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Questions:
Why add IDNs to registrar options?
How do I become an IDN registrar?
How does IDN registration work?
What is a registration variant?
What happens if the same domain name is registered twice?
How can developers IDN-enable their applications?
How can I stay up to date with IDN developments?
What are the IDN standards?
Are there separate EPP codes for IDNs and name servers?
How will the VeriSign Whois handle IDNs?
Answers:
Why add IDNs to registrar options?
By adding IDNs, registrars have the opportunity to expand services and potentially increase revenues with their existing infrastructure. A single .com domain name may be registered in as many as 350 different native languages.
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How do I become an IDN registrar?
To offer IDN options, you must first be a registrar for a particular TLD. VeriSign, a pioneer in domain name technology, is a leader in the propagation and adoption of IDNs. VeriSign has made IDNs available through the .com, .net, .name, .tv, and .cc registries via the IDN SDKs. To calculate the potential for IDNs to expand your domain name business, please download our IDN ROI Calculator (XLS).
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How does IDN registration work?
The VeriSign® Shared Registration System (SRS) allows a registrant to register IDNs through a registrar in any script supported by Unicode. The registrant's IDN is stored in the Registry’s database in an ASCII-compatible representation as defined by RFC 3492 (Encoding Scheme: punycode). For example, the punycode encoding of "domain.com" will be stored as "xn--eckwd4c7c.com". The uniqueness of a domain name registration is determined by its Unicode representation. Valid characters for IDNs are those identified within the Unicode 3.2. For more information, see Policy for IDN Code Points.
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What is a registration variant?
Resolving an IDN requires the DNS to interpret characters in local languages and connect them to the relevant domains. However, there are many more languages than scripts. For example, in two different Latin-based languages the "ø" and the "ö" characters may be interchanged. The registration "thørn.com" could be a registration variant of "thörn.com". These characters are considered character variants and their overlap requires a special solution. Learn more about Character Variants and Language Tags.
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What happens if the same domain name is registered twice?
VeriSign processes IDN transactions on a first-come, first-served basis in the same way as it does with all registrations in the .com, .net, .name, .tv, and .cc registries. If a dispute occurs, VeriSign follows relevant policies established by ICANN to uniformly administer the domain name transfer dispute process. To assist with potential disputes, VeriSign has created the IDN Conversion Tool, which converts an IDN character string into punycode so that you can check Whois for the punycode character string.
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How can developers IDN-enable their applications?
Libraries that implement the IDNs in Applications (IDNA) standard for a variety of programming environments are available in the public domain. VeriSign encourages and supports the work of such developers and provides links to these libraries. Application developers should choose the library that best fits their application requirements. To find IDNA Libraries, please visit the Web sites of IDN-enabled Applications.
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How can I stay up to date with IDN developments?
The IDN SDK Discussion List is a forum for technical issues involved with application development and migration. VeriSign also uses the list to announce new releases of IDN SDKs, bug fixes, new features and enhancements. The e-mail address for the list is: idn-sdk@verisign-grs.com
To subscribe, send an e-mail to majordomo@verisign-grs.net with the following text:
subscribe idn-sdk [your email address here]
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What are the IDN standards?
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) led the effort to create standards for using non-ASCII characters in the Domain Name System (DNS). VeriSign contributed to the standards process as a member of the IETF’s IDN Working Group. Through a process of revision and comment, participants reached agreement and issued standards in 2003. The four standards related to IDNs are the encoding scheme, name preparation, and IDNs in applications and string preparation. In March 2003, the IETF published the last of the IDN Requests for Comment (RFCs). Review our IETF Standards Summary
- RFC 3490 -- IDNs in Applications (IDNA)
- RFC 3491 -- Name Preparation (nameprep)
- RFC 3454 -- String Preparation (stringprep)
- RFC 3492 -- Encoding Scheme (punycode)
- RFC 2781 -- UTF16
Are there separate EPP codes for IDNs and name servers?
The registration failure/error codes for IDNs and name servers are the same as those in the current EPP. Additional codes have been added to support errors specific to IDN conversion and encoding.
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How will the VeriSign Whois handle IDNs?
IDNs appear in Whois results in punycode. The domain name, registrar name, Whois server, referral URL, name server record, and updated date are recorded using ASCII characters (the current standard). Because Whois will not accept native language queries, VeriSign has created the IDN Conversion Tool, which converts an IDN character string into punycode. Keep in mind that domain names are unique registrations for each language. Therefore, a user must perform a Whois query for a domain name in each language (native character set).
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