.info, History
Prior to launch, the names of countries were reserved from registration at the request of ICANN, to the consternation of those who had paid pre-registration fees to attempt to register these names in the landrush. ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, composed of country representatives from around the world applauded the move, the first by any major domain to protect the national interests of sovereign nations.


.info, Usage
Domain info has been the most successful of the seven new domain names, with over 5.2 million domain names in the registry as of April 2008. After the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York switched to the easier to remember mta.info website to lead users to latest information on schedules and route changes on the area's transportation services. ICANN and Afilias have also sealed an agreement for country names to be reserved by ICANN under resolution 01.92.


.info, Usage
Info is an unrestricted domain, meaning that anyone can obtain a second-level domain for any purpose, similar to the domains com, net and org.This is in contrast to TLDs such as edu, or coop. Info is the only top-level domain that was explicitly created and chartered for unrestricted use, although various other TLDs resulted in this situation de facto. Info stands for information in about 37 languages, and is a neutral name.


.info, Usage
Afilias, the registry operator of both the info and aero top-level domains, has been aggressive in its marketing of the domain, with significant registrar incentives and outreach events.


.info (magazine)
.info (originally INFO=64) was a computer magazine covering Commodore 8-bit computers and later the Amiga. It was published from 1983 to 1992.


.info (magazine), History
INFO=64 began as a newsletter published by its founder, Benn Dunnington, operating out of a spare bedroom in his home. After a few issues, the entrepreneurial spirit struck and he decided to expand it into a full-fledged magazine.


.info (magazine), History
The first few issues of the magazine were published by Dunnington operating as a sole proprietorship in the state of Washington. After a few issues, he moved the company to Iowa, eventually incorporating as Info Publications, Inc.. This, in turn, became a limited partnership, (Info Publications Ltd), which published the magazine until its demise.


.info (magazine), History
INFO=64 was produced using personal computers. An editorial statement in each issue explained that the magazine was produced using only "lay equipment", such as home computers and 35mm cameras, that were inexpensively available to the general public. Early issues were typeset using a Commodore 64 and a dot-matrix printer, giving the magazine a distinctive hand-crafted appearance.


.info (magazine), History
The magazine soon switched to a more professional appearance using laser printers with Springboard Software's The Newsroom or Berkeley Softworks' GEOS geoPublish software for 8-bit Commodores, before changing its editorial focus and publishing platform to the Amiga, and changing its name to .info, which was coincidentally the file extension of Amiga icon files.


.info (magazine), History
The Computer Press Association named .info as one of two 'Runners-Up' in the category of Best Computer Magazine - Circulation Less Than 50,000 at its seventh annual awards ceremony in April 1992. Computers in Accounting won that category, which included well over 100 computer magazines at the time, but .info tied with the slicker and much better-funded NeXTWORLD.


.info (magazine), History
Ironically, .info was in serious financial trouble by then, and the publisher was desperately seeking someone to buy the magazine. The magazine closed its doors in April 1992, and on September 20 the magazine's assets were auctioned off.


.info (magazine), History
Over the course of its run, .info absorbed three pioneering Commodore magazines that ceased publication during the "great extinction" that struck computer magazines in the late 1980s. These were Jim Oldfield and James Strassma's Midnite Software Gazette (which had previously absorbed 'The Paper', one of the oldest independent publications supporting Commodore computers), Mitch Lopes' RoboCity News (the one-time official publication of FAUG, the First Amiga Users' Group, before it was spun off), and Chris Zamara and Nick Sullivan's Transactor (the official publication of TPUG, the Toronto PET Users' Group). Unfortunately, when .info ceased publication, the receivers stood in the way of allowing .info's publisher to find another magazine to fulfill its subscriptions.


.info (magazine), History
A full set of the entire run of INFO magazine, including photocopies of the original newsletter along with other documents related to the magazine, is housed in the library of the State Historical Society of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa. Scans and full text of most issues of INFO are available at archive.org


.int
The domain name int is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from the word international, characterizing its use for international organizations and treaty-related purposes. The first use of this domain was by NATO, which had previously been assigned the top-level domain nato.


.int
According to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) policy, based on RFC 1591, the sTLD int is reserved for international treaty-based organizations, United Nations agencies, and organizations or entities having observer status at the UN. int is considered to have the strictest application policies of all TLDs, as it implies that the holder is a subject of international law. For this reason, the application procedure requires the applicant to provide evidence that it is indeed treaty-based by providing a United Nations treaty registration number and that it has independent legal status.


.int, Delegations
As of June 2012, the domain int consists of 166 subdomain delegations.


.int, Delegations
The subdomain eu.int was used by the European Union–affiliated institutions. However, the aforementioned institutions' domain names switched to the TLD eu on May 9, 2006 (Europe Day). All previous eu.int addresses continued to be accessible for a transitional period of at least one year. As of 2017, the European Central Bank continues to use ecb.int in addition to ecb.eu and ecb.europa.eu, and the .int domain is still sometimes used for email addresses.


.int, Delegations
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPS) saw its initial application for a domain name under int rejected on the grounds that the convention did not explicitly create an entity subject of international law. However, POPS appealed to the IANA Reconsideration Committee and obtained its domain (pops.int) on the grounds that other conventions lacking such specific language had nevertheless obtained a registration.


.int, Delegations
The IANA granted the domain after the committee determined that (1) the organization was chartered by a treaty that was very likely to enter into force, and (2) despite lacking a legal track record, it met "the requirement for independent international legal personality." This grant was subject to the provision that the status of eligibility be renewed if the treaty had not entered into force within four years of the registration.


.int, Delegations
Additionally, the domain int was historically also used for Internet infrastructure databases. The name space arpa had been slated to be moved into int, but in 2000 the Internet Architecture Board recommended that no new infrastructure databases should be added to int and that arpa retain its function. The only remaining technical role of int was for reverse translation of IPv6 addresses in the zone ip6.int. This zone was officially removed on 6 June 2006 in favor of ip6.arpa, also administered by IANA.


.int, Delegations, Grandfathered delegations
Several domains under int were granted prior to the application of the strict guidelines. World YMCA is an example of the loose guidelines applied in the early 1990s. IANA has not withdrawn the existing assignment from YMCA and other organisations such as The Phone Company (which has however not been available since 2011) who do not meet the current criteria.


.invalid
The name invalid is reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC 2606 (June 1999) as a domain name that may not be installed as a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.


.invalid, Reserved DNS names
In 1999, the Internet Engineering Task Force reserved the DNS labels example, invalid, localhost, and test so that they may not be installed into the root zone of the Domain Name System.


.invalid, Reserved DNS names
The reasons for reservation of these top-level domain names is to reduce the likelihood of conflict and confusion. This allows the use of these names for either documentation purposes or in local testing scenarios.


.invalid, Purpose
This top-level domain is sometimes used as a pseudo domain name in Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to convey either an error condition or in use of privacy protection. A notable instance of this usage is in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) where the domain name anonymous.invalid in a SIP URI indicates hiding of a caller's identity.


.io
The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .io is nominally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory. The domain is operated commercially by Afilias, a domain name registry subsidiary of Ethos Capital.


.io
Google's ad targeting treats .io as a generic top-level domain (gTLD) because "users and webmasters frequently see [the domain] more generic than country-targeted."


.io, History
The .io domain was delegated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to British entrepreneur Paul Kane in 1997 together with the ccTLDs .ac (Ascension Island), .sh (St Helena), and .tm (Turkmenistan). Kane operated them for private benefit under the trade name "Internet Computer Bureau" from 1997 until 2017. In 2014, Kane claimed that "profits are distributed to the authorities for them to operate services as they see fit" and that "Each of the overseas territories has an account and the funds are deposited there because obviously the territories have expenses that they incur and it’s offsetting that." However the UK government has repeatedly stated that this is untrue: “There is no agreement between the UK Government and ICB regarding the administration of the .io domain” and "the Government receives no revenues from the sales or administration of this domain."


.io, History
The first subdomain was registered under .IO in 1998, when Levi Strauss & Co. registered the domain levi.io.


.io, History
In April, 2017, Paul Kane sold the Internet Computer Bureau holding company to privately-held domain name registry services provider Afilias for $70.17m in cash.


.io, History
In December, 2020, Afilias' owner Hal Lubsen sold it to privately-held Donuts for an undisclosed sum.


.io, History
One month later, in January 2021, Donuts was acquired by private equity firm Ethos Capital, again for an undisclosed sum.


.io, History
In 2021, the United Nation's International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ruled that the United Kingdom has no sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, and that sovereignty instead belongs to Mauritius. This would extinguish the British Indian Ocean Territory, and the IO ISO-3166 two-letter country code and .io domain could also be extinguished. The United Kingdom disputes and does not recognise the tribunal's decision, so further legal processes are likely.


.io, History
In July 2021, the Chagos Refugees Group UK submitted a complaint to the Irish government against domain-name speculators Paul Kane and Ethos Capital subsidiary Afilias, seeking repatriation of the .IO ("Indian Ocean") country-code top-level domain and payment of back royalties from the $7m/year in revenue generated by the domain.


.io, History
While attempts to repatriate top-level domains are not uncommon, this one is notable in that it cites consumer and human rights violations of the OECD's 2011 Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises rather than multistakeholder representation under ICANN policy, and because the .IO domain has enjoyed commercial success, particularly among cryptocurrency companies, with more than 270,000 domains registered.


.io, Registration and restrictions
Labels for .io domains may only contain alphanumeric characters and hyphens, and must be between 3 and 63 characters long. Domain names cannot begin or end with a hyphen symbol, and may not contain two consecutive hyphens. The entire domain name may not contain more than 253 characters.


