Please note that bank transfers are manually booked during ISNIC's office opening hours and therefore there is a risk that domains paid for by transfer, outside of ISNIC's office opening hours, will be closed and will not reopen until Tuesday, August 8th.
Important domains should always be renewed in a timely manner.
Happy "Merchant weekend"!
]]>ISNIC's phone hours in July until August 14th are from 09:00-12:00 GMT all working days. We remind you that registration of .is domains is fully automatic through isnic.is, and instructions to all major actions can be found in our FAQ page
For technical assistance, the most effective way is to email us at isnic@isnic.is and we'll answer as soon as possible.
Here are instructions for a few common actions:
How do I login?
How do I renew a domain?
How do I transfer a domain name from one registrant to another?
How do I change nameservers on a domain?
Where can I find invoices?
Have a great summer!
ISNIC staff
]]>When renewing a domain through "My page" on isnic.is, the domain is now placed in a basket where clients can add multiple domains for renewal. In the next step, clients can choose their preferred billing method and renew all the selected domains simultaneously, receiving just one invoice for the transaction.
This update is particularly advantageous for clients who have numerous registered .is domains. Regardless of the individual due dates of these domains, you can now renew them all at once, simplifying the renewal process and ensuring ease of management.
Regards, ISNIC
]]>ISNIC apologises to those who have relied on receiving invoices by the Icelandic Post. Those who do not use a credit card will still receive a statement in their home bank and the invoice will, as before, be sent by email.
The sending of invoices by "snail mail" will be completely stopped on June 1. 2023.
]]>ISNIC's staff wishes you'll a happy summer!
]]>Domain registrations are fully automatic and ISNIC's critical services will be unaffected. Answers to common questions and instructions can be found on the FAQ page.
Happy Easter!
ISNIC
]]>Those who operate important online services should always consider more than one version of the domains that refer to the name of the service, product, or company name. This is especially true if the name contains letters that are similar to other letters, for example I and i, t and f, the symmetries b and d or p and q and so on.
A famous example in Iceland is when a pirated version of the Icelandic police's website was put on the Web under the fraudulent domain logregian.is (the real domain being logreglan.is).
A good example of a "positive blocking domain registration" is the domain arionbankl.is (notice the lowercase "L" at the end). It was registered by Arion Banki to increase the online security of its customers.
The lowercase "L" and uppercase "i" are visually similar and are therefore often used in deceptive domains, as the human eye can have a hard time noticing the difference between the letters. Please be aware of this and always read the domain name of any website you visit, and of any email address from emails you've received.
]]>Here is the news item about the cooperation at RcodeZero's website
]]>
Summer greetings,
ISNIC staff.
Due to summer holidays, ISNIC’s office hours are between 09:00-14:00 GMT all working days. The office is closed during lunch time. You can find answers to frequently asked questions and instructions on the FAQ page.
Sincerely
ISNIC staff
]]>ISNIC's Security & Legal Department.
]]>Today we publish the post-mortem for that incident, we invite you to read it here.
]]>The number of first registered .is-domains has now exceeded 14,500 domains, but was 13,869 domains in 2020. Unlike last year, when foreign registrations decreased somewhat, exports have increased. About 1/3 of all .is-domains now have an address outside of Iceland – the vast majority coming from the Nordic countries, the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. The net increase in domain names (newly registered domains minus deleted domains) has now reached 6,508, while the net increase in active domains in 2020 was 5,310.
]]>The informal lecture will take the audience from the beginnings of the DNS in 1983 through the present day. It will focus on the development of the Root Server System from just one root server to today’s 13 root servers, and explain some of the mystery behind why the root servers are assigned the way they are. It will highlight the status of root service in the local region. Finally, it will discuss the next steps in Root Server System governance.
The webinar is open to everyone, pending registration which is open till October 6th. Please register here.
]]>ICANN’s Technical Engagement Manager David Huberman will deliver a one-hour training session to provide an overview of how DNS works and how different DNS components interact with each other. Training will cover following topics:
A Brief History of DNS
The Name Space, Delegation, Zones
Components for the DNS: Authoritative Servers, Resolvers (Stub & Recursives)
Root Server System 101
DNS Data: Zone Files, RR Types, Glue
DNS Security Overview
Please register here.
Registration is open until 8 September 2021. Network engineers, policy makers and everyone else with a general interest in the DNS are invited. Although this is an outreach effort to reach Internet community members from the Nordic region, stakeholders from other regions are also welcome to join.
]]>Summer greetings, ISNIC staff.
]]>Sincerely
ISNIC staff
]]>Happy National Day of Iceland!
ISNIC
]]>Happy Eurovision weekend, go Daði&Gagnamagnið!
ISNIC
]]>Domain registrations are fully automatic and ISNIC's critical services will be unaffected. Answers to common questions and instructions can be found on the FAQ page.
Happy Easter!
ISNIC
]]>The annual fee for '.is' domains has never increased before, but has decreased several times since the domain was first registered in about 1990. The annual fee was reduced 2014 by ISK. 1,000 – from ISK 6,980 to ISK 5,980. In 2008, on the other hand, it did cost ISK 12.450 (EUR 83) to register a .is-domain name!
The increase in the annual fee is necessary to keep up with the constant increase in operating cost – especially labor costs – which has risen enormously in Iceland in recent six years, or just over 42% according to Statistics Iceland.*
Jens Pétur Jensen, Managing Director.
* Wage index of employees in the general labor market: January 2015: 74.3. January 2021: 106.0.
]]>At the same time we've added a second switch in Tæknigarður, and we now offer 100Gbs connections – both at Tæknigarður and at Múlastöð. The old switches had a maximum connection speed of 10Gbs.
All the PoP's in RIX are inter-connected, so parties can peer with everyone connected to RIX, regardless of which PoP they are connected to.
]]>The web service provided on www.isnic.is does not change, of course not, it can be used around the clock.
It is our sincere hope that the reduction of working hours will gradually result in greater employee satisfaction, which in return will result in increased service quality for the benefit of all our customers.
ISNIC - the .is Registry
]]>Kind regards, ISNIC
]]>Emails, online chats, and phonecalls will be answered as before, but phones will close at 14:00 UTC, see news in Icelandic about the matter.
