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International Domain Names for .eu is now available
We are pleased to announce that .eu will support IDNs (internationalized domain names) from 10th Dec 2009 at 5pm (GMT +8) onwards and applications will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis. You can now pre-order your IDN.eu domain names. With this launch, residents of the European Union will be able to register .eu domain names made up of non-Latin characters, including all twenty-three official EU Languages. Examples include the Swedish å, the German ü, the Romanian ş and characters from the Bulgarian and Greek alphabets. The supported character list contains the full repository of character types supported by .eu. All existing terms and conditions for .eu registration apply. For more details, please see the country rules for .eu international domain names. Please also see our Frequently Asked Questions for .eu IDNs
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FAQs on .eu Internationalised Domain Names
Answers to FAQs
What does IDN mean?IDN stands for Internationalised Domain Name. IDNs are domain names that contain characters from non-ASCII character sets. These include characters with accents, cekillas and ogoneks. Examples include the Swedish å, the German ü, the Romanian ş and characters from the Bulgarian and Greek alphabets as a whole. IDNs are particularly important for .eu as the European Union has 27 Member States and 23 official languages. Many of these languages use non-ASCII characters in their alphabets.
When will I be able to register IDNs under .eu?Starting 10 December 2009, 5pm (GMT +8)
Which special characters are permitted?See the supported character list for an overview of all the non-ASCII characters supported by .eu IDNs.
Will I be able to use the German ß?No. If you want to register a domain name that contains ß, you must use the character set ss instead because of how the Domain Name System (DNS) works. The DNS recognises basic ASCII characters only. As a result, every IDN is automatically converted into a format (called an ACE string or Punycode) that the DNS can use. Unfortunately, the German ß is replaced by the equivalent, two-character ss as part of the conversion. As far as the DNS is concerned, domain names that use ß become identical to those that use ss in the same position. For example, after hauptstraße.eu is converted into ASCII characters it becomes equivalent to hauptstrasse.eu. But every domain name must be unique in order for the DNS to function. And that is why the use of ß is not allowed in an IDN.
What is an ACE string?An ACE (ASCII-Compatible Encoding) is a string of characters resulting from a particular alogorithm for transforming multilingual character information into an ASCII-based alphanumeric form acceptable by the existing DNS. The ACE string is commonly known as the Punycode. The ACE string (or Punycode) is what you get once the IDN you enter in your browser’s address bar has been converted into a form that is understood by the Domain Name System. ACE-strings (Punycodes) begin with four characters, xn—, to indicate that the domain name is an IDN. Other characters, at theend of the string, indicate which characters in the IDN you entered were non-ASCII characters and what their positions were. The characters between the prefix and the end characters are the characters from the original IDN that did not need to be converted because they already belong to the basic ASCII character set. For example, the IDN bücher.eu has an ACE-string (Punycode) equivalent that is xn—bcher-kva.eu. You may also be interested to see the answer to: How does the Domain Name System handle IDNs?
How long can my IDN be?The maximum length of a .eu IDN (the portion after the www. and before the dot) cannot be more than 63 characters. This limit applies after the name has been converted into an ACE string (Punycode) for use by the DNS (Domain Name System).
Examples:
Are .eu IDNs case-sensitive?No distinction is made between upper-case and lower-case letters.
Will there be a Sunrise period for .eu IDNs?No. The first-come, first-served principle applies to all .eu domain names, including IDNs. The decision to launch IDNs under .eu without a Sunrise period was made based on the results of extensive preparation. This included papers drafted by the EURid IDNs Advisory Board and two surveys that EURid ran in 2008: 1) A survey among CENTR members: The results of the survey showed no particular trend in favour of sunrise or landrush when introducing IDNs. The registries who opted for one solution over another were motivated by internal considerations, some of which were linked to the local Internet communities and/or their organisational profile. 2) A public, online survey: Results showed that the public did not have a clear, strong wish for .eu to have a Sunrise period when IDNs are introduced.
