IDN FAQ

Questions:

What are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)?
Why are IDNs needed?
What languages are supported by IDNs?
How do I use IDNs to navigate to a Web?
How do I register an IDN?
Can several IDNs share the same IP address?
May hyphens be used in internationalized domain names?
What is the maximum number of characters allowed for an IDN?

Answers:

What are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)?
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are second and third level domain names or Web addresses, represented by local language characters. The native language domain name is followed by the Latin script top-level domain (TLD) such as .com or .net. An example of an IDN is: 스타벅스코리아.com.

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Why are IDNs needed?
IDNs enable more Web users to navigate the Internet in their preferred script and more companies to maintain one brand identity in many scripts. Most domain names are registered in ASCII characters (A to Z, 0 to 9 and the hyphen "-"). However, non-English words that require diacritics such as Spanish and French and languages that use non-Latin scripts such as Kanji and Arabic cannot be rendered in ASCII. As a result, millions of Internet users struggle to find their way online using non-native scripts and languages. IDNs improve the accessibility and functionality of the Internet by enabling domain names in non-ASCII characters.

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What languages are supported by IDNs?
IDNs have the potential to transform the Internet into a truly global and multilingual tool by enabling Internet users to navigate and communicate online in their preferred script. IDNs may be registered in any character set or script identified in Unicode 3.2. Unicode covers as many as 350 different native languages, essentially any language that can be written in one of the following scripts: Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Armenian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Thaana, Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Oriya, Tamil, Telegu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sinhala, Thai, Lao, Tibetan, Myanmar, Georgian, Hangul, Ethiopic, Cherokee, Canadian-Aboriginal Syllabics, Ogham, Runic, Khmer, Mongolian, Han (Japanese, Chinese, Korean ideographs), Hiragana, Katakana, Bopomofo, and Yi. Learn more about supported scripts and languages.

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How do I use IDNs to navigate to a Web?
To use IDNs, you must have an IDN-enabled browser such as Microsoft® Internet Explorer 7 or Firefox. When a user enters an IDN using local language characters or follows a link, IDN-enabled applications encode the characters into an ACE string that the DNS understands. The DNS processes the request and returns the information to the application. Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or 6 users may download the VeriSign® i-Nav plug-in to use IDNs. VeriSign maintains a list of IDN-enabled Applications. You can use these applications to navigate the Internet, send email and ftp in your native-language script.

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How do I register an IDN?
If you own a Web site or provide other Internet-based services and would like to use IDNs to help your customers, you may registrar an IDN in available characters through participating ICANN-accredited and VeriSign-certified registrars. A registrant requests an IDN from a registrar that supports IDNs. The registrar converts the local language characters into a sequence of supported characters using an ASCII compatible encoding (ACE). The registrar submits the ACE string to the VeriSign® Shared Registration System (SRS) where it is verified and encoded. The IDN is added to the appropriate TLD zone files and propagated across the Internet. Find a Registrar.

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Can several IDNs share the same IP address?
Yes, keeping with current domain name standards, multiple IDNs may share IP addresses.

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May hyphens be used in internationalized domain names?
Yes. However, just as current standards do not allow names to begin or end with a hyphen, the ASCII transformation cannot begin or end with a hyphen.

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What is the maximum number of characters allowed for an IDN?
The encoded form of the IDN (including the characters for .com, .net or .name) may contain up to 67 characters. The characters may be letters, numbers, or hyphens. A domain name may not begin or end with a hyphen. The IDN transformation software will reject a domain name if the encoded conversion exceeds the character limit.

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