ISNIC's critical services will be unaffected, as it does not rely on human hands, except in the case of malfunctions.
]]>Managers and executors of bankruptcy estates are advised that there may be a reason to renew the domains of companies that are struggling, especially if there is a will to rebuild them, as it can be very difficult and costly to regain lost domain names.
]]>E-mail, web chat, and phone calls will all be handled by staff working from home – as much as possible.
ISNIC's critical services will be unaffected, as it does not rely on human hands, except in the case of malfunctions.
]]>The popularity and importance of our Forwarding service has been increasing steadily since we first launched the service. A steadily growing number of customers relies on the service to drive traffic to their websites and route their e-mail to the right servers.
We felt it was time to raise the bar and protect our users against a wider range of potential problems. The way we accomplish that, and the main distinction of this new system, is it better distributes the traffic across the wider Internet. We now have DNS- and web servers in Europe and North America, in addition to the servers we have always operated in Iceland. We also added DNS servers in Asia to dramatically improve response times for people in Asia and Oceania.
These improvements guarantee that even if Iceland's internet connectivity is disrupted, the rest of the world will be able to look up and make contact with domains using the ISNIC Forwarding service.
The system monitoring was also improved and made more global, by leveraging the RIPE Atlas network we now continuously track our response times and availability from all over the globe. And of course changes were made under the hood, to facilitate future enhancements and features.
As is often the case with internal changes like this, our customers should see little difference, aside from reduced latency when looking up Forwarded domains from outside Iceland.
]]>ISNIC's telephone and web chat service should be available as usual. Those who still consider it necessary to come by the office are asked to call ahead.
ISNIC staff.
]]>ISNIC's office will be closed from December 24th to December 26th. We will be back in office on Friday 27th.
Dot IS-domains can be renewed and managed fully through our Web Portal after login here on ISNIC.is.
]]>Thank you for registering a .IS domain.
Happy Easter everyone. Be careful, travel safely.
]]>On DNS Flag Day, DNS software and service providers will roll out updates to remove existing DNS resolver workarounds that allows users to bypass the Extension Mechanisms Protocol (EDNS) for DNS, to ensure compliance with the original DNS standard from 1987 (RFC1035) and the newer EDNS standards from 1999 (RFC2671) and (RFC6891).
Why are they doing this?
In the early 80s when the Domain Name System (DNS) got born, the networking was a lot smaller and a lot different than it is today. At that time the Domain Name System (DNS) had not yet become the backbone technology of the Internet as we know it today. As the years went by and the Internet grew, the Domain Name System (DNS) has grown alongside it, undergoing several evolutionary steps to be able to meet the Internet's requirements and standards at any given time. This effort is simple yet another evolutionary step in the Domain Name System (DNS) history, required to meet today's Internet standard.
To meet today's standards and requirements major Open Source DNS Software providers along with a number of other organizations, social networks and search engine giants have joined forces and declared a flag day, after which the Domain Name System (DNS) software will no longer support those workarounds which are causing slower responses to DNS queries and make it harder to implement new features. On that day they will cease accommodating DNS software vendors and DNS service providers that do not comply with the published DNS standard behaviour when interacting with other servers.
Why should I care?
If you, your organizations or company own a domain and that domain is being hosted on authoritative server which is in violation of the published DNS standard, that domain will gradually become inaccessible on the Internet through domain name lookups.
What do I need to do?
The first thing to do is to make sure that the authoritative DNS server for your domain(s) responds correctly.
To see if your authoritative DNS server for your domain(s) are compliant, head to the DNS Flag Day website and enter in the form below "I'm a domain holder" your domain and click on the test button.
If you get "All OK" no further action is required.If you get "Fatal error detected" you should contact your domain(s) technical contact and or DNS service provider in charge of managing the DNS software used by your domain name(s) and have them ensure it is fully updated and compliant with the EDNS protocol requirement and there no misconfiguration with the firewall, intrusion detection system and intermediate devices, such as routers, switches which may also result in compliance failures.
Additional resources and references
Earlier blog on EDNS fallback behavior
Presentation on DNS Flag Day on UKNOF, January 15th, 2019
KB article – DNS Flag Day, How Will it Impact You?
KB article – DNS Flag Day, Notes for Authoritative servers
KB article – EDNS compatibility tests and status codes
]]>
To comply with the European GDPR Directive, ISNIC will, before May 25th, stop publishing names, addresses and telephone numbers of personal contacts by default from the ISNIC WHOIS database.
Customers (individuals) who wish to continue to publish their information, must log in, go to "My Settings" and select "Name and Address Published".
ISNIC will however, at least for the time being, continue to publish email addresses, country and techincal information of all NIC-handles associated with .is domains. Those customers (individuals) who have recorded a personally identifiable email address, and do not want it published, will need to change their .is WHOIS email address to something impersonal.
Assuming that GDPR directive applies fully to the "WHOIS" service provided for decades by most ccTLD registries, these new restrictions will lead to less transparency in domain registrations and less trust in the domain registration system in general. ISNIC, as many others, strongly disagrees with the view of the European parliament in this matter and warns that GDPR, as it is being implemented, will neither lead to better privacy nor a safer network environment.
For the sake of the internet community, e.g. Individual users, Service Providers, Hosting Companies, and many other stake holders, ISNIC will continue to publish email addresses and the country name of all contact types until further notice.
]]>
The reason for this is simply to get deleted domains one month sooner back on the market, and to align the .is domain rules to international conventions. After this change ISNIC will also inform the registrant precisely when the domain will be deleted, regardless of any holidays. This means that the so called holiday rule (.is domains never deleted on holidays) will also be abandoned.
The third reason for this change, and perhaps the most important one, is to increase automation and enabling ISNIC to maintain stable registration and renewal fees in spite of cost increases.
]]>
Domains can be renewd at all times with a credit card. To find your user name (NIC-handle) please type the name of your domain in the big search window, here on ISNIC's front page, then log in or click on 'Lost PW' located by your email address, and then proceed from the email sent to you from ISNIC Hostmaster.
Have a nice weekend and drive carefully.
ISNIC's Staff.
