Glossary

Here we explain the most common terms that are used when handling domain names.

We appreciate very much suggestions about more terms to be explained.

ACE

ASCII Compatible Encoding is an international standard for converting national characters, e.g æ,ø and å, to international standard characters (ASCII characters) which are allowed in domain names.

Applicant declaration form

Part of the contract between Norid and the applicant, which verifies that the holder knows and complies with the domain name policy for .no and that he takes full responsibility if the domain registration violates the rights of a third party.

DNS

An Internet service which translates between domain names and IP addresses. It's because of DNS that we can use human readable names, for example www.uninett.no, for finding IP based services.

Domain name, domain

All computers on the Internet have their own IP address, which consists of numbers. The domain name system connects domain names to the IP addresses so users do not have to remember a long string of numbers.

Domain name holder, holder

An organization or individual which has registered one or more domain names.

Draupne

Project name for Norid's registry system developed 2007-2010. More about the registry system.

EPP

Extensible Provisioning Protocol, a communication protocol designed for registry/registrar communication specifically. EPP is used in the registry system for .no.

Handle, Norid handle

A handle is a unique label for an object in a Whois database.

IDN

Internationalized Domain Name, a special type of domain name containing national characters such as æ, ø or å. It is used by translating it into what's called the ACE form, an alphanumeric representation of any character sequence. An example: blåbærsyltetøy.no blir becomes xn--blbrsyltety-y8ao3x.no.

IP address

used to address a computer or other unit in an IP based network. An example of an IP address is 158.38.130.37.

ISP

Internet Service Provider, a company that sells access to the Internet.

Legal-c

Legal contact person for the domain name holder or the registrar.

Name server

A computer which implements the protocol used in the Domain Name System, DNS.

Norid

The Norwegian registry for Internet domain names. Norid runs the .no registry and maintains the database for all Internet domains within .no.

Object (Whois)

When a domain is registered, several objects become associated with the domain, e.g an organization object and a person object. You can find the objects in the whois database for .no.

PID

Personal identifier, personal ID. A unique identification code which is used in place of the person's national identity number. Applications for private domain names are filled in with a personal identifier, not with the national identity number (NIN).

Registrar

A company which has signed a contract with Norid in order to offer registration and upkeep services for domain names. The registrar is the link between the applicant and Norid.

Registrar ID

Unique identification code, or “handle” for each registrar. The handle has the form REGxxx-NORID and can be found in the whois database.

Subscribing to a domain

Having the right to use a domain name.

Tech-c

Technical contact person for the domain name holder or the registrar.

Ticket ID

Each application or inquiry sent to Norid receives a unique ticket ID.

TLD

Top Level Domain, a letter code identifying the top level under which a domain is registered. There are two categories of top level domains; national (ccTLD), such as .no and .dk, and generic (gTLD), such as .com and .org.

Whois

A Whois database is a searchable database which contains all registered information about one or more top level domains (TLDs). Most registries for TLDs have a Whois service.

Zone-c

Zone contact for the domain name holder or the registrar. This is a technical contact person for the name servers of a domain who should be available in case there are problems with the name server configuration.