What is an IDN domain name?


EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH OUR SERVICES? RUN A DIAGNOSE FIRST TO SAVE YOURS AND OUR TIME

Added: 08.07.2005 19:48:11     Last updated: 21.10.2019 17:45:24

For many top level domains it is possible to register domain names containing national characters such as æ, ø and å.

IDN is a technique that makes it possible to use such characters in domain names by translating them to a form called ACE-form. The ACE-form contains only the standard characters such as the letters a-z, the numbers 0-9 and the hyphen, and it is this form that is added to the DNS.

Programs supporting IDN will be able to translate between the 2 forms so that the user can type in the domain name with national characters in addition to the ACE-form. In programs that not support IDN you have to type in the ACE-form of the domain name.

All browsers support such domain names, but no email clients unfortunately. To send email to such domain names you have to use the ACE-form of the domain name.