.io, Registration and restrictions
Applicants for the registration of .io domains do not need to be registered or established in the British Indian Ocean Territory. Third-level domains, such as "xyz.com.io", can only be registered by an inhabitant of the area. (Since there are no legal, permanent inhabitants of the British Indian Ocean Territory, theoretically no third-level domains will be registered.) Any second-level domains used by NIC.IO and top-level domains cannot be used as a third-level domain. For example, the domains "com.com.io", "org.com.io", and "biz.com.io" are all restricted.


.io, Registration and restrictions
Domain names in .io may not be used, "for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any nation." If this requirement is breached, "NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration."


.io, Registration and restrictions
.io domains may be registered for a minimum of one year, and a maximum of 5 years.


.io, Registration and restrictions
Domain names in .io are priced higher than those in many other TLDs. Registering an available .io-domain currently (as of 3 September 2020) costs US$90 per year.


.io, Usage
The .io domain is used almost exclusively for purposes unrelated to the British Indian Ocean Territory.


.io, Usage
In computer science, "IO" or "I/O" is commonly used as an abbreviation for input/output, which makes the .io domain desirable for services that want to be associated with technology. .io domains are often used for open source projects, application programming interfaces ("APIs"), startup companies, browser games, and other online services.


.io, Usage
The TLD is also used for domain hacks, as the letters "io" are an ending of many English terms. For example, Rub.io is a shortened URL that was used for the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign of Marco Rubio.


.io, Usage
One reason given for the TLD's popularity is that it stands out by being shorter than other TLDs. Also, the .io TLD is less occupied than other TLDs, so it is more likely that a given term is available there.


.io, Usage
In Italian, io is the first-person singular pronoun (English "I"), which makes the domain appealing for personal websites.


.io, Usage
In Esperanto, io as an independent word is the assertive existential indefinite pronoun (English "something"). As a suffix, -io is used to terminate official names of countries or other kind of lands under which a community of people are grouped. The Plena Ilustrita Vortaro de Esperanto include almost 500 terms like that, from Abisenio (former name of Ethiopia, Etiopio) to Zambio (Zambia).


.io, Usage
Derived from that, the suffix is also used to designate a community of people whose common interest is indicated by the suffixed root, especially in the term Esperantio, the community of speakers of the language and their culture as a whole, as well as the places and institutions where the language is used. As of May 2020, the esperant.io domain name redirects to Libera Folio, an independent generalist online bulletin written in Esperanto.


.io, Usage
Around 2015 a multiplayer game, Agar.io, spawned many other games with a similar playstyle and .io domain, such as Diep.io, Slither.io, Surviv.io, ZombsRoyale.io, and Hole.io. Such games are collectively called ".io games".


.io, Controversy
According to a 2014 Gigaom interview with Paul Kane, then chairman of the Internet Computer Bureau, the domain name registry is required to give some of its profits to the British government, for administration of the British Indian Ocean Territory. After being questioned as a result of the interview, the British Government denied receiving any funds from the sale of .io domain names, and argued that consequently, the profits could not be shared with the Chagossians, the former inhabitants forcibly removed by the British government.


.ipa
An .ipa (iOS App Store Package) file is an iOS application archive file which stores an iOS app. Each .ipa file includes a binary and can only be installed on an iOS or ARM-based MacOS device. Files with the .ipa extension can be uncompressed by changing the extension to .zip and unzipping.


.ipa
Most .ipa files cannot be installed on the iPhone Simulator because they do not contain a binary for the x86 architecture, only one for the ARM architecture of mobile phones. To run applications on the simulator, original project files which can be opened using the Xcode SDK are required. However, some .ipa files can be opened on the simulator by extracting and copying over the .app file found in the Payload folder. Some simple apps are able to run on the simulator through this method.


.ipa
ipa is a de facto format used by Apple and there are no specifications of it. A form of Digital Rights Management exists in the format to control redistribution to a single Apple ID. Prior to iTunes 12.7 (September 2017), users had direct access to ipa files in the form of App Store downloads.


.ipa, Structure of a .ipa file
An IPA has a built-in structure for iTunes and App Store to recognize. The example below shows the structure of an IPA:


.ipa, Structure of a .ipa file
As shown above, the Payload folder is what contains all the app data. The iTunes Artwork file is a 512×512 pixel PNG image, containing the app's icon for showing in iTunes and the App Store app on the iPad. The iTunesMetadata.plist contains various bits of information, ranging from the developer's name and ID, the bundle identifier, copyright information, genre, the name of the app, release date, purchase date, etc.


.ipa, Structure of a .ipa file
It is common but undocumented to use a JPEG file for iTunesArtwork.


.ipa, Structure of a .ipa file
Since 2017, Apple has used LZFSE instead of registered Zip algorithms in IPAs. The "compression method" field in this case is set to 99.


.ipa, Structure of a .ipa file
Code signing is handled in the .app bundle directory. The META-INF folder only contains metadata about what program was used to create the IPA.


.ipa, Unsigned .ipa executables
An unsigned .ipa can be created by copying the folder with the extension .app from the Products folder of the application in Xcode to a folder called Payload and compressing the latter using the command zip -0 -y -r myAppName.ipa Payload/.


.ipa, Unsigned .ipa executables
It is then possible to install unsigned .ipa files on iOS jailbroken devices using third party software. AppSync is the tool for installing such homebrew apps. Similar to the case of game console hacking, people are known to use this installation for piracy, against the tool developer's wishes: some underground communities form around buying an app and then sharing its DRM-free unsigned version.


.iq
.iq is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Iraq.


.iq
This domain was in limbo for years, as the delegated manager was imprisoned in Texas on charges of alleged connection to Hamas (a State Department designated terrorist organization), for which he was later convicted in 2005. Some talk of redelegation and relaunching began taking place at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and in 2005 a redelegation to the National Communications and Media Commission of Iraq was approved by ICANN.


.iq
Whois services can be found at   2017-05-20 at the Wayback Machine.


.iq, Restrictions
The registration of .iq domains is limited to commercial commissions, Internet service providers, nonprofits, or schools and private institutions recognized by Higher Education, natural individuals, citizens, or residents in Iraq.


.ir
.ir is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Iran. It is managed by the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences.


.ir, Persian domains
Persian internationalized domain names are available for registration under .ایران.ir for public, in the Persian script.


.ir, Persian domains
In 2010,  ICANN approved IRNIC's proposal for the ایران. IDN ccTLD (representing the Persian spelling of Iran), pending the final step of String Delegation.


.ir, Domain hacks
The URL "ryana.ir" is a redirect to the budget airline website ryanair.com. It is used as a typing shortcut. Some internet users may mistakenly believe that .ir is the ccTLD for the Republic of Ireland, the home country of Ryanair (which is actually .ie).


.ir, Domain hacks
The URL "renmark.ir" is a redirect to the Investor Relations firm Renmark Financial Communications Inc. The .ir in this instance would stand for Investor Relations.


.irish
.irish is a generic top-level domain (gTLD). The rights to run the domain were applied for in June 2012 by Dot-Irish LLC, a for-profit company in California, United States, as part of an expansion of generic top-level domains by ICANN. The application was successful, and the domain opened for registrations on 17 March 2015, with public registration opened on 25 June 2015.


.is
.is (dot is) is the top-level domain for Iceland. The country code is derived from the first two letters of Ísland, which is the Icelandic word for Iceland. Registration of .is domains is open to all persons and companies without any special restriction.


.is
The first .is-domain, hi.is, is the domain of Háskóli Íslands University of Iceland. It was registered on December 11, 1986, making it one of the earliest ever domain registrations on the Internet.


.is
According to McAfee report "Mapping the Mal Web", .is has been evaluated as one of the top 10 most secure TLDs in the world in year 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. No report has come out since then. As of December 2020, there were just over 75,000 .is-domains registered.


.is
As of October 2016, .is domains can be registered for up to five years.


.is, Domain suspensions
In April 2013, ISNIC briefly hosted The Pirate Bay's domain ThePirateBay.is.


.is, Domain suspensions
In 2014, ISNIC suspended two domains which hosted material produced by the Islamic State, including Khilafah.is.


.is, Domain suspensions
In September 2017, ISNIC briefly hosted American neo-Nazi domain dailystormer.is, which had been removed by several domain Registries around the world. It was pulled from its .is domain after its publisher did not fulfill the standard procedure of disclosing his address.


.is, Domain hacks
Many domain hacks exist which use the .is suffix as the English verb is.


.istanbul
.istanbul and .ist  are approved top level domains (TLD) for the Internet. It is a community-based sponsored top-level domain by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and subsidiary Medya A.Ş. According to the Medya A.Ş., .istanbul will improve awareness on Istanbul's historical heritage and help economic growth by allowing unlimited and open registration of the names.


.istanbul
Along with TLDs such as .cat and .asia, .istanbul and other new TLDs fall into the new category of GeoTLDs.


.it
.it is the national top-level domain (ccTLD) assigned to Italy.


.it
Registration is open to organisations and individuals of legal age who are citizens or residents of/headquartered in the countries of the European Economic Area (EEA), the Vatican State, the Republic of San Marino and the Swiss Confederation.


.it
Since 11 July 2012, .it has also supported internationalised domain names.


.it, History
The first .it domain requested was that of the CNR (National Research Council: cnuce.cnr.it); the request was sent on 23 December 1987, and the domain became active on 1 January 1988. On 23 December 1987, IANA assigned the .it ccTLD to CNUCE, an institute of the CNR in Pisa, and the first name registered was that of the CNR's CNUCE.


.it, History
In 1997, the task was passed on to the Institute for Telematic Applications (Istituto per le Applicazioni Telematiche, IAT), also at the CNR in Pisa, which was born out of the necessary expansion of the 'Research Network Infrastructure Department' (Reparto Infrastrutture Reti per la Ricerca, RIRR) of the CNUCE. Policies and rules were agreed with operators in the sector using a variety of forms.


