Introduction to Internet Domains

Don't you ever wonder where a certain computer host is located, when you are surfing through the web? I mean: If you see a certain URL, don't you ever wonder to which country the domain you are accessing at that moment - the host - belongs and is located?

On this pages you can find some answers for that question. You will find a list of 2 character country codes. The same codes are used on the internet.

Click here to jump to the world map, so that you can select an area to learn about its countries and their country codes.

Here is an example: If you see this address:

or something like this: pajtroon@dds.nl

you are able to know that both adresses are located in the Netherlands, since .nl stands for The Netherlands.

This is the syntax for an email adress:

user@hostname.domain

This is the syntax for a HTTP URL:

http://servername.hostname.domain/~username

For most internet adresses this is the syntax:

servername.hostname.domain

Most domain names are equal to the country codes. There are a few exceptions, which I will mention here:

• There are 4 top level domain names for United States:

  .com	Commercial (For companies)
  .edu	Educationally (Used by schools, universities etc.)
  .gov	Government
  .mil	U.S. Military

• The European Community has its own extension: .eu
• There are domain names not associated with any country:

  .int	International Organisation
  .net	Networking Organisaton
  .org	Non-Profit Organisation

• Not every .com host is located inside the USA.
  
• The 2 character country code for the United States is US.
  Some computer hosts are from the domain .us
• Nowadays some countries sell their domains to companies so that sites can have nice names.
  Examples of these countries are:

  .as	American Samoa
  .at	Austria
  .be	Belgium
  .fm	Micronesia
  .in	India
  .it	Italy
  .nu	Niue
  .to	Tonga
  .tv	Tuvalu

  A result of this is that URL's (Uniform Resource Locations) can be created, like:
  http://born.as/
  http://surf.at/
  http://come.to/
  http://scroll.to/
  http://surf.to/
  http://suriname.nu, since nu is the dutch word for now.
  
• Some discussions about new Top Level domains have started in the year 2000:
  

  .shop	Shop: Another extension for dot com??
  .web	Web
  .fam	Family
  .kids	For Kids
  .xxx	No need to say more...

  It's the question if al these requests will be honoured. For .eu the problem is for instance, that the European Community is just a club of countries and not one country recognized by the United Nations. For the other top level domains only can be said that the discussions are not over yet. The .shop has abig chance that it will be accepted as a new top level domain by the ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
• Since 2001 these top level domains are in preparation by the ICANN:
  

  .aero	Air-transport industry
  .biz	Businesses, kinda like .com but with more strict rules
  .coop	Cooperatives
  .info	Information, Unrestricted use
  .museum	For Museums
  .name	Name: for registration by individuals, e.g. johnson.name.
  .pro	For accountants, lawyers, and physicians

  For more information I refer to the top-level domain page by ICANN.

Click on the map below to see the country codes in a certain area.

Internet Domains

• Country codes in Africa
• Country code of Antarctica
• Country codes in Asia
• Country codes in Australia and the Pacific
• Country codes in the Caribbean and Middle America
• Country codes in Europe
• Country codes in the Middle-East
• Country codes in North America
• Country codes in South America
• List of country codes and their countries
• List of countries with their country codes
• Peter Troon at Wanadoo
• Peter Troon at Geocities
• Peter Troon's Index
• Peter Troon Mainpage
• Troon.ORG Page

If you feel that the information on this page not is complete or correct, please feel free to send your comments to pajtroon@dds.nl.