]]>We will be back to assist you on Tuesday :)
ISNIC's Staff.
]]>Clever domainers automatically check if a certain domain is still valid and register newly deleted domains, probably in the hope of reselling them (even to previous owner) or for other purposes. Especially companies need to be aware of this.
You can hide everything from the ISNIC's public Whois except Name and Country.
]]>
The service window will be between 22:00 and 02:00, during that time the database operations will be reduced or unavailable. We are sorry for any inconvenience coused.
]]>Premium Domains are considdered to be mostly "one word domains", containing easy, preferably short, english words and names. You should therefore be able to find many Premium Domains under the beautiful .is domain extension – all at the same price €29.90. No hidden cost what so ever.
ISNIC, the .is Registry.
]]>The list below is based on traffic data for the Top 1,000,000 websites globally. There are now 189 websites hosted in .is domains on this list, and for the first time a .is website is now among the 1000 most popular sites in the Internet.
Left column shows the site rank within .is, and the right shows the Global Rank. Source: domaintyper.com/top-websites/most-popular-websites-with-is-domain
1. | who.is | 762. |
2. | good.is | 10,383. |
3. | google.is | 13,976. |
4. | mbl.is | 15,040. |
5. | visir.is | 20,915. |
6. | dv.is | 27,828. |
7. | time.is | 39,856. |
8. | pressan.is | 43,051. |
9. | ruv.is | 46,885. |
10. | ja.is | 51,214. |
11. | archive.is | 55,649. |
12. | foofind.is | 64,136. |
13. | watch.is | 66,924. |
14. | icelandair.is | 69,090. |
15. | bland.is | 71,599. |
16. | vb.is | 87,325. |
17. | arionbanki.is | 88,013. |
18. | uk.is | 94,169. |
19. | vedur.is | 96,008. |
20. | hi.is | 111,600. |
ISNIC (IS Network Information Center) is the Registry (Top Level Domain Operator) for the ccTLD ".is", and manages the Registration System, the Registrant (WHOIS) Database, and the DNS Servers for the .is zone. ISNIC welcomes every customer who has genuine, legitimate interest in having a clever and good looking .is address for a website, email, or other services on the Internet. We discourage registration via Proxy Services, unless the proxy uses a legitimate registered corporation with a real physical address. We do not allow false or inaccurate domain registrations, but we allow individuals to withhold their address from our Public Registrant Database (WHOIS).
.is Domains can be registered for up to five years–first only for one year–but can then be renewed (right away) for additional four years. This is to give the new Registrant an important moment to re-think, before paying out the fee for five years (EUR 149.5) which is non-refundable.
Welcome aboard!
]]>Domains are like good wine, the older the better they are regarding search engines. If you read this before January 1. register your .is domain right away and get the creation year 2016 please.
]]>As domain fees are not refundable we decided to make it a litle tricky to register a new domain for more than one year - to protect our most enthusiastic customers.
Article 19 of the .is registration rule now reads:
"The domain registration period is at least one year, paid in advance on or before the domain expiration date. All domain registrations shall be accompanied by a payment."
]]>ISNIC strongly asks Nameserver (DNS) Managers, who wish to host .is domains, to please register their nameservers with ISNIC beforehand – this will make it much easier for your .is customers to select your service.
ISNIC's Name Server Registration: https://www.isnic.is/en/host/new
.IS Tech. Requirements: https://www.isnic.is/en/host/req https://www.isnic.is/en/domain/req
]]>No not really. ISNIC's staff does assist customers (if asked) with registration of .is-domains, but not in coming up with an idea for a good domain. When creating a good domain it comes down to language skills, the feel for words and above all, Creativity.
The .is top level domain ending goes very well with many words, and can, as such facilitate the construction of good and easy to remember domains.
For a long time short domains were thought to be much better than longer ones. This could, however, be wrong in some cases. Some specialists contend that well formulated and descriptive domains score higher in search engines on the internet.
Here are a few helpful things to keep in mind when registering a good .is domain:
The ISNIC Team.
]]>As the number of .is domains reached 57316 around midnight the first of april 2016 ISNIC can no longer register new .is domains. Our registration database is full so the only .is domains available for now are used domains. You can either buy one from a current registrant or you can come to our office in Reykjavik before 16.00 today and ask if any domains got free today.
We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and as soon as we install a bigger database we will be able to register new .is domains again.
Have a wonderful weekend.
]]>
ISNICs office will, like always, be closed for five days over the Easters, i.e. from March 24. (Maundy Thursday) to March 28. (Easter Monday). We will be back to our desks on Tuesday March 29.
As always you can register, renew, redelegate, transfer and delete domains 24/7 using our website. The easiest way to find your login information is to type your domain name in the search window on our front page, click on "Lost PW" link by your email address, and proceed from the email you got from ISNIC.
Thank you for registering a .IS domain.
Happy Easter everyone. Be careful, travel slowly.
The ISNIC Team.
]]>ISNIC Tech Team.
]]>See also #bluehostdown on Twitter.
ISNIC
]]>Bluehost says this is part of a DDoS protection, and that it’s being repaired, and that there is no known ETA of a fix, and that customers should use 3rd party DNS servers and point to their Bluehost IP Address (in the interim or instead).
ISNIC deactivates domains which have a broken DNS configuration after 8 weeks.
]]>Among interesting topics on the agenda will be a discussion on Data Validation. Should the registrant (domain holder) be able to hide his/her name from the public Whois data? This and related topics will be disscussed hard on the second day of the first Nordic Domain Days in Sweden next week.
Hope to see you there!
]]>It’s ideal if WIX registers their nameservers with ISNIC, but the Zone Contact for WIX is EP29-IS (ISNIC NIC handle).
]]>By having a mirror instance in various location, the path to the root nameserver is kept as short as possible, and reliability and latency is the primary reason.
]]>
Have a wonderful weekend!
The support and tech. Team of ISNIC.
]]>If you need to contact ISNIC please use the Svarbox or send us an email at: isnic@isnic.is
]]>The RIPE NCC has an IPv6 on-line course on it's academy.ripe.net network, which is open to all.