.it, History
After the setting-up of the initial group, called MAIL-ITA, followed by ITA-PE 162 (which held its meetings at the CSELT) in 1994, 1998 saw the establishment of the Italian Naming Authority, which was responsible for drafting the rules for assigning '.it' domains until 2005. This structure differed from the Italian Registration Authority, which was responsible for keeping the Registry of names and made available the technical infrastructure needed to maintain it, thereby also including the management of authoritative DNS delegations.


.it, History
In 1999, the Naming Authority carried out a 'liberalisation' of the ccTLD by removing the limit on the number of domain names that could be registered for organisations of any kind. In the same year, management of the Registry passed to the Institute's Director Franco Denoth. In 2001, a merger of several institutes of the CNR gave rise to the Institute of Informatics and Telematics, which consequently took over responsibility. In 2004, the limit on the number of registrations was also removed for natural persons.


.it, History
As of 2005, the Registry took over both regulatory and implementation functions with the establishment of an internal committee (the Steering Committee) that included representatives of the sector's operators. In 2009, the '.it' ccTLD Registry changed its name to Registro .it, the registry of Italian domains. Following Denoth's death in April 2006, the direction of the Institute (and thus of Registro) was temporarily taken over by Enrico Gregori on 17 May 2006, followed by Domenico Laforenza in 2008. Currently, the Institute is directed by Marco Conti. Since 11 July 2012, it has also been possible to register .it domains with non-ASCII characters (IDN), i.e., special characters, accented letters, etc.


.it, Reserved and/or special-use second-level domains
Second-level domains are the ones 'before' the .it, and can be of different types:


.je
.je is the country code top-level domain for Jersey. The domain is administered by Island Networks, who also administer the .gg domain for neighbouring territory Guernsey. In 2003, a Google Search website was made available for Jersey, which uses the .je domain.


.je, History
Alderney hosts the domain name registry for both bailiwicks of the Channel Islands. The country-code top-level domains of .je and .gg first appeared on the Internet in August 1996 after Jon Postel agreed with Nigel Roberts to add four codes (GG and JE, and IM and AC) to the IANA list of TLDs. The codes for the Channel Islands and for the Isle of Man were entered on to the official United Nations ISO-3166 list in 2006.


.je, Second-level domains
Since 2000, names have been registered principally directly under the country code.


.je, Second-level domains
However the following legacy sub-domain are still open for registration


.jm
.jm is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Jamaica. Registrations are at the third level beneath the second level names com.jm, net.jm, org.jm, edu.jm, gov.jm, and mil.jm. Registrations are processed by hand rather than automatically, so registrants are asked to allow 30 days for the registrations to be completed. Updates to domain names (such as changes to nameservers) can only be authorized by the technical or registrant e-mail addresses. Registration of .jm domains is handled by Mona Information Technology Services (MITS) at the University of the West Indies. Registration is free, although there has been some discussion about MITS making the service commercial in the coming years.


.jo
.jo is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Jordan. A local contact is required to register a domain name under .jo. It used to be administered by the  and is now administered by Jordan's Ministry of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship.


.jo
Jordan also has an internationalized country code top-level domain, الاردن.


.jobs
The domain name jobs is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. As indicated by its name, the domain is restricted to employment-related sites.


.jobs
The domain was approved by ICANN on April 8, 2005 as part of the second group of new TLD applications submitted in 2004. It was installed in the DNS root in September 2005, and began accepting registrations later in the year.


.jobs, Intended use
The intended use of the domain jobs is for companies and organizations to register some version of their corporate names and use it for a site aimed at those seeking employment with that company, or, .jobs can target a specific market. For example, manufacturing.jobs could represent employment for a specific corporation, or market sector.


.jobs, Intended use
In 2010, Employ Media LLC applied to ICANN to extend the charter under which Employ Media is authorized to sell the .jobs domains. If accepted, Employ Media plans to create hundreds of thousands and perhaps a million new, niche job boards and sell domains such as Chicago.jobs to third parties. The International Association of Employment Web Sites and dozens of other employment services organizations have objected.


.jobs, Intended use
It has been suggested that subdomains of other domains, such as jobs.example.com, can be used without any new registrations on the part of the companies involved. However, there is no general consensus among companies or industry sectors for any such naming scheme, like there is for the www prefix and other prefixes, so the proponents of .jobs argue the domain can gain a market presence by allowing recruiters to communicate a simple, direct URL destination of employment opportunities to job seekers.


.jobs, Intended use
In 2013, Employ Media partnered with Cnjobs Technology which is headed by Dr. Renjun Bao to expand to greater China.


.jp
.jp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Japan. It is administered by the Japan Registry Services.


.jp
At the establishment of the .jp domain, the domain was administered by the JPNIC, as part of their role as an overseeing technical body for the Internet in Japan. It was originally proposed by Jun Murai for the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, on August 5, 1986. Handling of the domain was first managed within the "junet-admin" admin group, which was responsible for the operations of JUNET, an early computer network in which Murai was a part of. In April 1989, the junet-admin group began formally registering .jp domain names.


.jp
However, due to the growing importance and size of the .jp registry, it was decided at the 11th General Meeting of JPNIC in December 2000 to create a new corporation that would manage the .jp domain. Thus, the Japan Registry Service was created, and on June 30, 2003, officially assumed the duties of the .jp registry.


.jp
.jp registrations are only allowed if the registrant has a physical address in Japan.


.jp
Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and domain names with Japanese characters (kanji, hiragana or katakana) may be registered at the second level.


.jp, Second-level domains
While any party with a Japanese mailing address can get a second-level domain (example.jp) there are several restricted-use second-level domains, listed below.


.jp, Second-level domains, Geographical type jp domain names
Domains listed below are reserved for the local governments in Japan:


.jp, Internationalized top-level domains
Japan has considered registering an internationalized country code top-level domain, .日本. In 2008, a preliminary application was made. As of 2020, no such domain has been registered.


.jp, Internationalized top-level domains
Private companies have registered the following internationalized generic top-level domains using Japanese script:


.jp, Internationalized top-level domains
Cities or regions in Japan have registered these geographic top-level domains:


.kaufen
.kaufen is a proposed top-level domain (TLD) in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is Demand Media (United TLD Holdco Ltd.). The proposed application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 29 December 2013.


.kaufen, Purpose
The following is the official purpose of the .kaufen domain:


.kaufen, Purpose
"The term "kaufen" is a generic and broadly used German word that holds particular affinity for people and organizations engaged in online commerce. In German "kaufen" means: to buy. Global in scope, today a passionate group of millions of consumers and hundreds of thousands of organizations identify with this word. The mission and purpose of the .kaufen TLD is to establish an easily recognized and accessible namespace for the German-speaking portion of this large and dynamic group.


.kaufen, Purpose
The .kaufen TLD is proposed by United TLD Holdco Ltd. ("United TLD"), a well-funded company established by highly experienced domain industry executives for the express purpose of securing the rights to operate a portfolio of TLDs that increase choice, expression, affinity and relevance for millions of consumers, businesses and other organizations on the web."


.kaufen, ICANN contract
On 7 November 2013, Demand Media received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .kaufen after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.


.kaufen, Delegation and availability
.kaufen was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on December 29, 2013, completing the successful application for the string.


.ke
.ke is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kenya.


.ke, Second-level domains
Second-level domains, under which domains are registered at the third level, are:


.kg
.kg is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kyrgyzstan. Although registrations are normally at the second level, there are some specialized third-level registrations such as those under gov.kg and mil.kg.


.kh
.kh is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Kingdom of Cambodia. It was formerly administered by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications of Cambodia from 1997. In September 2012, the domain name was transferred to the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia, which currently administers it. The domain name is named after the majority ethnic group of Cambodia, the Khmer people.


.kh
Only Cambodia-registered companies, government agencies, organisations and Cambodian citizens can register domain names.


.ki
.ki is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kiribati.


.ki
From the early 1990s to the early 2000s the domain was managed on behalf of the Republic of Kiribati by an Australian ISP, Connect.com.au with the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency, based in Honiara, Solomon Islands as original sponsor, then transferred to the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources Development of Kiribati and finally to the Ministry of Communications, Transport, and Tourism Development. In 2002 direct management of the ccTLD was transferred to Telecom Services Kiribati Limited. This initial set up was done by Franck Martin.


.ki
As of 2007, the registry is being handled by the Telecommunications Authority of Kiribati using a system of multiple registrars similar to that used by gTLDs; however, few sites are using .ki domains. Because of the location of Kiribati and limited Internet connection, it is not uncommon for a website in Kiribati, such as a government website, to be very slow or inaccessible, however many .ki sites are hosted outside Kiribati.


.ki, Second-level domains
Domains can be registered directly under .ki, or at the third level beneath com.ki, biz.ki, net.ki, info.ki, org.ki, gov.ki, edu.ki, mob.ki, and tel.ki. The fee for a second-level domain is AUD1,000, whilst all others with the exception of edu.ki, which costs AUD50, are AUD150. edu.ki and gov.ki and reserved for their respective entities in Kiribati, such as The University of the South Pacific, Kiribati Centre.


.ki, Second-level domains
The registrant of de.ki offers free redirected subdomains beneath this address to the German-speaking market, and this accounts for many of the current uses of .ki on the Web.


.kiwi
.kiwi is an Internet generic top-level domain with emphasis on New Zealand. It employs the colloquial term kiwi, used to refer to New Zealanders. It is New Zealand's first and presently only "top level domain name approved by ICANN".


.kiwi, History
Dot Kiwi Limited reportedly spent a "seven-figure" sum securing the new top level domain from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).


.kiwi, History
The domain launched with a 'landrush' period in March 2014 after two years of planning.


.kiwi, History
In May 2014, shortly after launch, 4,600 .kiwi domains had been activated. As at the first anniversary on 1 May 2015, 12,000 .kiwi domains had been registered. Dot Kiwi Limited claimed that this meant .kiwi was in the top 25 per cent of new domains released by ICANN.


