Domain Name Basics

Registries and Registrarsa short introduction for newcomers

Registry Process based on gTLDs

Source: https://whois.icann.org/en/domain-name-registration-process - Effective 03/2016

2 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de

What are Registries? A Registry Operator, sometimes called a network information center (NIC),

maintains all administrative data of the domain and generates a zone file which

contains the addresses of the name servers for each domain.

They are running one or more Top-Level-Domain (TLD) Verisign (for .com, .net, .name, .cc and .tv)

Donuts (for .guru, .email, .tips, …)

DENIC (for .de)

Some are also providing their backend technology to others Afilias (for .org, .global, .vegas, …)

Neustar (for .club, .co, .nyc, …)

CentralNic (for .xyz, .site, .online, …)

The largest Registries are Verisign, Afilias, Neustar and DENIC.

3 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de

How are Registries working? A Registry operates the delegation of domain names under their TLD. Registries

allow Registrars to register domain names under their TLD for a defined period of

time (usually a year).

Registrations are conducted under various methods For generic TLDs (.com, …) the standard is the Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP); it allows to

register and to maintain domain names in real-time.

Many country code TLDs (.co, .me, …) also use EPP while maintaining other registration systems such

as fax, email, REST, etc.

gTLD Registries are bound to ICANN policies and need to provide an equal access

to its accredited registrars, whereas ccTLD Registries may choose their own. Hence

there are a lot of differences in registration and notice periods, internationalized

domain name (IDN), legal regulations, etc.

4 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de

What are the largest TLDs?

Numbers rounded - Source: http://www.domain-recht.de - Effective 03/2016

TLD Domains under Management

.com 124,900,000

.tk 26,300,000

.cn 16,800,000

.de 16,100,000

.net 15,600,000

.org 10,900,000

.uk 9,200,000

.nl 5,600,000

.info 5,500,000

.ru 4,900,000

5 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de

What are Registrars? A Registrar is an organization or commercial entity that manages the reservation of

domain names.

Registrars must be accredited by Registries to sell and maintain domain names.

Registrars working directly with gTLD Registries need to be ICANN accredited to

guarantee a defined level of stability and security.

ccTLDs (such as .cn, .sg and .uk) have different obligation to become an accredited

Registrar. These rules are usually done by the Registries themselves.

Registrars can have Resellers. A reseller doesn’t need to be accredited, but is also

bound to Registry rules and regulations via the Registry-Registrar Relationship

terms and conditions.

The largest Registrars are GoDaddy, United Internet (1&1, InterNetX, united-

domains and Arsys), Enom, Tucows and Network Solutions. 6 | Tobias Sattler, CIO

www.united-domains.de

How Registrars are working? There are more than 1,200 ICANN accredited Registrars and an unknown quantity

of non-ICANN accredited Registrars.

These non-ICANN accredited Registrars are mostly only accredited at their

homeland ccTLD.

Registrars can act as Resellers as well. This is the preferred choice if they don’t want

to get accredited themselves to streamline costs and lower operational efforts but

still want to offer Top-Level-Domains relevant to their customer base.

Registrars pursue different business models and target audiences: Reseller Market (Channel Business) – such as InterNetX and OpenSRS

End Customer Market (Individuals & Organizations) – such as GoDaddy and 1&1 Internet

Brand Protection Market (Protecting IP-Rights) – such as MarkMonitor

7 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de

Thank you!

Please get in touch if you have any further questions:

https://tobiassattler.com

tobiassattler

8 | Tobias Sattler, CIO www.united-domains.de