/br
]]>In 2014, the number of new .is domains registered was 9.773 and the number of deleted domains was 5.356. ISNIC's calculated loss from having to wait 60-105 days from the time an unpaid domain is put on hold, until it is open to register again is therefor great. ISNIC is currently reviewing whether to shorten this time according to standard practices with other registries of top level domains. ISNIC will continue to publish recently deleted domains on Twitter, which has been met with only positive response, especially from the "domain merchants". This is though by no means a complete list of deleted .is-domains. ISNIC's Twitter posts are unregular and limited to domains we find interesting.
]]>The processes of deleting and transfering a domain has also been changed. From now on, not only does the administrative contact have to confirm the action, but the registrant as well, as long as the registrant has a valid email registered. If not, only the administrative contact has to confirm the request as before. ISNIC believes these changes will further enhance the registration security of .is domains.
]]>The .is-flag at the North Pole on April 10. 2015.
April 10. 2015. Russian North Pole Ice Airport. Helicopters are used to go all the way to the 90°N.
Photo by Marta Magnúsdóttir.
The plane who took the group to the North Pole Ice Airport.
Photo by Marta Magnusdottir.
The ISNIC Team has its yearly Projects day in the country side today, April 10th. We will be talking about the future and the possibilities of something big hitting the internet or the earth for that matter.
Have a wonderful weekend!
ISNIC, the .is Registry.
]]>We belive pepople are not only registering under .is because it's a nice and beautiful domain, but also because they know that strict technical requirements, robust and secure DNS service, and an accurate Whois information are important to the thrustworthyness of all .is-domains. Reed about the importance of the TTL (time to live) record in our recent article on this topic here.
ISNIC the .is Registry.
]]>The ISNIC team.
]]>rep: Hello how may I help you?
customer: Good afternoon, I need some advice. I want to give someone a .is-domain as a Christmas present, but I worry he will find out if he gets an email from ISNIC.
rep: There is no need to worry, just put your email instead of his/her in first, and then change it after he/she has opened the present.
customer: So, even if I register him as the owner, he won't receive an email?
rep: No, not as long as you don't register his/her email address to begin with.
customer: Ok, good. How long does it take to be ready after I register the domain?
rep: New domains will appear every 20 min. or so. So the waiting time is max 20 min after registration is complete. Just remember to change the email address after Christmas.
customer: Ok great, just one more question :) How much is the cost for me, and will I be charged automatically next year or can he overtake the bill then?
rep: The annual fee, your total cost, is €29.90. You only need to uncheck the automatic renewal option and he will get a reminding email in a year from now.
customer: Ok, so he will not come into any problems or cost if he decides not to renew the domain?
rep: No. ISNIC will credit the bill for renewal and delete the domain automatically if no payment is received.
customer: Ok, thanks for the assistance, I am going to do it!
rep: Thank you too. Too bad we can't rap the domain in Christmas paper and send you!
customer: he he
Chat closed...
]]>
1. TTL values of DNS resource records tell resolvers how long they should cache records they receive. This stops them from sending queries to authoritative nameservers repeatedly for the same record. Most records in DNS are rarely changed, so a low TTL causes unneccessary traffic and load on the authoritative nameservers. The only downside to a high TTL is that changes to records have to be planned in advanced and the TTL lowered before the change, and raised again after the change. ISNIC allows for this, as our systems send warnings to contacts for 8 weeks after a technical fault is found, before the domain is put on hold. This gives administrators a reasonable time to fix errors that are found.
2. A new kind of DDoS (Distributes Denial of Service) attack has been observed recently, which has been called "DNS Slow Drip Attack". In DDoS attacks many computers are used to flood a victims service with requests, until it is unable to respond, effectively knocking the service off line. DNS is specially vulnerable to these kind of attacks because of it's open nature and use of UDP packets. The UDP protocol makes it trivial to spoof addresses which makes it very difficult to filter attacking packets from legitimate uses.
3. The Slow Drip Attack works like this: An attacker creates a flood of requests for random records under the domain that is to be attacked. If e.g. "domain.is" is under attack they would query for aaaa.domain.is, aaaba.domain.is etc. The requests are always random and almost never for the same value twice. These queries can be sent through open resolvers, such as Google Public DNS. Since these records do not exist, the nameserver responds with NXDOMAIN. It does this as fast and for as long as it can, but the torrent of requests only grows until the server is no longer able to respond fast enough and becomes unresponsive to all queries. This effectively knocks out every service under the victims domain. If the attack is large enough it can also affect the service of the TLD under which the victims domain is (see dafa888.wf attack).
4. If the TTL value for the NS records of a victims domain is low (dafa888.wf has a TTL of 600 sec.) it means that the TLD nameservers see a large part of the traffic from the attackers. If the TTL is 86400 sec, like ISNIC's requirements dictate, each resolver will only ask for the NS records of the victims domain once every 24 hours. With a TTL of 600, they will query for the NS records once every ten minutes. A high TTL will in these cases stop an attack like this from affecting every domain under the TLD, as was the case with dafa888.wf.
Unfortunetly a high TTL value does not help the victim in this case, since the queries are all for records that are not in the victims zone (See Negative Cache), but it does minimize the size of the attack and stops colleteral damage. So, while ISNIC's requirements for a rather high TTL values are sometimes vilified unjustly, they are very valid and have proven it's technical and security values many times.
]]>Never before has ISNIC suspended a domain on grounds of a website's content.
Updated 2014-10-13 13:00 Added link to Isnic Rules
]]>If the nameservers, on which you wish to host your .is domains, are not already registered with ISNIC, you must ask your your hosting company, i.e. internet service provider, to register them with ISNIC. This is done here: https://www.isnic.is/en/host/new. The registration is of course free of charge.
Your service provider then automatically becomes your domain's "Zone Contact" towards ISNIC. The Zone Contact must have full authority over the nameservers, and be both willing and able to remedy all technical problems with all .is-domains hosted on his nameservers.
Please read ISNIC's tech. requirements and see where to Register nameserver by ISNIC if you intend to host and serve .is-domains, one of the most secure and clever Top Level Domains (TLD's) on the internet.
Any questions? please ask Google or use our webchat "Svarbox®", here on isnic.is.