.kiwi, History
The .kiwi top level domain is not to be confused with .kiwi.nz, which launched as a new option under the .nz top level domain in August 2012.


.kiwi, History
The technical backend is provided by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority's Fury product.


.kkrieger
.kkrieger (from Krieger, German for warrior) is a first-person shooter video game created by German demogroup .theprodukkt (a former subdivision of Farbrausch), which won first place in the 96k game competition at Breakpoint in April 2004. The game remains a beta version as of 2021.


.kkrieger, Development history
.theprodukkt have developed .kkrieger since mid-2002, using their tool .werkkzeug (from Werkzeug, German for tool). They used an unreleased version of .werkkzeug called .werkkzeug3. The source code of .werkkzeug3 engine was made available by the group in 2014, either under the BSD license or as public domain.


.kkrieger, Procedural content
.kkrieger makes extensive use of procedural generation methods. Textures are stored via their creation history instead of a per-pixel basis, thus only requiring the history data and the generator code to be compiled into the executable, producing a relatively small file size. Meshes are created from basic solids such as boxes and cylinders, which are then deformed to achieve the desired shape - essentially a special way of box modeling. These two generation processes account for the extensive loading time of the game — all assets of the gameplay are reproduced during the loading phase.


.kkrieger, Procedural content
The entire game uses only 97,280 bytes of disk space. In contrast, most contemporaneous first-person shooters filled one or more CDs or DVDs. According to the developers, .kkrieger itself would take up around 200–300 MB of space if it had been stored the conventional way.


.kkrieger, Procedural content
The game music and sounds are produced by a multifunctional synthesizer called V2, which is fed a continuous stream of MIDI data. The synthesizer then produces the music in real time.


.kkrieger, Reception
The game won two German game developer prizes at the Deutscher Entwicklerpreis in 2006, in Innovation and Advancement.


.kkrieger, Reception
Gaming website Acid-Play gave the game 2/5 stars and a mixed review, mainly praising the game's file size, calling it "not a featureless game, but one whose limitations break barriers in terms of what can be done" and ultimately stating that "you’ll never find a game which has this much and comes in such a small package."


.km
.km is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Comoros.


.km
Registration is available directly at second-level or under a number of sub-domains (cost of KMF30000 in most categories):


.km
Second-level registrations are subject to restrictions and local presence requirements.


.km
Third-level registrations are unrestricted in *.com.km if the name is not already registered elsewhere in .km; various category-specific restrictions apply to each of the other third-level domains. Personal name *.nom.km registrations are limited to island residents and to citizens resident abroad; various categories corresponding to the individual professions each require the applicant hold a license to practise that profession.


.kn
.kn is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Kitts and Nevis. It is administered by the University of Puerto Rico, Central Administration.


.kn
Recently, .kn has been opened for global registration. The current registration fee for 2 years is US$225.


.kn, Second level domains
Registrations are allowed directly at the second level, and there are also some third-level registrations beneath these second-level names:


.kp
.kp is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for North Korea; it was created on 24 September 2007.


.kp, History
North Korea applied for the .kp Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) in 2004. ICANN, however, refused because North Korea did not meet some of the requirements. Another attempt was made via Korea Computer Center (KCC) Europe in 2006. Later, the main body of KCC and the North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations petitioned ICANN again. They were refused again for providing insufficient information. A new application was sent in January 2007 and an ICANN delegation visited the country in May. This time ICANN agreed to assign .kp to North Korea.


.kp, History
One of the first organizations to adopt a .kp domain was the Korean Central News Agency in 2009.


.kp, History
Previously, the .kp domain was managed by Korea Computer Center (KCC) Europe. A large number of .kp websites were also hosted by KCC Europe in Germany. However, in 2011, management was transferred to the Pyongyang-based Star Joint Venture.


.kp, Second-level domains
Neither the North Korea government agencies nor the central registry have published the second-level domain registration rules. However, according to the using practices shown by the currently existing and accessible North Korea domains and websites, while regarding the worldwide country-code second-level domain distribution rules, the second-level domain rules in North Korea can be interpreted as below.


.kp, Second-level domains
The following are externally accessible domain name examples of the use of second-level domain names:


.kp, Existing and externally accessible domain list
As of 2017, at least nine .kp top level domains and more than 30 domains are accessible to the global Internet. These are as follows:


.kp, Existing and externally accessible domain list
Some .kp addresses are used by the North Korean Intranet only.


.kr
.kr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Republic of Korea (South Korea). Registrations are processed via registration agents.


.kr
From September 2006, it became possible to register domain names directly under .kr (although this is currently only possible for internationalized domain names). Trademark holders and public bodies benefited from an "early registration period", after which the owners of .kr third-level domains had priority to get the corresponding second-level domains.


.kr
In 2011 a new top-level domain was registered for South Korea, intended for domain names in the local language. The top-level domain is .한국 domain names and working sites became active during 2011.


.kr, Domain hacks
.kr domains are sometimes used as domain hacks such as flic.kr, an alternative address for Flickr.


.krd
.krd is the Internet geographic top-level domain (gTLD) for Kurdistan Region of Iraq.


.krd
On 5 December 2013, the Department of Information Technology of the Kurdistan Region received a registry agreement signed by ICANN for .krd after passing all the required processes needed to become the registry operator for the domain.


.kw
.kw is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kuwait. Domain registrations are at the third level beneath these names:


.kw
Registration is done through accredited registrars by providing the right documents and a fee of 15 KD per year with maximum of two years with intention to allow 1-10 years in near future.


.ky
.ky is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Cayman Islands. Registration was limited to residents and registered companies in the Cayman Islands with a local address, but this restriction was removed in September 2015. The Cayman Islands also has the international three-letter code CYM and has won a bid to be awarded the .cym domain in a future expansion of the top-level domain space.


.ky, Second level domains
Registrations are permitted directly at the second level, or at the third level beneath these names:


.ky, History
IANA received a request to establish the .ky ccTLD in April 1995. From 1995 to 2002, the .ky ccTLD registry was operated by an individual, Clint Mole, initially as an employee of the Cayman Islands government, but then later under contract with a company Domain Name Trust (DNT). In 2002, the Cayman Islands government established the Information and Communications Technical Authority (ICTA) and contacted ICANN requesting that administrative operation be changed to ICTA. In June 2003, IANA and ICANN concluded that the .ky ccTLD should be redelegated to ICTA.


.ky, History
In January 2015 the Cayman Islands ICTA announced a partnership with Uniregistry for the operation of the .ky name extension. Uniregistry became the first ICANN accredited registrar to retail .ky names on March 2, 2015.


.kz
.kz and .қаз (abbreviation of Kazakh: Қазақстан, tr. Qazaqstan) are the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Kazakhstan.


.kz
Registrations can be made directly at the second level or at the third level beneath categories which have specific restrictions, and are generally limited to Kazakhstan-related entities.


.kz, .kz, Second-level domains, Enforcement of Internet resources on hardware and software complexes
In March 2018, new Rules went into effect and since at least 2021, these rules are being enforced. Especially Rule 16 subsection 6 is being enforced:


.kz, .kz, Second-level domains, Enforcement of Internet resources on hardware and software complexes
Example: DNS for domain www.EXAMPLE.kz cannot point to a web page being hosted in a member country of the EU. In such a case, the registry for EXAMPLE.kz will be suspended a short period and then deleted.


.kz, .kz, Second-level domains, Google
In June 2011, Google redirected all traffic from google.kz to google.com in response to a demand issued by the Kazakh Ministry of Communications and Information that requires all .kz domain names to operate on physical servers within the borders of Kazakhstan. Senior Vice President Bill Coughran said "creating borders on the web raises important questions for us not only about network efficiency but also about user privacy and free expression." By hosting google.kz only on servers inside Kazakhstan, "we would be helping to create a fractured Internet."


.kz, .kz, Second-level domains, Google
During the first half of 2017, google.kz has returned to be generally available.


.kz, .қаз
A second country code top-level domain, .қаз ("qaz") for Kazakhstan is now active. It is  used with web addresses using Cyrillic letters. It was launched in March 2012, when the first site, a test site,  ("test.qaz") was activated.


.kz, Notes
This Internet domain name article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .


.kz, Notes
This article about media in Kazakhstan is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .


.la
.la is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Laos.


.la
Although the .la domain is officially assigned to the country of Laos, subdomains have been delegated to some organizations outside Laos.


.la, History
The LA Names Corporation, based in Guernsey, has gained the rights to market .la registrations, and they had used the registry services of Afilias and, formerly, the registrar services of DreamHost. However, DreamHost has discontinued registrar services as of May 2006. LA Names and CentralNic, Ltd. completed the transfer of the .la domain name to the CentralNic system in 2007. Cabel Sasser of Panic created "Poopla" (xn--ls8h.la), "The World's First Emoji Domain" on April 13, 2011. A company based in of Hong Kong by the name of Sterling Holdings originally purchased the TLD from Laos, and marketed it towards users in Louisiana and LA.


.la, Popular use
The domain is used by organizations in the state of Louisiana (whose postal abbreviation is LA) and the city of Los Angeles. No official or unofficial association exists between the .la domain and any government in the United States (see .gov and .org). It also sees limited use for businesses in Latin America, such as Intel's site for the region.


.la, Popular use
The .la domain is also used for domain hacks in the French language and the Chinese language. là means "there" in French and in Italian, and in other Romance languages; "啦" (pinyin: la) is a common modal word at the end of a sentence or a phrase in Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.


.la, Popular use
Mozilla Foundation's URL shortener uses it with the "mzl.la" domain hack.


.la, Popular use
Tesla Motors uses "ts.la" domain hack as a shortener and a redirect.


