.ie
Encyclopedia
.ie is the Internet
country code
top-level domain
(ccTLD) for the Republic of Ireland
. Registration is open to registrants located in, or with a significant connection to any part of the island, including Northern Ireland
.
The .ie domain was managed by University College Dublin
since its delegation from Jon Postel
in 1989, until the creation of IE Domain Registry
(IEDR) in 2000; the university is still the IANA
Sponsoring Organization. The IEDR is considered more conservative than other similar authorities and places certain restrictions on registration. The .ie ccTLD is primarily a business orientated ccTLD for Irish businesses and businesses doing business in or with Ireland. It has allowed personal domain name (PDN) registrations though these would only account for approximately 1% of the number of .ie domain registrations.
Registration policies have been liberalised somewhat in recent years and rules such as the one against registering generic domain names have been dropped. Applicants for .ie domain names still have to provide proof of entitlement to the domain that they want to register.
The .ie ccTLD is operated on a managed registry basis by IEDR. As a result, some town and village websites have opted for a .com
domain instead. These websites are often voluntarily run by residents. Most of the town, city and county councils have registered their .ie domain. The .ie ccTLD has strong restrictions on the registration of geographic names and will generally permit only the town, city or county council to register such names.
The retail cost of a .ie domain can be anywhere from €5 to €100. At the upper end of this price range, it is more expensive than a domain in a TLD such as .com or .net. This traditionally high price has ensured that .ie has grown more slowly than the number of Irish registered .com/.net/.org/.biz/.info domains. However IEDR has been reducing the wholesale (trade) price of .ie over the last few years and the number of registered .ie domains has been growing accordingly. It is has exceeded parity with the number of .com domains registered hosted on Irish hosters.
The normal way of registering a .ie domain is via a .ie Registrar though it is possible to register a domain directly through IEDR. A direct registration is typically more expensive.
There is no official second level domain policy yet. However some obvious second level domains such as edu.ie and gov.ie exist. There has been discussion in the Irish internet community over the years about introducing second level domains though little has been done.
The Irish Government
uses subdomains of the gov.ie domain for many of its websites but each government department now has its own .ie domain. The main Irish Government portal website is at irlgov.ie.
A number of domain names, typically those of other TLD
s, two letter domains and potentially offensive domains (such as porn.ie) are forbidden from being registered. However two character domains consisting of one letter and one number are permitted. The only exception to the two letter rule is the ul.ie domain which was registered by the University of Limerick
before the rule came into effect. The domains in the forbidden category will return a record for a WHOIS
query but they are not in the .ie zone.
In April 2008 the number of registered .ie domains exceeded 100,000. A minor part of that growth was due to the introduction of Personal Domain Names in October 2007. A Personal Domain Name allowed an individual to register their own name or a variant of it with a utilities bill or passport as proof of entitlement. The .ie extension is growing in popularity in Ireland. While it has not yet surpassed the number of Irish owned .com domain names it is the preferred extension for new Irish businesses. Approximately 130 new .ie domains are registered each working day.
As of 16 July 2011, there are 165,940 registered .ie domain names.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(ccTLD) for the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. Registration is open to registrants located in, or with a significant connection to any part of the island, including Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
The .ie domain was managed by University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
since its delegation from Jon Postel
Jon Postel
Jonathan Bruce Postel was an American computer scientist who made many significant contributions to the development of the Internet, particularly with respect to standards...
in 1989, until the creation of IE Domain Registry
IE Domain Registry
The IE Domain Registry is the domain name registry for the .ie country code top-level domain. Formally, the IE Domain Registry Limited is a private company, limited by guarantee, incorporated in Ireland having its registered office and principal place of business in Sandycove, County Dublin...
(IEDR) in 2000; the university is still the IANA
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
Sponsoring Organization. The IEDR is considered more conservative than other similar authorities and places certain restrictions on registration. The .ie ccTLD is primarily a business orientated ccTLD for Irish businesses and businesses doing business in or with Ireland. It has allowed personal domain name (PDN) registrations though these would only account for approximately 1% of the number of .ie domain registrations.
Registration policies have been liberalised somewhat in recent years and rules such as the one against registering generic domain names have been dropped. Applicants for .ie domain names still have to provide proof of entitlement to the domain that they want to register.
The .ie ccTLD is operated on a managed registry basis by IEDR. As a result, some town and village websites have opted for a .com
.com
The domain name com is a generic top-level domain in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Its name is derived from commercial, indicating its original intended purpose for domains registered by commercial organizations...
domain instead. These websites are often voluntarily run by residents. Most of the town, city and county councils have registered their .ie domain. The .ie ccTLD has strong restrictions on the registration of geographic names and will generally permit only the town, city or county council to register such names.
The retail cost of a .ie domain can be anywhere from €5 to €100. At the upper end of this price range, it is more expensive than a domain in a TLD such as .com or .net. This traditionally high price has ensured that .ie has grown more slowly than the number of Irish registered .com/.net/.org/.biz/.info domains. However IEDR has been reducing the wholesale (trade) price of .ie over the last few years and the number of registered .ie domains has been growing accordingly. It is has exceeded parity with the number of .com domains registered hosted on Irish hosters.
The normal way of registering a .ie domain is via a .ie Registrar though it is possible to register a domain directly through IEDR. A direct registration is typically more expensive.
There is no official second level domain policy yet. However some obvious second level domains such as edu.ie and gov.ie exist. There has been discussion in the Irish internet community over the years about introducing second level domains though little has been done.
The Irish Government
Irish Government
The Government of Ireland is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland.-Members of the Government:Membership of the Government is regulated fundamentally by the Constitution of Ireland. The Government is headed by a prime minister called the Taoiseach...
uses subdomains of the gov.ie domain for many of its websites but each government department now has its own .ie domain. The main Irish Government portal website is at irlgov.ie.
A number of domain names, typically those of other TLD
TLD
TLD is a three-letter initialism that may stand for:* Top-level domain, the last part of an Internet domain name* Tag Library Descriptor, an XML document that maps JSP tags to their handlers or associated files...
s, two letter domains and potentially offensive domains (such as porn.ie) are forbidden from being registered. However two character domains consisting of one letter and one number are permitted. The only exception to the two letter rule is the ul.ie domain which was registered by the University of Limerick
University of Limerick
The University of Limerick is a university in Ireland near the city of Limerick on the island's west coast. It was established in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick and became a university by statute in 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989...
before the rule came into effect. The domains in the forbidden category will return a record for a WHOIS
WHOIS
WHOIS is a query and response protocol that is widely used for querying databases that store the registered users or assignees of an Internet resource, such as a domain name, an IP address block, or an autonomous system, but is also used for a wider range of other information. The protocol stores...
query but they are not in the .ie zone.
In April 2008 the number of registered .ie domains exceeded 100,000. A minor part of that growth was due to the introduction of Personal Domain Names in October 2007. A Personal Domain Name allowed an individual to register their own name or a variant of it with a utilities bill or passport as proof of entitlement. The .ie extension is growing in popularity in Ireland. While it has not yet surpassed the number of Irish owned .com domain names it is the preferred extension for new Irish businesses. Approximately 130 new .ie domains are registered each working day.
As of 16 July 2011, there are 165,940 registered .ie domain names.