Introduction to Internet Domains - Codes & Countries

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 of the website you are visiting at that moment - the host - belongs? On this page you can find a list of Internet Domain Names. These names are based on 2 character country codes. There are a few exceptions though, which I will mention later on....

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 domain names for United States:

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

• 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.
  Exaples of these countries are:

  .as	American Samoa
  .at	Austria
  .be	Belgium
  .fm	Micronesia
  .in	India
  .it	Italy
  .nu	Niue
  .sr	Suriname
  .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:
  

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

  Nowadays any top level domain can be created. Someone needs to be prepared to follow the proper procedure and willing to pay the costs. In the end the Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) has to be registered and accepted by the ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Around the year 2000 there many discussions about gTLD's. For .eu the problem was, that the European Community is just a club of countries and not one country recognized by the United Nations. But as mentioned before the discussions are over and almost any Generic Top Level Domain can be registered.
• In 2001 these top level domains were 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.

On this page you can find which country belongs to which code. If you want to know which code is associated with which country you can find more information on the index of these pages.

Country Codes (Landcodes):

Former countries

Alternative names

• Return to index
• Country codes in Africa
• Country code of Anctarctica
• 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 countries with their country codes
• Peter Troon at Geocities
• Peter Troon's Index
• Peter Troon Mainpage
• Troon.ORG Page
• Peter Troon at Wanadoo

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.