Skip to main content

Join Us!

Registration is open for the ICANN67 Community Forum in Cancún, México. The Public Meeting will take place from 7-12 March 2020 at Cancún International Convention Center. Look forward to seeing you at the Community Forum in Cancún.

Register today

Quicklinks

Blog Posts

Update on ICANN67 Planning and COVID-19 (Coronavirus)

Root Key Signing Key Ceremony Postponed

.COM Public Comments and Facts

BROWSE ALL BLOG POSTS

News and Announcements

Update on ICANN67 Planning

Thumb icann67 update 01

The ICANN Board and ICANN org have been closely monitoring COVID-19 since it was first reported in Wuhan, China. As we approach ICANN67 in Cancún, Mexico, we continue to assess the situation because, as we have stated before, the health and well-being of the ICANN community is our highest priority. Click the link above to read more.

Improving the Public Comment Feature: An Information Transparency Initiative Update

Thumb iti blog update

The ITI team has implemented improved search for Public Comment pages and we’d like your feedback on the enhancements. New features include: keyword search and filters (category and date) of Closed Proceedings, more easily accessible recently published Submissions and Reports, guided Submission forms, and the ability to search Submissions.

ICANN org CEO Report Now Available

Thumb ceo report to the board 01 icannorg 492x279

The latest ICANN org CEO report to the Board is now available. This report summarizes each function’s highlights, milestones, and provides an overview of recent activity. Click on the headline above to read more.

Application Deadline Extended for ICANN and PTI Leadership Positions

Thumb nomcom feature updated

The application deadline for ICANN and Public Technical Identifiers (PTI) leadership positions has been extended to Tuesday, 25 February 2020 at 23:59 UTC. Selected individuals will have a unique opportunity to work with accomplished colleagues from around the globe to help shape the the Internet's technical coordination and policy development.

View all

A note about our privacy policies and terms of service:

We have updated our privacy policies and certain website terms of service to provide greater transparency, promote simplification, and align with recent changes in privacy laws applicable to us. Learn more.

This site uses cookies to deliver an efficient user experience and to help us see how the site is used. Learn more.OK

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."