Frequently Asked Questions
GENERAL
What is an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)?
Internationalized domain names (IDNs) are domain names that either:
- are written in languages/scripts using Latin letters with diacritics (accents marks such as é or ü) or
- do not use the Latin alphabet at all
IDNs allow native speakers of non-Latin based scripts to access the Internet in their own language. Since Internet usage is rising around the world and the world is full of many different languages and scripts, IDNs offer a great way to connect with your target market no matter what they speak!
What is a top-level domain (TLD)?
A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of a domain name to the right of the dot. For example, our domain name is 2-5.org and .org is our TLD. There are several types of top-level domains: generic, country, sponsored, and geographical. Generic TLDs or gTLDs include .COM, .NET, .ORG, and many more. These types of TLDs are available to everyone.
What is a restricted TLD?
A restricted TLD is a top-level domain (TLD) whose registration is limited to people or entities that satisfy certain criteria. Both generic TLDs (gTLDs) and country codes (ccTLDs) can have restrictions. It is up to the TLD's registry to implement restrictions and decide on the criteria for those restrictions.
What is a domain registrar?
A domain registrar is a company that has a direct connection with central registries so they can offer domain registrations on various top-level domains (TLDs). For example, in order to offer registrations on .COM, a domain registrar has to be accredited with the central registry of that TLD - in this case, Verisign.
Who is ICANN and what do they do?
ICANN is the acronym for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which is a non-profit organization that is in charge of maintaining and coordinating the Internet, namely the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and the Domain Name System (DNS).
What does it mean when a website is cached and how do I clear my cache?
Caching is the temporary storage of web documents such as HTML pages and images. Basically, your web browser stores copies of web pages you've visited recently to reduce its bandwidth usage, server load, and lag. This could be why your website is offline, why it seems like your name servers still aren't set, or why you can't see the changes you've made to your website. If you suspect this is the case, you can first try clicking "refresh" on your browser a few times. If this still does not work, you can clear your browser's cache to see if that is the problem. Each browser is different, but here are some links to the most popular browsers cache clearing instructions:
If any of these links don't provide the information you need to clear your cache, there are many other resources online that can help.
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a network of computers which send and receive information from each other. These computers are located all over the world. The two principal name spaces in the Internet are Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and the Domain Name System (DNS). Both of these are maintained by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).
What is forward status code? What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect code?
The forward status code is the response code sent to a web browser visiting your site if your domain is set to 2-5.org domain forwarding. The code tells the web browser that the domain should be forwarded to another location.
Which redirect code should I use? Either code, 301 or 302, can be used to forward your web page. A typical visitor to your website will not notice a difference. The different codes are mainly used for search engine optimization (SEO). The 301 redirect code would tell a search engine that it should use the "forward to" page in its search results. For example, 2-5.org should be 301 redirected to 2-5.org, since we want 2-5.org to show up in the search engine results, not 2-5.org. The 302 redirect code would tell the search engine to check back later to see which website should be used in its results. This would be useful if you are temporarily forwarding to another site while you are creating your actual site.
What is domain forwarding?
Domain forwarding is the process of making one domain name redirect all domain visitors to another domain. This is not to be confused with other redirections implemented through HTML or script, which usually redirects one specific web page to another page on that domain or to a different website. When a user attempts to visit a domain utilizing domain forwarding, the user is sent to the URL that the domain forwarding is set to, and the original domain name entered by the user does not stay in the address bar. Instead, that selected URL that the domain is forwarding users to is displayed.
What are types of domain forwarding?
There are three common types of domain forwarding: standard domain forwarding, stealth forwarding, and email forwarding.
Standard domain forwarding: Process of sending a user that arrives at a domain to a selected new domain, forwarding the user. That selected domain appears in the user’s address bar. Domain forwarding has no effect on email forwarding.
Stealth forwarding: The same process as regular domain forwarding applies to stealth forwarding, with the user being forwarded to a new, specified domain. The difference is that the original domain URL will remain in the user’s address bar, despite the user being on a new domain.
Email forwarding: The process of allowing received emails on your domain’s email address to be sent to an additional, specified email address.
What are Whois contact records?
Contact records are collections of contact information created to be displayed in the public Whois directory.
What is a subdomain?
A subdomain is a subset of a domain name. A domain name typically consists of a top-level domain (TLD) also known as a domain extension (such as .COM) and a second-level domain (SLD). For example, our domain name is 2-5.org with "2-5" as our SLD and .COM as our TLD. An example of a subdomain would be example.2-5.org with "example" being the subdomain.
What is a domain renewal?
A domain renewal extends your ownership of your domain name by another year or more. When you register a domain, the registration typically only lasts 1 year (though some domains offer registrations up to 10 years if you choose). This means that you have to renew the domain on a yearly basis if you want to remain the owner of that domain.
What are name servers?
A name server is a server that returns an IP address when given a domain name. This IP address is basically the domain's location on the Internet.
What is DNS?
