IDN Character Set Support for .AS Domains

Overview

AS Domain Registry will begin offering Internationalized Domain Name support (IDN) registration services on a "first-come, first-served" basis beginning 1 March 2005.

The IDN implementation being offered by AS Domain Registry is compliant with the following RFCs:

  RFC3490    Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).  
  RFC3491    Nameprep: A Stringprep Profile for Internationalized Domain Names (IDN).  
  RFC3492    Punycode: A Bootstring encoding of Unicode for Internationalized Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).  

IDN character set support is limited to an additional 92 UTF-8 characters. The supported UTF-8 characters supported are detailed here.

It will be possible to register IDN domains via both the Registry's web site at http://www.nic.as, and via an email template interface (if you are an accredited AS Domain Registrar). No preference in registrations will be given to either method used to register domains.

ACE Conversion tool

A conversion tool for converting an IDN domain name in Unicode/UTF-8 to ACE and from it's ACE representation to it's IDN Unicode/UTF-8 representation is available here.

FAQ for IDN

A "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) page will be posted shortly. Please check back here for the link.

AS Domain Registry Accredited Registrar Program

The Registry is now offering formal AS Domain Registry Registrar accreditation. By becoming an accredited AS Domain Registry Registrar, you will be eligible for a number of benefits, including non-credit card based payment schemes and access to an email based domain registration and modification system. If you are interested in becoming an AS Domain Registry accredited Registrar, please email the Registry at registrar-support@nic.as.

Additional Resources

For additional information about AS Domain Registry's IDN initiative, please email the Registry at idn-support@nic.nic.as.