.la, Popular use
Digikala, an e-commerce startup in Iran and the Middle East uses the “dgka.la" domain hack as a shortener.


.la, Popular use
The Network information center of .la is oriented to pages based in Los Angeles.


.la, Lao language domain
In 2008 a preliminary application was made to open the internationalized top level domain .ລາວ (the name of Laos in the Lao language). In 2019 this top level domain was approved. Web sites will come at a later stage. It is intended for usage with domain names in Lao script.


.lat
.lat is an Internet generic top-level domain (gTLD) for Latin American communities and users wherever they may reside.


.lat
NIC México (Manager of the .mx ccTLD) along with eCOM-LAC (Federation of Latin-America and the Caribbean for the Internet and Electronic Commerce) were appointed official sponsors for this campaign. The full proposal was originally supposed to be presented to ICANN during 2008  but was later to be presented by mid-2011.


.lat
There were initial communications that presented the idea of this new top-level domain as a regional one but further news detailed the community orientation of the proposal


.lat
Other names that were being considered are .latin and .latino. Similar proposals had already been approved like the Asian gTLD (.asia) and the European Union's ccTLD (.eu).


.lb
.lb is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Lebanon.


.lb
The official registration rules say that it is necessary to have a Lebanese trademark certificate for the exact name being registered (omitting the TLD and second-level label the name is being registered within) and the trademark owner must be a Lebanese entity.


.lb
Registrants in each of the subdomains (.com.lb, .edu.lb, etc.) are expected to show qualifications indicating that they are the appropriate type of entity to register in that subdomain. Additionally, registered names are required to be unique within the entire .lb domain (for instance, example.com.lb and example.org.lb cannot both be registered) because the registry wishes to keep the possibility open to drop the requirement of third-level registration and move all names to the second level.


.lc
.lc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Saint Lucia, sponsored by the University of Puerto Rico and created on September 3, 1991. The registry is operated by Afilias and markets towards companies structured as LCs, LLCs or PLCs due to the possibility of a domain hack, such as CompanyName.L.LC (companyname.l.lc uses the open SLD l.lc) and supposedly better names.


.lc, Second and third level domains
Registrations take place directly at the second level or at one of the following third level domains. There are a number of registrars, but .gov.lc and .edu.lc can only be registered at the NIC.


.lc, Rules
All domains must be between 1 and 63 characters long, excluding the TLD. In addition, domains may not contain anything other than letters, numbers, and a hyphen. .lc does not support internationalized domain names, and domain names may not start or end with a hyphen. Domain names considered offensive by the registry may not be registered.


.lgbt
.lgbt is a sponsored top-level domain for the LGBT community, sponsored by Afilias. The domain name was delegated to the Root Zone on 18 July 2014. The creation of .lgbt is meant to promote diversity and LGBT businesses, and is open to LGBT businesses, organizations, and anyone wishing to reach the LGBT community.


.lgbt, The first
PinkNews and Out Now Consulting were among the first to launch .lgbt websites.


.li
.li is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Liechtenstein. The .li TLD was created in 1993. The domain is sponsored and administered by the University of Liechtenstein in Vaduz. Registration of .li domain names used to be managed by SWITCH, administrator of Switzerland's .ch ccTLD. In February 2013, SWITCH discontinued its .li registration service for private customers, delegating it to a number of recognized partner firms.


.li
There are no requirements to apply for the extension. Registrations of internationalized domain names have been accepted since March 2004. Domain names under 3 characters are reserved for the state and its institutions.


.li, Domain hacks and vanity usage
Many Long Island organizations and companies have adopted the .li TLD  as a domain hack.


.li, Domain hacks and vanity usage
As -li is a diminutive ending in Swiss German (Standard German -lein), many Swiss companies register an additional, or alternative, .li domain for their businesses and services.


.li, Domain hacks and vanity usage
In Ukrainian, -li is a verbal ending of past tense plural form. That is why some Russian-oriented sites use it as a part of the site name with the verbal stem before the dot.


.li, Domain hacks and vanity usage
Emojli, a messaging app created by Tom Scott and Matt Gray, used the domain emoj.li as its official webpage.


.li, Domain hacks and vanity usage
Li is also a Romanization of the second most common Chinese surname. Some people with this last name register .li domains for personal use.


.limbo messiah
.limbo messiah is a 2007 album by rock-punk band Beatsteaks. The album reached the European Top 100 Albums charts.


.lk
.lk (.ලංකා/.இலங்கை) is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Sri Lanka. Foreign companies who do not have a local presence can only reserve their top-level and corresponding open second-level domains (either through the LK Domain Registry or agents). In order to register and use a name they must have a contact address in Sri Lanka (which may be obtained through an agent or law firm).


.lk, Second-level domains
Registrations are taken at the second level and also at the third level beneath various categorized second level names. A second-level registration automatically blocks the name from registration by anybody else under any of the third-level names.


.lk, Internationalized top-level domains
In September 2010 two new top-level domains were registered for Sri Lanka. They became active during 2011.


.local
The domain name .local is a special-use domain name reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) so that it may not be installed as a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. As such it is similar to the other special domain names, such as localhost. However, local has since been designated for use in link-local networking by RFC 6762, in applications of multicast DNS (mDNS) and zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) so that DNS service may be established without local installations of conventional DNS infrastructure on local area networks.


.local, Multicast DNS (mDNS) standard
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standards-track RFC 6762 (February 20, 2013) reserves the use of the domain name label local as a pseudo-top-level domain for hostnames in local area networks that can be resolved via the Multicast DNS name resolution protocol. Any DNS query for a name ending with the label local must be sent to the mDNS IPv4 link-local multicast address 224.0.0.251, or its IPv6 equivalent FF02::FB. A domain name ending in local may be resolved concurrently via other mechanisms, for example, unicast DNS.


.local, mDNS implementations
RFC 6762 was authored by Apple Inc. employees Stuart Cheshire and Marc Krochmal, and Apple's Bonjour zeroconf networking software implements mDNS. That service will automatically resolve the private IP addresses of link-local Macintosh computers running MacOS and mobile devices running iOS if .local is appended to their hostnames. In addition, Bonjour devices will use those .local hostnames when advertising services to DNS Service Discovery clients.


.local, mDNS implementations
Most Linux distributions also incorporate and are configured to use zeroconf. By default, each computer's Avahi daemon will respond to mDNS hostname.local queries, and most shell commands and application program calls that attempt to resolve such names are routed to that daemon by the default hosts: line in the Name Service Switch configuration file. It is also possible to configure the nss-mdns modules and Avahi to resolve hostnames with other pseudo-TLDs.


.local, mDNS implementations
Although Windows operating systems often do not have built-in mDNS function, it can be added by installing zeroconf software available from Apple and other third parties, and it is beginning to be added in Windows 10.


.local, mDNS implementations
Finally, many printers and other peripheral devices also implement the mDNS protocol in order to provide simplified connections to them from computers that implement zeroconf.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
The connection of Macintosh and Linux computers or zeroconf peripherals to Windows networks can be problematic if those networks include name servers that use .local as a search domain for internal devices.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
At one time, Microsoft at least suggested the use of .local as a pseudo-TLD for small private networks with internal DNS servers, via documents that (as of this writing) are still accessible. For example, support article 296250 included the following option:


.local, Microsoft recommendations
Make the name a private domain name that is used for name resolution on the internal Small Business Server network. This name is usually configured with the first-level domain of .local. At the present time, the .local domain name is not registered on the Internet.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
However, more recent articles have cautioned or advised against such use of the .local TLD.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
Support article 300684 listed contoso.local as an example of a "best-practice Active Directory domain name", but then added:


.local, Microsoft recommendations
We recommend that you register DNS names for the top-most internal and external DNS namespaces with an Internet registrar.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
which would of course preclude using that or any other domain ending with .local.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
Microsoft TechNet article 708159 suggested .local for the exact opposite reason:


.local, Microsoft recommendations
Using the .local label for the full DNS name for the internal domain is a more secure configuration because the .local label is not registered for use on the Internet. This separates your internal domain from your public Internet domain name.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
If you have Macintosh client computers that are running the Macintosh OS X version 10.3 operating system or later, ... it is recommended that you do not use the .local label for the full DNS name of your internal domain. If you must use the .local label, then you must also configure settings on the Macintosh computers so they can discover other computers on the network. For more information about how to configure client computers running Macintosh OS X version 10.3 or later, see "Connecting Macintosh Computers to a Windows Small Business Server 2003 Network" on the Microsoft Web site at .


.local, Microsoft recommendations
...we do not recommend using unregistered suffixes, such as .local.


.local, Microsoft recommendations
By default, a freshly installed Windows Server 2016 Essentials also adds .local as the default dns-prefix, when a user doesn't select the advanced option. Thus resulting in a domain with .local extension.


.local, Linux
Linux distributions use the Name Service Switch configuration file /etc/nsswitch.conf in which mDNS name resolution was added via the mdns4_minimal plugin to nsswitch. In this configuration, where mdns4_minimal precedes the standard dns option, which uses /etc/resolv.conf, the mDNS resolution will block subsequent DNS resolution on the local network.


.local, Linux
This is a configuration choice made by distributions such as Ubuntu/Debian and SuSE and Red Hat, each of which have their own package configuration script that will install the mdns_minimal module as above.


.local, Linux
In this way .local requests are being prevented from leaking to the internet, but also block legitimate .local requests for configured DNS servers.


.local, Global DNS queries
As local is an officially reserved special-use domain name (RFC 6762 of February 2013) host names with this top level label are not resolvable in the global Domain Name System. However, a considerable proportion of the queries submitted to it do specify the domain.


