then .me.uk. .plc.uk and .ltd.uk are only rarely used. The number of new registrations for each of the different .uk domains on a month by month basis can be seen on the Nominet UK website. [29]

The intended restriction of .co.uk to companies is purely nominal; in practice it is open to any and all applicants. Likewise, whilst .org.uk is for organisations, there are no restrictions on registering domains. While .me.uk originally had no restrictions on registrants it has since been tightened up to require registrants to be natural persons (i.e. not companies, etc.).

However, registrants in .ltd.uk must be, and remain, private limited companies incorporated under the UK Companies Acts. In addition, names can only be registered if they correspond (in accordance with the algorithm in the rules [30] of registration) with the exact company name, as recorded at the companies registry at Companies House. The same conditions apply for public limited companies which wish to use a .plc.uk domain name. Neither of these domains is widely used.

.net.uk is more open, but the Nominet regulations still mean that a registrant must be an ISP, or a similar body, and that the domain is not used for providing services to end-users. .nic.uk, however, is limited solely to domains operated by Nominet.

.ac.uk domains are intended for the use of higher education institutions and further education colleges, and are also used by some academic support bodies such as the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service [31] public research establishments, and learned societies such as the Royal Society. [32] Primary and secondary education uses .sch.uk.

sch.uk

Unusually, .sch.uk domains are allocated at the fourth level, with the third level being taken up by the name of the local authority (LA, previously LEA or local education authority) e.g. schoolname.leaname.sch.uk. For example, the Little Ilford School in Newham has the domain name littleilford.newham.sch.uk and the West Exe School in Exeter, Devon has the domain name westexe.devon.sch.uk. Previously applications were made in the normal way, but after Nominet came to an arrangement with the education authorities, one domain per school was issued automatically. Those that had already used another domain were still given one and were able to redirect it to their main domain.

Country-Code TLDs (ccTLDs)

GeoTLDs

See also

Related Research Articles

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.

Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.eu</span> Internet country-code top level domain for the European Union

.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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.us</span> Internet country code top-level domain for the United States

.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.

<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">.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 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.

.zm is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Zambia. Registrants of .zm domains must "have a presence in Zambia".

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

.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.

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

.uy is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Uruguay. Domain names can be registered at second-level or at third-level. As of 11 June 2012, second level .uy registrations are possible.

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

.ge is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Georgia. .ge top-level domain names are available for direct registration for individuals and companies worldwide, without any restriction on citizenship or residence. Second-level domain names are also available for registration for several specific types of registrants:

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

.gi is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory. It was created on 5 December 1995.

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

.gr is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Greece. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and domain names in Greek characters may also be registered.

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

.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.

<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">.ma</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Morocco

.ma is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Morocco. A local registrar with a local Moroccan company as administrative contact is needed to register a .ma or .co.ma domain name. Further restrictions are imposed on the registering of other second-level domains.

<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.

.ps is the Internet country code top-level domain ccTLD officially assigned to the State of Palestine. It is administered by the Palestinian National Internet Naming Authority.

References

  1. ↑ ".UK register statistics - 2024" . Retrieved 15 February 2024.
  2. ↑ DENIC (February 2016). "Comparison of international Domain Numbers". Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  3. ↑ "Landmark 10 millionth .uk site registered with Nominet". BBC News. bbc.co.uk. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  4. ↑ ".Uk domain hits 10 million milestone". Domain Name Wire. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  5. ↑ "Domain Count Statistics for TLDs".
  6. ↑ ".uk DNSSEC Status update" (PDF). Nominet. 2 May 2011. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
  7. ↑ J. Postel and J. Reynolds (October 1984). "Request for Comments: 920". Network Working Group.
  8. 1 2 Milton Mueller (2002), Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, p. 79, ISBN   9780262632980
  9. ↑ "IANA — .uk Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  10. ↑ "Ministry of Defence - GOV.UK". mod.uk.
  11. ↑ "www.parliament.uk Home page". UK Parliament.
  12. ↑ "THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world's knowledge". bl.uk.
  13. ↑ "THE BRITISH LIBRARY - The world's knowledge". british-library.uk. Archived from the original on 7 October 2007. Retrieved 19 January 2005.
  14. ↑ "National Library of Scotland". nls.uk.
  15. ↑ "NHS Choices - Your health, your choices". nhs.uk. 15 August 2018.
  16. ↑ "JET Index Page". jet.uk.
  17. ↑ "IANA — .uk Domain Delegation Data". www.iana.org. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  18. ↑ "Becoming a UK namespace registrar". Registrar Resources. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  19. ↑ Francisco, Kieren McCarthy in San. "Congrats from 123-Reg! You can now pay us an extra £6 or £12 a year for basically nothing". www.theregister.com. Retrieved 6 July 2021.
  20. 1 2 "Reserved .UK domain names – your .UK rights". The UK Domain. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
  21. ↑ McCarthy, Kieren (16 September 2019). "Two years ago, 123-Reg and NamesCo decided to register millions of .uk domains for customers without asking them. They just got the renewal reminders..." theregister.co.uk. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  22. ↑ "UK court systems set to adopt judiciary.uk domain names". BBC News. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  23. ↑ "UK Domain Names - Nominet". Nominet. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  24. ↑ "Rules of Registration" (PDF).
  25. ↑ "Delegation Record for .SCOT". Internet Assigned Numbers Authority . 7 August 2019. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  26. ↑ "Delegation Report for .scot". Internet Assigned Numbers Authority . 10 June 2014. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  27. ↑ "DELEGATED STRINGS". New gTLD . ICANN. 17 October 2020. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
  28. ↑ "Scotland entering new domain". BBC News . 1 May 2000. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  29. ↑ www.nominet.org.uk/intelligence/statistics/registration/ Archived 16 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ↑ "Nominet .uk domain name rules" . Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  31. ↑ "Undergraduate". UCAS.
  32. ↑ "Welcome to the Royal Society". Archived from the original on 4 June 2005. Retrieved 25 October 2005.
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