Can my web browser and email client handle IDNs?Yes, if your browser has the correct plug-in to allow IDN access and your email software supports IDNs. Many applications do not support IDNs, however. Please note: Other Internet users also need an IDN-enabled browser and IDN-enabled email clients to visit your website or send non-web-based email to your IDN web address. If their applications do not support IDNs, you can ask them to use your IDN’s ACE string (Punycode). For example, if your email addressis 123@bücher.eu, they can send an email to 123@xn—bcher-kva.eu instead. When you execute a search for your domain name, the results displayed will also include the ACE string (Punycode) for any .eu IDN.
Are IDNs permitted as hostnames for nameservers?No, only characters from the basic ASCII character set can be used for nameservers. This means that you can use the ACE string (Punycode) of an IDN name (such as xn—bcher-kva.eu), but not the IDN itself (bücher.eu).
How does the Domain Name System handle IDNs?The Domain Name System recognises basic ASCII characters only, such as plain Latin script. To be recognised by the DNS, IDNs must be converted into strings made up of basic ASCII characters. These are called ACE strings. Converting IDNs into ACE strings involves two steps, known as nameprep and Punycode. Step 1: During the nameprep process, an Internationalised Domain Name is prepared for conversion in several ways: This includes replacing so-called normalised non-ASCII characters with their ASCII equivalents. It is during this step that the German ß, for example, is converted into ss. Step 2: During the Punycode process, the so-called normalised IDN is converted into an ACE string. ACE strings always begin with the same four characters (xn—) to indicate that the domain name is an IDN. These four characters are followed by any basic ASCII characters,which do not need to be converted, that are used in the original IDN. Other characters, at the end of the string, indicate which characters in the IDN entered were non-ASCII characters and their positions within the name. ACE Strings are commonly known as Punycode For example, the ACE string (or Punycode) of the bücher.eu IDN is xn—bcher-kva.eu.
What are homoglyphs?Homoglyphs are characters (or words) from different scripts that look so similar that it is difficult to tell them apart just by looking. The homoglyphs below are two different characters from two different scripts, or alphabets. They have different Unicode numbers but look identical. e.g.: Cyrillic character: a Unicode number 0430 Latin character: a Unicode number 0061
What is homoglyph bundling? Will EURid offer it?Homoglyph bundling is when you register an IDN and the registration system automatically registers (for example) all the s homoglyphs of that name for you as well (if there are any). This means that a bundle of names is registered at one time. After careful consideration EURid has decided not to offer homoglyph bundling. Some registries offer homoglyph bundling to minimise the risk that someone could register a domain name that looks just like yours. EURid will not offer it because we do not allow script mixing, which also greatly reduces that risk.
Why can’t I mix scripts in my IDN?IDNs made up of different scripts might look confusingly similar to other domain names if they contained homoglyphs. That is why only one (1) script, or alphabet, can be used in an IDN.
Can I use different scripts in my IDN if I separate them with a hyphen (-)?No. The use of different scripts, or alphabets, in single IDN is not allowed. IDNs made up of different scripts might look confusingly similar to other domain names, especially if they contained homoglyphs.
What are the technical limitation for .eu IDNs?.eu IDNs are subject to the same technical limitations other .eu domain names. Additional technical limitations apply as well: 1) You are not allowed to mix scripts, or character sets (for example, Latin, Greek and Cyrillic), in a single IDN. This means each IDN must use characters from a single (1) script only. 2) An IDN may not be longer than 63 characters after it is converted into the ACE string (Punycode) format needed by the Domain Name System. You can use the IDN checker which will show the ACE string (Punycode) for any .eu IDN. 3) An IDN may not start with the characters xn—. 4) Not all characters are supported by IDNs. The German ß is not allowed, for example. See our supported character list for an overview of non-ASCII characters supported by .eu.
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