]]>You can register and manage your .is-domain online, as usually, by logging into your account here on isnic.is. If you have forgotten your username (NIC-handle) and PW, just type the name of your domain(s) in the big search window and then press the Lost password link located by your email-address.
The ISNIC team will be back for you on August 5. - nine o'clock sharply.
]]>The 26th of May 2014 torrentz.eu was suspended in response to a request by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in the UK, without a court order. The operators of the website immediately registered, with different top-level domains, five new domains where the website was accessible. The original domain was then unsuspended briefly after it had been suspended.
Domains are used for much more than to address websites. Email is always sent using a domain, and domains are often used to connect users to their home and work networks. Domains can hardly be considered illegal any more than a street address. A street address is not illegal even if there is illegal activity in one apartment at the address. When a domain is suspended the website or the content itself is not, as became apparent when torrentz.eu was suspended. A suspension of a domain does not lead to a total blocking of the website it points to.
When domains are suspended, as described above, it does not only indignate the website's visitors, but it also disrupts email and other services, which are unrelated to the website, that the domain facilitates. Disruption of email communication and service, unrelated to the website that is meant to be closed, is utterly unnecessary and unacceptable in these instances. A suspension of a domain is in a way comparable to banning the use of an address of an apartment building depriving everyone at that particular address of their postal service. Additionally, the suspension of individual domains can affect other domains, specially in the situation when domain service is a registered subdomain.
Finally, it should be noted that when registries and registrars are made to suspend domains it can create negative publicity within the internet community, harming the top-level domain and reducing its credibility. It is difficult to rectify that sort of damage that easily could be avoided with increased awareness and proficiency of the technical workings of the internet.
A .is domain has never been shut down on court order in spite of several attempts.
]]>You are urged to share it with a towel, photographs and other people. See the website towelday.org for details.
]]>Iceland is a peaceful litle country with stable economy and politics. It is known for respecting human rights and for being one of the oldest democracy in the world. The icelandic parliment, "Althingi", was founded in the summer of 930 by the Vikings, only about 60 years after the settlement of Iceland.
The .is top level domain is ideal for those who want to present a professional and trustworthy image all over the world, and show their commitment to the region as well.
]]>
The web portal is up and running as usually. You can register and manage your .is-domain online, by logging into your account here on isnic.is.
]]>Many have predicted that the decision by ICANN/IANA to open up registration of new TLDs would inflict dramatic changes to the internet. Others point out that this is not the first time that new TLDs have been introduced (.museum, .biz, .xxx, .job, .info, .pro), which to date have made very little impact at all. One thing's for sure, the changes now are bigger than we've ever seen before and the uncertainty and possibilities are therefore greater.
Internet á Íslandi - ISNIC does not have any plans to service or register other TLDs than .is, but ISNIC will, like all established registries, have to adapt to these great changes. In our opinion, these new TLDs open up new possibilities as competition grows. ISNIC will continue to offer a safe and secure DNS service with high technical standards. We've already seen that these new TLDs have caused many registries to open up their registrations and relaxed some of the more inhibiting registration requirements. ISNIC will continue to grow foreign .is registrations, as it has done these last few years. That is unavoidable, mainly due to the small size of the domestic market in Iceland. Some people find this regrettable and maintain that ccTLDs should first and foremost be for the domestic population and businesses. Others say that any such local-precense requirements is contrary to the spirit and nature of the internet, which is why limitations of that nature are slowly disappearing.
One thing is for sure, there will only be one .is and it is arguably one of the most beautiful TLDs on the internet.
]]>Our web portal will be open 24/7 as usual, and you can manage and register your .is-domains after login on isnic.is.
24.12. Office closed.
25.12. Office closed.
26.12. Office closed.
27.12. Friday, open as usual.
30.12. Monday, open as usual.
31.12. Last day of 2013, open 09-12 (GMT).
01.01. Office closed.
ISNIC sends warm greetings to all of it's customers, very many new ones from all over the world who now have a nice litle .is domain in 2013.
Happy new year!
ISNIC's Staff.
]]>ISNIC's Staff.
]]>Trademark Holder of "Ovation Hair" Registered In 2012 Wins UDRP On http://t.co/arMn6YqxoM Registered in 2008... http://t.co/yL60fz9zUZ
— The Domains (@thedomains) November 19, 2013
]]>
DNSSEC for the ccTLD .is is now fully deployed and we encourage our registrants to secure their domains as soon as possible.
]]>From the beginning certain problems have been known with the way DNS is implemented (See RFC3833). These problems may allow attackers to disrupt the lookup process, either stopping people from accessing certain resources or directing users to different resources than they intended. Banks, insurance companies, commerce, government and other sites that handle important and critial data are popular targets for these kinds of attacks where the attackers look to seize personal information, login credentials and credit card information from unsuspecting users.
To fix these weaknesses, an extension of the DNS protocol, DNSSEC (DNS Security Extensions), was created. DNSSEC makes it possible for DNS servers to cryptographically sign their responses so that users are assured that the response they get originated from the correct DNS server.
ISNIC has now finished the first stage in implementing DNSSEC for the .is TLD, by signing the .is zone and having the corresponding DS records published in the root zone by IANA. Records in the is zone can now be authenticated by properly configured DNS resolvers that support DNSSEC.
The next step in the implementation is to allow domain holders to publish their DS records in the .is zone so their signed zone can be authenticated by the chain of trust to the root zone. Then domain holders can be assured that properly configured resolvers can and will authenticate responses from their domain servers and will disregard attempts from attackers to disrupt or poison the DNS system.
See RFC4033, RFC4034 and RFC4035 regarding the definitions of DNSSEC and RFC6781 regarding DNSSEC operational practices. ISNIC uses open source software, OpenDNSSEC to manage keys and signing of records in the is zone.
DNSSEC service will be included in the yearly fee for all domains.
]]>Receiving paper bills via conventional mail is optional and users can select not to receive any such bills, thus avoiding these charges. ISNIC assumes that non-domestic billing contacts elect not to receive bills via conventional mail, only by email. If a registrant needs paper based bills, he can instruct the billing contact to change the default setting. See the "Cancel paper" option under "My settings".
