Overview
The following describes Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) and how to host them at DreamHost.
FAQs
What are internationalized domain names (IDNs)?
-
Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) are domain names that contain characters other than unaccented Roman letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and the hyphen. For instance, 日本語.idn.icann.org contains Japanese characters.
What's the difference between an IND and TLD?
-
IDNs refer to the text before the .COM or .ORG part of the domain.
The part after the name (.COM, or .ORG) is called a Top Level Domain (TLD).
What are the different types of TLDs?
-
The following table details the different types of TLDs you may encounter.
TLD Description Generic TLDs Generic TLDs are not specific to any country. These include .COM, .ORG, and .NET. Country-specific TLDs A country-specific TLD is used for a single country. For example, .DE (Germany) or .CA (Canada) are country-specific TLDs. You can view a full list at Wikipedia.
DreamHost offers a wide variety of domain names including country specific TLDs, which you can see in the panel at Manage Registrations. When the Manage Registrations page opens, click the See full pricing link.
You can also view a full list at DreamHost's TLD webpage.
International TLDs International TLDs are different from country specific TLDs in that they use characters other than unaccented Roman letters (A-Z), digits (0-9), and the hyphen.
DreamHost does not currently support the registration of IDN TLDs. For example:
- .xn--55qx5d (.网络)
- .xn--io0a7i (.公司)
These are not currently a component of the ICANN DNS root and thus are not available to all Internet users. View the Wikipedia page for a full list.
How do NSSET IDs work?
-
Some international registrars have changed the way they handle TLDs. The registrations no longer include reference to the nameservers themselves but instead reference an NSSET ID. You must register a group of nameservers to get this ID, which you can then you can use when registering the domain. The advantage is that you can edit NSSET (or, change the nameservers), which is then applied to all domains referencing the same NSSET.
The TLDS that are known to use this are:
- .cz (Czech Republic)
The NSSET ID you must use is "DREAMHOST".
How to register and host an IDN
It is currently not possible to register an Internationalized domain name at DreamHost. However, you can still host it at DreamHost after purchasing it from another company that registers IDNs.
Hosting your IDN
To host your previously-purchased IDN:
- Convert your domain into Punycode using a website such as punycoder.com.
- For example, 测试假域名.com converts into Punycode as xn--sxqv5g23dyr3a428a.com.
- Add a website and hosting to your new domain.
- When adding the domain, choose the Enter a domain or subdomain you already own option and enter the converted Punycode.
Keep in mind that most modern browsers display IDNs properly, but if your visitors are not using browsers that support IDNs, they may not be able to access your international domain name.