DNS stands for Domain Name System (The "S" in DNS can also stand for Service or Server). It specifies how domain names are translated into IP addresses. Since the Internet is based on IP addresses, each time you use a domain name, a DNS server must translate the name into the correct IP address. A DNS server is a computer which takes in a domain name and returns the correct IP address for the domain. This IP address represents the domain's actual location on the Internet.
What is Unicode?
Unicode is a universal character encoding standard that is used to support characters in non-ASCII scripts. The Internet was originally built on ASCII, which is based on the English alphabet and consists of only 128 characters. Unicode allows for support of all the languages around the world and their unique character sets - Unicode can support over 1 million characters! The way Unicode works is by allowing more bits, short for binary digit, which are units of information on a machine. ASCII characters only require about 7 bits, while Unicode uses 16 bits. This is necessary because it takes more bits to process languages such as Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. There are different types of Unicode including UTF-8 and UTF-16, the two most common. UTF-8 has become the typical standard used on the web because it adjusts the number of bits used depending on the character. This means that ASCII characters in UTF-8 only take up the bits they need to process.
What is punycode?
Punycode is a way to represent International Domain Names (IDNs) with the limited character set (A-Z, 0-9) supported by the domain name system. For example, "münich" would be encoded as "mnich-kva". An IDN takes the punycode encoding, and adds a "xn--" in front of it. So "münich.com" would become "xn--mnich-kva.com".
What is IANA?
IANA is an acronym for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, one of the Internet's oldest institutions. IANA is responsible for managing the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS), coordinating global Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation, and managing IP numbering systems. Basically, they take care of maintaining and managing the technical functions that keep the Internet running smoothly. IANA's services are provided by Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), an affiliate of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Learn more about them on their website, iana.org.
What is ASCII and what are ASCII vs. Non-ASCII characters in domains?
ASCII, pronounced ask-ee, stands for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII was originally based on the English alphabet and consists of 128 characters including A-Z, 0-9, punctuation, spaces, and other control codes that can be found on a standard English keyboard. These 128 characters are then assigned a number from 0 to 127 to represent them in data transfer from one computer to the other. While ASCII code was originally developed for teletypewriters (a device used to send and receive messages), it found broader application with the development of personal computers.
What is spoofing?
Spoofing is when someone places an email address (which may be fake) they do not have access to in the "From" field to cover up their actual email address. This is often done to trick the recipient into thinking the email is from a friend, family member, or legitimate business. This commonly occurs in spam messages and is something to be aware of, especially if the email does not look like something that the person or business in the "From" field would send.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Following SEO best practices will help Google and other search engines find and rank your website better. There are a lot of great resources online to help you learn SEO best practices and we recommend doing some research, especially since SEO, along with the search engines, is always changing.
What is an IP lookup?
An IP lookup shows the IP status of your domain and will tell you if your changes to the name server settings have been propagated or not. If it says "Pending Zone Update" at the top, that means your new name server settings have not propagated through the system yet. You will have to wait for your website to become visible. If there is a "None" in red in any of the entries for your name servers, that means that name server is online, but does not recognize your domain in its domain list. You need to contact your web host and ask them if your domain has been added to the name servers' domain list. If there is a red "No response" in any of the entries for your name servers, that means the name server is not even accepting web requests and is probably offline. You need to contact your web host and let them know that your name servers are not online.
What is spam?
"Spam" is email that is both unsolicited and in bulk. Unsolicited means that the recipient has not granted permission for the message to be sent. Bulk means that the same message has been sent to many people, usually all at once. An email that is unsolicited but not sent in bulk is fine, such as asking about a product before buying it. An email that is sent in bulk but not unsolicited is fine, such as sending a newsletter. But sending an email that is both unsolicited and in bulk is spamming.
What is a domain transfer?
A domain transfer is a process in which a domain is moved from one domain registrar to another registrar. There are many reasons why users of a domain may choose to transfer their domain to another registrar: price, quality of customer service, and ease of use (just to name a few).
Did the rules for .COM and .NET IDNs change?
Yes, there are new rules concerning .COM and .NET Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) registrations. These rules were changed on 03/21/2005. Listed below are the rules that were put into place:
1. Verisign, the central registry of .COM and .NET, is taking a more restrictive approach as to what characters are permitted within IDN registrations that contain the ENG and GER language tags. Specifically:
- Domains registered with the language tag of ENG will only be allowed for registrations that consist of characters a-z, 0-9, and -. The reason why we are retaining the ENG table is that in the future, we could add characters to the table which would make registrations using them in an IDN. However, in the interim, no new IDNs could be registered with a language tag containing the ENG value.
- Domains registered with the language tag of GER will only allow for registrations that consist of characters a-z, 0-9, -, ä, ö, and ü. The ß character will continue to be disallowed however, as is currently the case, following the IDNA RFCs.
- At this time, existing registrations that are tagged as ENG or GER will remain in the zone and unaffected by this change. No changes in the future are envisioned except as noted in the following.