National Field of first level

A national field of first level (country code signal-level domain, ccTLD) is a Domaine of first level generally reserved for a country or an independent territory.

Characteristics

They comprise both letters, corresponding for the majority to the standard ISO 3166-1 of the codes country. Conversely, they are the only fields of first level to comprise 2 letters.

The creation and the delegation of the management of the ccTLDs are responsibility for the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). To obtain a code given, the presence on the territory is necessary for certain fields.

The fields which differ from the ISO standard 3166-1

.uk (the United Kingdom): the code ISO 3166-1 for the United Kingdom is GB, but network JANET had already chosen .uk like identifier for its internal NRS. .gb was assigned with an aim of transition but removed forever and its use is now valid.
.su (Union of the Soviet socialist republics): missing of the standard
.ac (Rise): vestige of the decision of IANA to authorize in 1996 the use of the codes of the list of reserve of the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, intended for the Universal postal union. This decision was cancelled thereafter.
.eu (European Union)
.tp (old code ISO 3166-1 of the Eastern Timor)
.yu (old code ISO 3166-1 of Serbia-and-Montenegro, at the time the Federal republic of Yugoslavia)

Fields of kindness

The fields of kindness ( Vanity ccTLDs ) are fields which are used for commercial applications, most of the time apart from their country, because their name has a second direction. For example:

.ad (Andorra) is used by advertizing agencies ( advertizing )
.am (Arménie) and .fm (Micronesia) are used by radios AM and FM
.cd (Democratic republic of Congo) is used by salesmen of CD
.nu (Niué) is used for various sites because of its resemblance to new (new) in English, or for French-speaking erotic sites (" nu")
.tv (Tuvalu) is used by sites in relation to the Télévision
.je (Jersey) is used in Dutch like a diminutive (" huis.je "), or like " tu" (" zoek.je "), or like " je" in French (" moi.je")

The Domain hack consists in also using the field of second level to form an expression as in I.am, tip.it, start.at or go.to, or a word as in blo.gs, Del.icio.us, cr.yp.to…

List particular national fields

.bv - Island Grooving plane: not used, not of recordings
.cd - Democratic republic of Congo: in the past .zr (Zaire)
.cs - Serbia-and-Montenegro: in the past .yu (Federal republic of Yugoslavia), disappeared with independence from the Montenegro the June 3rd 2006. The code .cs is not thus assigned any more, and does not have a DNS. The code .cs was used in the past for the Czechoslovakia.
.eh - the Western Sahara: not assigned, not of DNS
.eu - European Union: code reserved in an exceptional way by the standard ISO 3166-1
.gb - the United Kingdom: reserved domain by IANA, replaced by .uk
.kp - North Korea has to come (http://www.kcce.kp/)
.sj - Islands Svalbard and Jan Mayen: not used, not of recordings
.su - Union of the Soviet socialist republics: exceeded use, code reserved in a transitory way by the ISO standard 3166-1
.tp - Eastern Timor: exceeded use, replaced by .tl. Code reserved in a transitory way by the standard ISO 3166-1
.uk - the United Kingdom: code reserved in an exceptional way by the standard ISO 3166-1 (see also .gb)
.yu - Federal republic of Yugoslavia become Serbia-and-Montenegro: code officially replaced by .cs but always used. Code reserved in a transitory way by the ISO standard 3166-1.

Be-X-old: Нацыянальныдаменверхнягаўзроўню

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