.local, Global DNS queries
Statistics for the L root name server operated by ICANN show that on August 14, 2015, the server received approximately 1331 local queries per second, third in frequency after .com (4355 queries/s), and .net (2481 queries/s), or sixth including the invalid gTLDs www (First, with 9416 queries/s), html (third, with 2727 queries/s), and home (fifth, with 1692 queries/s). On April 12, 2013, the server received approximately 2300 local queries/s, fourth in frequency after .com, .net, and .org.


.local, Global DNS queries
Historical data from the site are available via the Wayback Machine. In June 2009, for example, the L server received an average of 400 such queries/s, fourth after .com, .arpa, and .net.


.localhost
The name localhost is reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in RFC  (June 1999) as a domain name label that may not be installed as a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.


.localhost, Reserved DNS names
In 1999, the Internet Engineering Task Force reserved the DNS labels localhost, example, invalid, and test so that they may not be installed into the root zone of the Domain Name System.


.localhost, Reserved DNS names
The reasons for reservation of these top-level domain names is to reduce the likelihood of conflict and confusion. This allows the use of these names for either documentation purposes or in local testing scenarios.


.localhost, Conventional use
The name localhost is a commonly defined hostname for the loopback interface in most TCP/IP systems, resolving to the IP addresses 127.0.0.1 in IPv4 and ::1 for IPv6. As a top-level domain, the name has traditionally been defined statically in host DNS implementations with address records (A and AAAA) pointing to the same loopback addresses. Any other use conflicts with widely deployed algorithms relying on this convention.


.london
.london is a top-level domain (TLD) for London, England. It was approved by ICANN as a city-level TLD on 7 June 2013. On 29 April 2014, the domain name went on sale for the first time. London and Partners, which promotes the city, said that .london would carry a premium because of its exclusivity.


.lr
.lr is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Liberia. The registration is limited to those with a local presence and intent to use the domain.


.lr
Registration in LR requires specific second-level domains (COM.LR, ORG.LR, NET.LR, etc.). The name is based on the first two letters of the Liberian  name for Liberia. For the only point of registration of LR domains, see .


.ls
.ls is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Lesotho.


.ls, Second-level domains
Registration to  .ls is open to the public, anyone can register second level domain through the accredited registrars that can be found on  (LsNIC) website.


.ls, Second-level domains
There are also registrations on third level as shown below


.ls, Second-level domains
The list may change very soon since the Registry is currently busy defining new third level domains to suit the market.


.ls, History
The .ls domain was established and first delegated on 13 January 1993, with the National University of Lesotho as the sponsoring authority. Initially, Rhodes University acted as the registry and hosted the primary name server, a situation that continued until September 2012.


.ls, History
In April 2012, the sponsoring authority changed from the National University of Lesotho to the , the national communications regulator, in line with the newly promulgated Communications Act (No. 4 of 2012). In January 2016, a non-profit company, the  (LsNIC) was established to take over registry operations. Re -delegation of the zone was completed by IANA in March 2017.


.lt
.LT is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Lithuania.


.lu
.lu is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Luxembourg. .lu domains are administered by RESTENA. Since 1 February 2010, the administrative contact no longer needs to be based in Luxembourg.


.lu
For many years, the application for .lu domains were done only via postal mail or fax. The fees for a .lu second level domain are €40 for the creation (or modification of a contact) and €40 yearly (including VAT). On 18 September 2006, the registry introduced a domain name registrar model. While the classic paper registration is possible, registering with a certified registrar is preferred.


.lv
.lv is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Latvia. It was introduced on 29 April 1993, two years after the country's independence.


.lv
Registration is permitted at the second level, and this is the form of registration currently encouraged by the registry; however, registrations are also accepted at the third level beneath a number of subdomains:


.lv
Registration is open to foreigners, though the dispute policy says that precedence is generally given to domestic users. There does not appear to be much non-Latvian use of this TLD; exceptions include a few sites apparently using it to suggest Las Vegas—much as .la is used for Los Angeles—or “love”—as in “my.lv,” “we.lv,” or “true.lv”—and “live”—as in  “xbx.lv” used by Microsoft for shortening links to their Xbox Live service—but these types of uses are not widespread.


.lv
The gambling site Bovada, formerly known as Bodog, moved to an .lv domain after the United States Department of Homeland Security confiscated its former domain, bodog.com, in 2012.


.ly
.ly is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya. .ly is also the file name extension of the LilyPond format.


.ly, Registration
A .ly registration is the process of registering a user domain name within the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya. The .ly domain, introduced in 1988, is administered by the registry LYNIC on behalf of the General Post and Telecommunication Company. This domain is mainly for the use of the general public of Libya.


.ly, Registration
LYNIC appoints recognized registrars to offer .ly domain names, and these registrars perform all the domain registration tasks on behalf of LYNIC. Libya Telecom & Technology (ltt.ly) is one of the pioneers that offer .ly domains to companies and organizations. Sub-domains are also provided within the .ly domain, at the second level and also at third levels beneath various second levels.


.ly, Registration
According to the registration site, registered .ly domain names must not be "obscene, scandalous, indecent, or contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality".


.ly, Registration
LYNIC registers domain names on a first-come, first-served basis. Applicants may apply for domains with a registration fee of $75 for each domain. Before registration, the domain name, company name, trademark registration and other legal documents must be provided. In addition, the .ly domain names being registered should not violate any rules set forth by the registrar. Domain names may be registered for a minimum of one year.


.ly, Registration
Applicants may register domains online or through official registrars list. After completing the registration process, an email will be sent to the applicant's billing contact address. The .ly domain name will become active within 1–2 minutes of that email notification.


.ly, Registration, Second-level domains
The second-level domains which are open to third-level registrations are:


.ly, Registration, Second-level domains
Strings shorter than four symbols long are to be registered only through Libya Telecom and Technology to guarantee that registrants have local presence.


.ly, History
IANA delegated registration authority for .ly to Khalil Elwiheishi at the Alshaeen for Information Technology in April 1997.


.ly, History
During the weekend of 20 August 2011 at the start of the 2011 Battle of Tripoli, the main nic.ly registration site appears to have been defaced by hackers on the side of the National Liberation Army, though other sites such as bit.ly remained unaffected.


.ly, Domain hacks
Many Libyan domains were reserved for English words that end with the suffix "ly", such as name.ly, musical.ly (now TikTok) and sincere.ly – so-called domain hacks. As the annual fee for .ly domains remains high ($75 a year), many domain names remain available on the domain prime market, and some popular ones can be bought on the domain secondary market – the result of the domain name speculation.


.ly, Domain hacks
Many popular URL shortening services are registered in the .ly domain: brief.ly, adf.ly, bit.ly (former default for Twitter), ow.ly (default for HootSuite), and 3.ly.


.ly, Domain hacks
In October 2010, the domain of "sex-positive" URL shortening service vb.ly, which had been registered in 2009 by Violet Blue and Ben Metcalfe, was seized by the Libyan web authorities for not being compliant with the law of Libya. A Libya Telecom spokesman stated to Blue: "Pornography and adult material aren't allowed under Libyan Law.... Therefore, we removed the domain." According to one blogger, as of 2014 this was the only known domain seized by nic.ly, and it was seized only after several failed attempts to contact the registrant.


.m2ts
M2TS is a filename extension used for the Blu-ray Disc Audio-Video (BDAV) MPEG-2 Transport Stream (M2TS) container file format. It is used for multiplexing audio, video and other streams. It is based on the MPEG-2 transport stream container. This container format is commonly used for high definition video on Blu-ray Disc and AVCHD.


.m2ts, Overview
The BDAV container format is a modification of MPEG-2 transport stream (ITU-T H.222.0 | ISO/IEC 13818-1) specification for random-access media, such as Blu-ray Disc, DVD, hard drives or solid-state memory cards. It is informally called M2TS.


.m2ts, Overview
In order to optimize the storage size, the format uses variable rate (VBR) Transport Streams instead of the typical constant rates (CBR) found in MPEG-2 TS broadcast. To be able to reconstruct a T-STD compliant constant rate Transport Stream for playback the arrival timestamp (ATS) of each packet needs to be recorded.


.m2ts, Overview
The standard MPEG-2 TS 188-byte packet is prefixed with a 4-byte extra header to a total size of 192 bytes. The header consists of a 2-bit copy permission indicator and the 30-bit arrival timestamp with a resolution of 27 MHz.


.m2ts, Overview
The BDAV container format (.m2ts) is a standard used on Blu-ray Discs. Blu -ray Disc titles authored with menu support are in the BDMV (Blu-ray Disc Movie) format and contain audio, video, and other streams in BDAV container (.m2ts), which is based on the MPEG transport stream format. The BDAV container is also used in the BDAV (Blu-ray Disc Audio/Visual) disc format, the consumer-oriented alternative to the BDMV discs. BDAV disc format is used on BD-RE and BD-R discs for audio/video recording.


.m2ts, Overview
The BDAV container with filename extension .MTS or .m2ts is also used in AVCHD format, which is a high definition digital video camera recorder format. AVCHD is a simpler form of the Blu-ray Disc standard with just one video encoding algorithm and two audio encodings. Compared to Blu-ray Disc format, AVCHD can use various storage media, such as DVD media, memory cards or hard disk drives. The BDAV container contains videos recorded using AVCHD camcorders, such as Sony's HDR-SR(xx) series models. Panasonic, Canon and other brands of AVCHD camcorders also store recorded video in BDAV container format. There are some problems with AVCHD compatibility between brands.


.m2ts, Formats
The BDAV container format used on Blu-ray Discs can contain one of the three mandatory supported video compression formats H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC or SMPTE VC-1 and audio compression formats such as Dolby Digital, DTS or uncompressed Linear PCM. Optionally supported audio formats are Dolby Digital Plus, DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD.


.m2ts, Formats
The BDAV container format used on AVCHD equipment is more restricted and can contain only H.264/MPEG-4 AVC video compression and Dolby Digital (AC-3) audio compression or uncompressed LPCM audio.