As before, ISNIC will not charge any transaction fee for those that choose to pay via online baking (mostly domestic users). We still recommend all to pay and renew via credit card by using ISNIC's automatic renewal for security.
Electronic versions of bills and charging summaries are made available to the billing contacts via the ISNIC web after login.
]]>ISNIC's phoneservice is closed today, friday, March 1. due to a Workshop.
Our service is a "self service" and any normal domain issue, such as renewal, invoice retrieval, change billing contact, registrant transfer, domain redelegation, forwarding and parking a domain, can all be performed directly on our website.
Please use our new search/login window (here above) to locate your NIC handle (login information) and password reset options if you have problems logging into the system.
We are constantly increasing our on-line services, and recommend that everyone should be familiar with it, and also review your domains registration. Negligence can cost you your domain. One security tool, is automatic renewal with credit card, which renews your domain automatically 60 days before it expires. Summer vacation is another problem area, where the renewal notice may become lost or unseen during the time the contacts are away from their e-mail.
]]>
ISNIC maintained a hostcount between 1990 and 2010 for registered hosts. Starting in 1990 with 14 hosts - up to 300 thousand in 2010 when we stopped counting! (ISNIC Survey).
]]>If you haven't done it before, just start by writing the domain idea in the big Google like search window above and go from there.
"We whish you a merry christmas, and a happy new year."
ISNIC's Team.
]]>
Advisory — D-root is changing its IPv4 address on the 3rd of January. This is advance notice that there is a scheduled change to the IPv4 address for one of the authorities listed for the DNS root zone and the .ARPA TLD. The change is to D.ROOT-SERVERS.NET, which is administered by the University of Maryland. The new IPv4 address for this authority is 199.7.91.13 The current IPv6 address for this authority is 2001:500:2d::d and it will continue to remain unchanged. This change is anticipated to be implemented in the root zone on 3 January 2013, however the new address is currently operational. It will replace the previous IP address of 128.8.10.90 (also once known as TERP.UMD.EDU). We encourage operators of DNS infrastructure to update any references to the old IP address, and replace it with the new address. In particular, many DNS resolvers have a DNS root “hints” file. This should be updated with the new IP address. New hints files will be available at the following URLs once the change has been formally executed: http://www.internic.net/domain/named.root http://www.internic.net/domain/named.cache The old address will continue to work for at least six months after the transition, but will ultimately be retired from service.]]>
ISNIC has already presented the Icelandic internet community with a gift on this anniversary year; A new stratum 1 NTP time server (https://www.isnic.is/is/ntp) has been established, open to the domestic internet, and the Reykjavík Internet Exchange (RIX) has been upgraded to support 10 Gb connections. The RIX upgrade will make general broadcasting of multimedia content in Iceland much easier. One customer, Símafélagið ehf. is already connected to RIX on 10 Gb.
]]>The question is can a domain be seized and auctioned? According to ShanghaiDaily.com: "The court agreed, ruling that the domain name is the identity of a company in the Internet world and it has economic value, and thus can be seized even if there is no specific provision on the issue in the law."
]]>If you use native IPv6 and are located in Iceland, you can use 2.is.pool.ntp.org in your configuration to make sure you're accessing the local IPv6 address of the server as a first choice, otherwise you can use is.pool.ntp.org in your timeserver configuration.
Operating a public NTP service is a long term project, which strengthens and improves the domestic internet. Access to an accurate and not so distant timeservers is very important for many of the services operated on the internet, and on your network. The clock can be viewed on https://www.isnic.is/is/ntp
ISNIC's System Administrator, Mr. Björn Róbertsson, has implemented the NTP service.
]]>VID's will get special treatment, especially regarding rights and renewals. So called VID insurance means that a VID's registration never expires accidentally. It will also be harder to transfer VID's to new registrants, since it will require confirmation from the registrants themselves, either digitally or a signed confirmation.
To prepare for this change, domain registrants are asked to update the registrants email at ISNIC, which can be done under "Modify Registration" on My Page. Only the administrative contact can edit the registrant information. In the fall, all administrative contacts and registrants with a registered email address will get an email where these changes will be explained in detail.
]]>
These are the most wanted according to the list:
13 applicants want .APP.
11 companies and persons would like to own and run .HOME and .INC.
10 parties understanding art applied for .ART.
9 applications were received for: .BLOG, .SHOP .BOOK og .LLC.
8 would like to run: .DESIGN, .MOVIE og .MUSIC.
7 applied for each of these: .HOTEL, .NEWS, .MAIL, .LTD, .CLOUD, .LOVE, .WEB, og .STORE.
6 companies want .VIP, .ONLINE, .CORP, .CPA, .NOW, .TECH, .BABY, .LAW, .GMBH, og .GROUP.
5 have interest in .SITE, .TICKETS, .BUY, .FREE, .STYLE, .GAME, og .SALE.
And four would like .GAY.
ISNIC is the registry for the beautiful ccTLD .is which is 25 year old this year.
]]>ISNIC (and therefore the .is domain as well) has been IPv6 capable for some time, and all our operations are accessible through IPv6. Some thoughts from ISNIC's System Admin can be found here.
]]>
With the adoption of this new service ISNIC will gradually reduce printed material, and eventually only send out printed bills to those customers who have "opted-in" (still to come on "My Page") to receive printed bills and have accepted to be charged for postage.
]]>To support .is domains, ISNIC provides a network of high quality name servers distributed around the world. ISNIC's service has a reputation of fairness and 100% Domain-Name-Server (DNS)uptime for 25 years.
The domain hi.is (University of Iceland) is one of the oldest domains in the world, registered on December 11th 1986 by SURIS, the forerunner of ISNIC, even though the ccTLD .is itself was registered almost a year later on November 18. 1987 at IANA.
]]>The NIC-handle is your "username" or "login" for the ISNIC web portal. Please remember, it's the registrants responsibility to review and maintain the information about the domain, and the Administrative Contact is the person who usually carries out this task. All operations are on this website and are carried out by one of the contacts, who each have slightly different privileges. Technical and billing contacts cannot transfer or delete your domain. Only the Administrative Contact can change all information.
