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About Domain Name Registration

A domain name registry, also called Network Information Centre (NIC), is part of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet which converts domain names to IP addresses. It is an organisation that manages the registration of Domain names within the top-level domains for which it is responsible, controls the policies of domain name allocation, and technically operates its top-level domain. It is potentially distinct from a domain name registrar.

Domain names are managed under a hierarchy headed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which manages the top of the DNS tree by administrating the data in the root nameservers.

IANA also operates the .int registry for intergovernmental organisations, the .arpa zone for protocol administration purposes, and other critical zones such as root-servers.net.

IANA delegates all other domain name authority to other domain name registries.

Country code top-level domains (ccTLD) are delegated by IANA to national registries such as DENIC in Germany, or Nominet in the United Kingdom.

Operation

Some name registries are government departments (e.g., the registry for the Vatican www.nic.va ). Some are co-operatives of internet service providers or not-for profit companies. Others operate as commercial organizations, such as the US registry.

The allocated and assigned domain names are made available by registries by use of the Whois system and via their Domain name servers.

Some registries sell the names directly and others rely on separate entities to sell them. For example, names in the .com TLD are in some sense sold “wholesale” at a regulated price, and individual domain name registrar sell names “retail” to businesses and consumers.

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