.m2ts, File and directory structure
The names of M2TS files are in the form zzzzz.m2ts, where zzzzz is a 5-digit number corresponding to the audiovisual clip. This number is also used in the filename of an associated clip information file "zzzzz.clpi". (This number can be a date and time stamp of when the video clip was recorded.) Each stream has its own file.


.m2ts, File and directory structure
Files in AVCHD format use legacy "8.3" file naming convention, while Blu-ray Discs use long filenames. This is why the filename extension of video files is ".MTS" instead of Blu-ray Disc's ".m2ts". Also, other files use different extensions: .CPI – .clpi, .MPL – .mpls, .BDM – .bdmv.


.m2ts, File and directory structure
The M2TS files on a Blu-ray Disc are placed in the subdirectory "STREAM" of the "BDMV" (or "BDAV") directory, which is at the root level. (e.g. \BDMV\STREAM\00001.m2ts or \BDAV\STREAM\00001.m2ts) On some AVCHD equipment, the "BDMV" directory is located in the "AVCHD" directory, which is placed at the root level (e.g. \AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM\00001.MTS).


.m2ts, Software support
Almost all commercially produced Blu-ray Disc titles use copy protection method called Advanced Access Content System, which encrypts content of the disc (including M2TS files). Software that supports M2TS files usually works only with decrypted or unencrypted files. Blu -ray Disc software players can usually play back encrypted content from original disc. Video content created using AVCHD equipment is commonly unencrypted.


.m2ts, Software support
Currently, M2TS files can be played using the Picture Motion Browser, which is an application video player provided with Sony AVCHD camcorders.


.m2ts, Software support
Most M2TS files can be played with ALLPlayer, MPlayer, VLC, PotPlayer and other media players, depending on used compression formats in a M2TS file. Some players will need an appropriate codec, component or plugin installed.


.m2ts, Software support
Current versions of Nero Vision, FormatFactory, MediaCoder, HandBrake and Picture Motion Browser are capable of converting M2TS files into MPEG-4 files, which can also be viewed using the aforementioned media players. In August 2012, VLC media player 2.0.1 could convert .m2ts files into MP4 as well. DVDFab (at least premium) can also convert .m2ts to various other formats, including .mkv or .mp4.


.m2ts, Software support
Sony products Media Manager PRO for PSP, Media Manager PRO for Walkman, and Mobile Media Manager PRO are all capable of converting M2TS format to MP4 files.


.m2ts, Software support
M2TS format from Sony is not necessarily the same as that of Panasonic or Canon camcorders. However, programs like Sony Vegas Pro and AVS Video Editor can open and edit both Sony M2TS files as well as Panasonic M2TS files. (Sony Vegas Pro v.9 is also capable of reading and editing M2TS files produced by Canon Vixia Camcorders.) The only other piece of software known currently to handle both types is Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate and Cyberlink Power Director, starting with v8.


.m2ts, Software support
M2TS files can also be played on Sony PlayStation 3s, Sony Bravia TVs, Western Digital WDTVs, Xtreamer media player, Amkette FlashTV HD Media Player and Panasonic Viera TVs supporting playback of AVCHD.


.m2ts, Software support
Apple's Final Cut Pro can read .MTS files (as stored in Sony HDR camcorders) by using the AVCHD plugin in the Log and Transfer window.


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


.ma, History
In 1993, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) approved a request for delegation of the .ma ccTLD for administrative and technical contact to École Mohammadia d'ingénieurs.


.ma, History
In 1995 the technical management of the .ma domain was taken over by Maroc Telecom, who is still the (not formal) technical maintainer.


.ma, History
On 12 May 2006 IANA redesignated the administrative and technical contact for the domain, and made the Agence nationale de réglementation des télécommunications (ANRT) the only official registrar for the .ma ccTLD.


.ma, History
Within some years the ANRT will request the market to bid on a "Technical maintainer" license which is valid for five years. The new party will get 12 months to implement a provisioning system based on Extensible Provisioning Protocol. Automatic provisioning of .ma domains cannot be expected until 2013.


.ma, History
March 2015 the ANRT takes official control of .ma and launches new automatic provisioning.


.ma, Second-level domains
Registration can be done directly at the second level, or at the third level beneath these names:


.ma, Second top-level domain
A second top-level domain will be used for Morocco intended for domain names in the local language using Arabic characters. The string المغرب. has been registered and approved for this purpose, and was delegated to Morocco in April 2011, but it is not yet active (2015) and second level domains have not been granted yet.


.mail
.mail is a generic top-level domain originally proposed by The Spamhaus Project in 2004, but rejected by ICANN. Its purpose was to enable responsible message recipients to reliably and efficiently identify and accept spam-free mailstreams. The ICANN Board issued a resolution on February 4, 2018 to cease the processing of all applications for the .corp, .home, and .mail gTLDs.


.mail, Technical Concerns
Investigation into the conflicts regarding gTLDs that are in use in internal networks was conducted at ICANN's request by Interisle Consulting. The resulting report was to become known as the Name Collision issue, which was first reported at ICANN 47. This decision affected the proposed .corp, .home, and .mail gTLDs.


.mail, Proposed core functionality
.mail was an attempt to reduce the spam problem by maintaining a list of domains authenticated as both not belonging to known spammers, and providing verified contact information. The sTLD would contain the actual hostnames of servers used to send mail. A .mail domain would only be able to be registered by a party that already owns a domain in another TLD which has been in operation for at least six months, and whose WHOIS information has been verified for accuracy. The domain was intended to be a publicly curated resources that could be updated as needed by the Internet.


.mc
.mc is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Principality of Monaco.


.mc, Second-level domains
Registrations are made directly at the second level, or under these names:


.md
.md is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Moldova introduced on March 24, 1994.


.md
The price of domain registration is 450 lei or US$39 (including VAT) per year.


.md
The TLD is currently administered by STISC (Service for Information Technology and Cyber Security); before being merged into STISC, the Moldovan state company MoldData had an exclusive agreement to administer and distribute domain names within the .MD domain.


.md, Second-level domain names
The official regulations list a number of second-level domain names for official state and local government use, as well as a list of generic second-level domain names:


.md, Second-level domain names
.com.md, .org.md, .info.md, and .pro.md third-level domain names can be registered via MoldData for US$12.


.md, History
The establishment of the .md TLD was approved in March 1994 by the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (IANA's predecessor). The first Moldovan Internet server, mdearn.md, became operational on January 1, 1994. In May 1995, .md was fully delegated to RCI (the Moldovan Republican Centre for Informatics, established September 1, 1993).


.md, History
In 1998, RCI entered into a contractual agreement with Domain Name Trust, a US-based company, granting it the rights to operate and oversee the TLD. Domain Name Trust then proceeded to sell its rights to operate .md to DotMD, a US-based LLC, which went bankrupt in October 2002. During the resulting bankruptcy court proceedings, authority over .md was ordered to be returned to the state of Moldova in February 2003.


.md, History
RCI was renamed into MoldData on 12 July 2001, formalizing its transformation and succession on 19 September. On 30 August 2019, by order of the Moldovan government, MoldData was absorbed into STISC (Service for Information Technology and Cyber Security), which took over the responsibility of the national registrar for the .md TLD.


.md, History
In November 2007, the number of domains registered under the .md TLD reached 12,000.


.me
.me is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Montenegro.


.me
The .me registry is operated by doMEn, which won a contract to do so after a bid process conducted by the government of Montenegro and was launched through various accredited registrars around the world.


.me, Introduction
Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia and Montenegro on 3 June 2006, after a majority of Montenegrins supported independence in a national referendum. As a part of that country, constituently, Montenegro had unofficially been using the .cg.yu second-level domain; Montenegrin Authorities used .mn.yu subdomain, while the .cs top-level domain (TLD) had been assigned to Serbia and Montenegro in 2003 following the breakup of Yugoslavia, but remained unused. Montenegro was assigned the ISO 3166-1 two-letter code "ME", which was allocated by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in September 2006 (most other possible abbreviations of Montenegro (MO, MN, MT, MG and MR) and its Montenegrin name Crna Gora (CG) having already been taken).


.me, Introduction
In September 2007, ICANN delegated the .me domain to the Government of Montenegro, with the former .yu domain to be operated temporarily by the .rs domain registry (Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names) until its eventual abolition on or before 30 September 2009. Delegation of root name servers was approved by IANA, establishing .me. The ".me" domain became active on 24 September 2007, and a "Public Invitation for selection of the Agent for domain registration under the national Internet domain of Montenegro" was posted on 14 November. doMEn d.o.o., as a Montenegro-based joint venture whose partners are Afilias, GoDaddy.com, and ME-net d.o.o., was selected as the new registry operator.


.me, Introduction
On 6 May 2008, the General Sunrise period for the .me registry began for all eligible trademark holders worldwide, and on 16 July 2008, registration was made available to everyone for all .me domains at various registrars.


.me, Domain structure for .me
The domain .me was assigned to Montenegro as a country code after it became an independent nation in June 2006. However, the Montenegro government decided .me would be operated as a generic name after considering the potential worldwide appeal for the domain.


.me, Domain structure for .me
Third-level registrations are available to Montenegrin citizens and companies in the following zones:


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
On 6 May 2008, the .me registry opened the sunrise period for all eligible trademark holders anywhere in the world.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
Throughout June and July 2008, multiple land rush applications were received, which resulted in more than 2,500 land rush auctions that were held during July and August 2008. Go Live was opened on 17 July 2008 when registrations were made available for all unreserved .me domains via various registrars.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
During the .me land rush auction period, more than US$2,000,000 was generated with names like insure.me and sync.me going to the highest bidder.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
At the beginning of August 2008, 100,000 .me domain names were registered. Sources say part of the worldwide appeal for the .me domain is the marketing aspect.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
In 2008 in terms of the number of Web pages indexed by Google among all TLDs, .me sites have enjoyed the fastest growth with more than 50% a month. In the same year, .me topped its potential rivals .mobi and .asia in Alexa Internet top one million websites with 341 .me sites versus 233 .mobi sites and 86 .asia sites. Extra potential of .me is revealed considering the fact that .mobi was launched two years before .me and .asia four months before .me.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
By the middle of February 2009, 200,000 .me domain names were registered.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
On 15 May 2009, the number of registered .me domain names rose to 250,000.