Most people forget their password. Use "Lost Password" to create a new password for your NIC handle if you have forgotten yours. The "Lost Password" link is sent to the e-mail address registered for the contact. Note that an incorrectly configured spam filter may put this message in your spam folder, so please check that.
]]>
Your ISNIC, the .is Registry.
]]>RIX (Reykjavik Internet Exchange) is an peering exchange point operated by ISNIC, the .is Registry in Reykjavik. There are two connection points, one in Dunhagi 5 (on the University of Iceland grounds) and one in Höfðatún 2. Anyone with their own AS number and IP network can connect.
ISNIC has deployed 10GB switches in both location and they'll be interconnected in the very near future. By connecting the local Internet Service Providers, ISNIC takes an active role in improving the local internet community by increasing the possible speed between providers with 10GB options.
The RIX is a not-profit part of ISNIC's operation and the increase to 10GB prompts the first increase in the connection rates for years!
]]>The .is registration rules (.is domain policy) have been reorganized and rewritten. No substantial changes have been made but the rule wording has been changed and modernized. The ISNIC's Rules now include a new section on Domain Dispute Lock, which is a new service. The new domain rules are in effect from November 1st 2011.
]]>
Companies like ISNIC are called Registries. They are only about 200 in the world, and they manage the worldwide Domain Name System (DNS) together.
The central operation of ISNIC is to run the DNS for the Top Level Domain .is, but all domains need a DNS-service to be found on the Internet. The domain and the DNS is a simple but clever and very effective way to find an IP-address which then connects users to an email or a web server on the Internet. Even though you might change your ip-address (i.e. your hosting) the domain will stay unchanged.
Many videos can be found on YouTube that explain the DNS-system. One of the good ones is DNS Basics, prepared by Johnson T. Rafallo, a young network and computer technician student.
]]>]]>
Since ISNIC allows direct registrations, you may choose either to register your .is-domain directly here on our website, or through one of ISNIC's Providers or Agents.
ISNIC is responsible for the safe and fair operation of the .is domain, and maintains a high technical reliability of all .is-domains. On this website ISNIC provides a web based registration system for administering .is-domains. To support .is domains, ISNIC provides a network of high quality name servers distributed around the world. ISNIC's service has a reputation of fairness and 100% Domain-Name-Server (DNS)uptime for almost 25 years. The domain hi.is (University of Iceland) is one of the oldest domains in the world, registered December 11th 1986.
On our website you will find information relevant to the registration and administration of .is-domains. We also explain fundamental procedures, like choosing provider (ISP), transferring domain to a new registrant (holder) and automatic domain renewal.
]]>Some use the ISNIC forwarding service to redirect a .is domain to their Facebook page such as stina.is.
If a domain with Icelandic characters is registered to the same ID number as the main domain a 90% discount is applied to the yearly IDN domain fee. There is no additional charge for the forwarding service which is included in the yearly domain fee.
]]>Note that 21st April is a bank holiday in Iceland (first day of summer) and ISNIC is closed as well.
]]>It's still used by many applications and still used to publish (upload) to the web documents and files which are usually made available to web browser which use HTTP to read and present our web-pages.
Prior to graphical web browsers, the most common tools to 'browse' were telnet, gopher, irc and ftp. Ftp was synonymous with 'download' and 'upload'.
]]>The number of new domains in february were 672 compared to 558 in february 2010, giving an increase of about 20%. The number of deleted domains were 225 compared to 200 in february 2010. The net increase in domains in february this year is about 447 domains compared to 358 in february 2010. This is a nice surprise for ISNIC and the Internet community in Iceland.
A registration of a domain is often the first step of realizing a new idea, a plan or a promise of something that is going to be. An increase in domain registrations might therefore be viewed as a strong sign of more optimism in Iceland. We wish the new 672 .is-domains registered in february all the best.
]]>Registrants (who've read our Rules and FAQ) know however that domains may be closed for two main reasons. Once closed, the system will delete a domain automatically pending a 60 day grace period. During this process the domain's contacts receive multiple notices and warnings. The reasons for closing a domain are: non-payment of the domain's fees, or if the domain's registration or technical setup is not according to ISNIC's specifications, rules and regulations. So, in short, the only way wikileaks.is would be closed (and eventually deleted) by ISNIC is if its registrant would not renew the domain or if it's technical DNS setup and/or whois registration would no longer be according to ISNIC's registration rules.
]]>ISNIC encourages the registrants of .is domains to study the proposed bill, and accompanying comments. Proposed new law about .is (in icelandic)
ISNIC has several reservations, but it is our wish that the new law will result in better protection for the registrants and preservation of the quality of the .is neighborhood. ISNIC has proposed amendments to better protect the independence of the domain, as an address on the internet, but not regulate and restrict so as to limit future development.
ISNIC is also of the opinion that questions regarding content stored on websites are unrelated to the domain itself. Domains are first and foremost addresses on the Internet. Domains as such do not have any content.
]]>The report paints a dark picture of the state of some top level domains (TLD's) and more than 100% increase in the number of risky domains in the world. As before the situation is most serious in Asia and the city of Shaoxing in China is known as the virus capital of the world. The Chinese authorities have cracked down on this issue and over a period of several months have removed 5,7 million .cn domains, or about 78% of the entire .cn-zone!
In Europe the worst hit is Romania (.ro) with about 21% chance of landing on an infected domain in the .ro-zone. It is thus best to proceed with caution when opening email or websites from these domains unless you are sure of its contents.
Source: CENTR, McAfee, Wikipedia.
]]>Another video explains in simple terms how the Internet naming system (DNS) works.
ISNIC's services for the .IS domain are equivalent to the services explained for the .EU domain in the video.
]]>At the end of October 2009, the total number of .IS domains has increased by 34% last 12 moths, and by 68% over end of October 2007. The staff of ISNIC has done many important changes last three years to improve the service, which has now payed off.
]]>This connection was implemeted as IP over X.25 over a satellite link. At the time there were no cables to Iceland and the only way to implement datacircuts was using the X.25 network offered by the goverment/incumbent phone companies running the show.