.me, Sunrise, land rush, and open registration periods
In less than a year .me became more popular than .asia, .jobs, .coop, .aero, .int, .mil, .museum, .name, .pro, .tel, .travel, and 200 other country code top-level domains.


.me, .me domain statistics
By 2010, over 320,000 .me domains had been purchased, making it the fastest-selling top-level domain in history.


.me, .me domain statistics
By March 30, 2016 the .me domain space had reached over one million domain registrations.


.me, Known hacks
Most .me domain names were purchased as domain hacks in English and, to a lesser extent, Dutch; 71% of names were applied for by applicants in the United States. Because of the possibility of owning pure verb and noun combinations, their prices have stayed high: during the sunrise period, insure.me went for $68,005, and judge.me sold for $8000 in 2011.


.me, Known hacks
.me has been used as an abbreviation for the Middle East, for Maine, and for the accusative case of ja (I in South Slavic languages). Other examples of domain hacks include deviantArt (fav.me), WordPress (wp.me), the Despicable Me website, and MeetMe.


.me, Premium domains
Me subdomain names must be between 3 and 63 characters in length, but a few exceptions have been granted, mainly for URL shortening purposes. Examples of shortened domain names include:


.me, Premium domains
Yahoo! was using me.me for its project Yahoo! Meme, but the domain name was taken back by the .me registry when the company closed down the portal.


.me, Trademark disputes
In 2008 three trademark cases were filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center. All three domain names (creditmutuel.me, porsche.me, and exxonmobil.me) were transferred to the complainants.


.me, .cg.yu
Prior to the introduction of .me, the most used domain in Montenegro was the second-level domain .cg.yu under .yu, the Internet domain name of Montenegrin Internet service provider T-Crnogorski Telekom, which was allowed to such organisations. The acronym "CG" was used because of the native name for Montenegro, Crna Gora. When .yu TLD was phased out, all e-mail addresses ending with @cg.yu were replaced with @t-com.me, and the Web sites moved, variously, mostly under .me.


.med
.med is a top-level domain for the internet, launched on 3 December 2015, intended for websites related to medicine.


.med
Google and the Cleveland Clinic both submitted applications to control this top-level domain, but both were rejected after objections by the International Chamber of Commerce in 2014. The decision against Cleveland Clinic's application was reversed later that same year.


.med
In 2015, the application of Medistry LLC, a subsidiary of Second Generation Ltd, was accepted.


.med, Other Uses
.med is also a filename extension linked to the Salome platform, a numerical simulation tool.


.mf
.mf is an assigned Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) that was to be created for the Collectivity of Saint Martin, but it is currently not in use, as it is not available for registration nor website use of the domain. The decision by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency to allocate .mf as the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 domain for Saint Martin on 21 September 2007, followed the decision of Saint Martin's new status as an Overseas collectivity of France, which took effect on 15 July 2007. Currently Saint Martin uses Guadeloupe's ccTLD, .gp and France's ccTLD, .fr.


.mg
.mg is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Madagascar.


.mg, Second-level domains
Registrations are taken directly at the second level, or at the third level beneath the following second level names:


.mg, Second-level domains
For some registrations, official documents must be shown indicating the legal status of the registrant.


.mh
.mh is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Marshall Islands. Its registry website has not been updated since 1997, and the mechanism of registering domains listed on that site involves downloading an InterNIC template form that is a dead link. As of 2021, a Google search shows three active websites using a .mh domain: one for the government's Natural Disaster Management Office, one for the school system, and one for a telecommunications company. The latter has two separate .mh domains, though both serve the same website.


.mh
Most of the people who govern a site from Marshall Islands usually register it as .com, .net. or .org. Almost all sites registered to the Marshall Islands are hosted in other countries.


.mil
The domain name mil is the sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary or affiliated organizations. The name is derived from military. It was one of the first top-level domains, created in January 1985.


.mil
The United States is the only country that has a top-level domain for its military, a legacy of the United States' military's role in the creation of the Internet. Other countries often use second-level domains for this purpose, e.g., mod.uk for the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence. Canada uses norad.mil with the United States as they jointly operate the North American Aerospace Defense Command.


.mil
Despite having a dedicated top-level domain, the US military also uses com domains for some of its recruitment sites, such as goarmy.com, as well as for the Defense Commissary Agency's website www.commissaries.com and most non-appropriated fund instrumentalities such as military MWR organizations and military exchanges. Also, the military uses edu domains for its service academies: the United States Military Academy, United States Coast Guard Academy, United States Naval Academy, and the United States Air Force Academy can all be reached using either an edu or a mil domain name.


.mil
The official athletic program sites of the three academies that are members of NCAA Division I (Army, Navy, Air Force) use com domains, as well as Coast Guard, which is a member of NCAA Division III. The Department of Defense itself uses gov for its home page, with at least three second-level domains within mil (defense, dod, and pentagon) redirecting to its domain name www.defense.gov.


.mil
The United States Coast Guard, like other military services, uses the mil domain, although during statutory peacetime the service falls under the United States Department of Homeland Security.


.mk
.mk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for North Macedonia. It is administered by the Macedonian Academic Research Network (MARnet).


.mk, Cyrillic domain
The Cyrillic domain .мкд was officially approved and registered on March 20, 2014.


.ml
.ml is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Mali.


.ml, History
The domain was initially managed by Sotelma, a Malian telecommunications company. After Sotelma was privatised in 2009, the .ml zone was redelegated by IANA to the Agence des Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (AGETIC), a Malian government agency, and the process completed in 2013. The agency then announced that it would give away .ml domains for free with a view to improve the usage and the knowledge of the IT industry in Mali. It is the first African nation to start giving away domains for free.


.mm
.mm is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Myanmar. It was assigned in 1997. Before 1989, the ISO 3166 alpha-2 code for Burma was BU, but no .bu ccTLD was assigned.


.mm
On 12 June 2011, the ISO 3166-1 code for Myanmar changed to reflect the MM used for the ccTLD.


.mm, Description
A company run by two Australian immigrants in Myanmar, Eagle Group, set up the first Internet access to Myanmar in 1997. They contracted with British company called Digiserve based in High Wycombe, United Kingdom, to provide DNS services for .mm. All .mm DNS queries were handled by Digiserve's two name servers acting as root name servers for .mm, ns1.digiserve.com and ns2.digiserve.com respectively. In 1999, Eagle Group's service was shut down by the Burmese government.


.mm, Description
Afterwards, these two servers then delegated the SOA authority of .com.mm, .net.mm, .edu.mm and org.mm TLDs to the two name servers managed by Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, ns0.mpt.net.mm and ns1.mpt.net.mm, both servers were located in Yangon.


.mm, Description
In February 2002, the DigiServe DNS servers were hacked by pro-democracy activists, which resulted in the traffic to all .mm domain names including www.gov.mm being redirected to a website demanding the release of famous student leader Min Ko Naing for a period of three days.


.mm, Description
In the beginning of 2005, MPT finally retook management control of .mm name space and replaced Digiserve nameservers with their own.


.mm, Description
Business in Myanmar can register for domain names within the .net.mm and .com.mm zones through Myanmar Teleport (formerly Bagan Cybertech) or from Myanmar Post & Telecomms directly. .edu.mm, .org.mm, .gov.mm domain names are reserved for official and government use. There is no whois service provided.


.mm, Description
Again, Myanmar Teleport's (formerly Bagan Cybertech) service was also shut down by the Burmese government. Now, only government-owned  controls all the services for internet and email.


.mn
.mn is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Mongolia. It is administered by .MN Registry, Datacom. The domain name is composed of the consonants in the first syllable of the country name. The .MN registry is operated under the thick registry model. Administrative, Billing, Technical and Registrant contacts are required. The Redemption Grace Period (RGP) is available for .MN domains.


.mn
The following second-level domains registration for free to qualifying entities:


.mn
.MN Registry signed the .mn zone with DNSSEC on 18 November 2010.


.mn, Use outside Mongolia
The .mn domain name has been used to represent the U.S. state of Minnesota; an example is the Minnesota Legislature () but such use is not official in the state.


.mn, Use outside Mongolia
The .mn domain elsewhere outside Mongolia is used primarily as a domain hack, for example vita.mn (a play on vitamin). Another example is cart.mn (a play on the South Park character Eric Cartman, which redirects to www.southparkstudios.com). It is also used by various micronations.


.mo
.mo is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Macau, China.


.mo
The registry for this domain name is operated by the Macao Network Information Centre (MONIC). Operated by the University of Macau since 1992, MONIC administers the registration of the country-code domain names ccTLD.


.mo
To further promote the development of services, the Government of Macau changed the operation entity of MONIC. Effective from 12 March 2011, HNET Asia Limited  appointed by the Macau government, is responsible for operating MONIC.


.mo
HNET aims at optimising and developing the Macau domain name. It will be contributing to the development of the internet industry in Macau, as well as deploying Chinese domain names (including at the Top-Level, .澳门), DNSSEC and other capabilities for the registry.


.mo
At present, domain names are open to local businesses and organisations and cannot be registered by the general public.


.mo, Internationalised top level domain
In early 2015 two new top level domains were reserved for Macau. They are .澳门 (in simplified Chinese) and .澳門 (in traditional Chinese). MONIC has requested these domains.


.mobi
The domain name mobi  is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Its name is derived from the adjective mobile.