X.25 was/is notoriously ill suited to transport IP packets and the circut bandwith was only 300-1200 bits/sec. This connection did however benefit the already growing network in Iceland, adding interactive (telnet) and file transfer (FTP) possibilites to the already existing indirect Internet connections (email and Usenet).
This circut was used for just about one year, replaced by a 9600 bit/sec leased line to Stockholm and Internet development in Iceland started.
See also ISNIC - Internet á Íslandi hf. and NORDUnet history.
]]>The IS has been served by the ISC SNS@ISC system for some time now and together these two systems mean that the response time for delegation record lookup for .IS domains will be much improved globally. ISNIC will also have better defenses against various types of resource depletion on the .is nameserver set.
See also RFC3258 - Distributing Authoritative Name Servers via Shared Unicast Addresses and RFC1546 - Host Anycasting Service
]]>The ISNIC office is closed on Thursday 23rd April for "the first day of summer" which in Iceland is a public holiday. Thank you for the passing winter and have a happy summer!
The ISNIC staff
]]>The ISNIC staff.
]]>For more information on the development of the "Internet", as we know it, try search for the following: ARPANET, USENET, BITNET and for closer view; EUnet and NORDUnet (e.g. history of Nordic networking. Search for CERN, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Caillau for information on the later develeopments, for example the World Wide Web (www.).
ISNIC's role is the management of the Top Level Domain .IS in the DNS system. The DNS system as we know it today is based on RFC1033, published in November 1987.
]]>The ISNIC Team
]]>The registration/renewal fee is now EUR 39, for all domains. Invoices will from now on be issued in euros to reduce the exchange-rate risks involving Icelandic currency. No VAT is levied on registrations with foreign billing contacts.
See the ISNIC tariff for more information.
]]>ISNIC
]]>ISNIC maintains the security of it's domain registration by insisting on correct and up-to-date information on all registrants and all domain contacts, and by making the registration of .IS domains dependent on well defined technical requirements. Please reed about ISNIC's Technical Requirements.
]]>Please note that ISNIC reserves the right to revoke registrations with wrong or incomplete contact information.
The ISNIC Team
]]>The purpose of agents is still valid, however the reason for agents, overseas, is reduced and we point to the ISP application here on our website - which will be more beneficial for resellers. Local agents will still be available to foreign companies who require formal presence, and for issues regarding protection of trademarks, logos etc.
In order to maintain a accurate and trustworthy database, some additional amendments are made regarding the cancellation of domains. They will be available shortly and will be introduced on the ISNIC website.
]]>The Board of ISNIC has agreed to modify the requirement for foreign registrations (Rule 2.3.1). Foreign registrants will here after be able to designate a registered agent as before, however the agent list will also include foreign agents who have a service agreement with ISNIC.
We expect the list to grow and allow any foreign registrant to register .is domains through their own local registrars. Those who have further questions or wish to become involved are welcome to contact us by email isnic@isnic.is or by phone.
ISNIC still expects all new domains to be correctly registered and for any domain, there will be a person or a company which can be contacted at any time, this will continue our effort to maintain a highly trustworthy and secure domain - which .IS certainly is.
This change is also in line with other Nordic and European countries and the global trend, which is to allow more and more people or companies to identify with the TLD they desire.
This has been formally announced as of September 30th 2008. Rules and regulations are enacted at first 30 days after they have been formally announced.
]]>
1. Select Contacts -> Register, from the menu, if you are a new user.
If are already a registered user you can enter your domain name in the Whois search field, top right hand corner.
The result displays the NIC handles related to the domain. Use your NIC handle to login to the ISNIC web or submit a request
for lost password.
2. If you have an ISNIC email for a new password, follow the URL and the instructions. You are now logged in and can
register domains. If you want to register a .is domain you must enter correct contact information on the domain's registrant.
This is a prime issue and makes .is domains highly trustworthy and secure. If you wish to be anonymous, you should
not register .is domains.
3. Select Domains -> Register from the menu. Insert the domain name, including the .is ending. Type this correctly, since the domain will be registered according to what you type here. Click Submit and continue.
4. Select your hosting provider or insert your own nameservers. Choose Parking if you do not have a provider
yet.
5. Enter the information about the registrant, all Icelandic registrants should have a ID number. Foreigners should enter their address information and must specify an icelandic administrative contact. See Domain->Agents for a list of possible agents.
6. Payment information can be entered directly after this. Alternatively continue with any of the deferred payment options, your domain is queued for registration. Note that payment is only deferred for two days, after that the domain becomes available again.
Your domain should be visible undir 'My Page' with the registration status and payment status. You can also finalize payment there.
After the payment has been verified the domain will be registered within 60 minutes. Creditcard payments are verified automatically.
ISNIC (Internet in Island AG) is the Registry for the Top Level Domain .IS.
]]>Existing domains can similarly be registered for automatic renewal. The domain's admin or billing contact logs on the ISNIC web, selects Change Automatic Renewals, and clicks Register for automatic renewal for the each domain where automatic renewal is desired, either selecting to use their already registered creditcard, or registering one for the renewal. The domain will then be renewed 60 days prior to its expiry date, automatically every year while the card is valid.
]]>The most heavily trafficked TLD in the world - .com - is, according to McAfee report, much riskier than the avaverage ccTLD by 28,3 percent! This is something to consider strongly when choosing the TLD for your business.
]]>Technical requirements can be found on our website.
Nameserver requirements
Domain delegation requirements
All registered domains under .IS are required to comply with these requirements and are periodically checked for compliance.
]]>Foreigners can now, just as Icelanders, register any .IS domain they please. Foreign nationals, however, are still required to identify a domestic contact person. This is a practical arrangement established to facilitate ISNICs ability to contact the domains supervisors. Rule no. 2.3.1. has been changed in accordance with the above mentioned, and rule no. 2.3.2. which stipulated dispensations from rule 2.3.1. has been nullified. After these changes all are equal in relation to the rules of ISNIC.
]]>For more infromation see the K-root website http://k.root-servers.org/
]]>Note that these names have very limitied utility as most client programs currently lack the ability to translate localized domain names to their ACE encoding (see RFC3090, RFC3091 and RFC3092).
Please contact hostmaster@isnic.is for further information on this.
]]>