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Vanliga frågor om IDN

Frequently asked questions about IDN

These are the frequently asked questions received by .SE about internationalized domain names (IDN).

• What is IDN?
• What is new? .SE has provided IDN for some time now.
• What is the difference between IDN domain names and “normal” domain names?
• Why should I register an IDN domain?
• Why is .SE striving to expand its character set?
• What languages and characters are covered by .SE’s expanded character set?
• Which web browsers work with IDN?
• Can I use IDN characters in my e-mail address?
• What other technical limitations are there to IDN?
• How do I register a domain name with IDN?
• What does your conversion tool for IDN do?
• How many characters are included in the expanded character repertoire?
• When are you going to go the whole way and support all character sets? Why do you limit it to only a few characters?

What is IDN?

IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Names and refers to domain names with characters that lie outside of the domain name system’s character set, which only covers the characters a-z, 0-9 and dash. For .se domains this means the characters å, ä, ö, é and ü, as well as the characters of the official Swedish minority languages, Finnish, Meänkieli (Tornedalsfinska), Sami, Romany and Yiddish, and those of the other Nordic languages.

What is new? .SE has provided IDN for some time now.

As early as 2003, it became possible to register .se domains with the characters å, ä, ö, é and ü. In September 2007, there are 70,000 domain names that contain these characters, so-called IDN domains (Internationalized Domain Names).

In July 2007, it also became possible to apply to register .se domains in the official Swedish minority languages, Finnish, Meänkieli (Tornedalsfinska), Sami, Romany and Yiddish. At the same time, the characters that occur in the other Nordic languages were made available in .se domains. This means that more than 240 different characters can now be used in .se domains.

What is the difference between IDN domain names and “normal” domain names?

The only difference to the user is actually what characters are used and how well they can be handled by web browsers, keyboards and other applications.

Technically speaking, the domain name system can only handle the characters a-z, 0-9 and dash. A system for conversion is therefore used to represent internationalized domain names in the domain name system DNS. This is done with ACE (ASCII Compatible Encoding), which uses a special prefix, xn--, in front of converted IDN domain names.

Why should I register an IDN domain?

Even on the Internet, many people want to be able to express their identity or their brand in their own language. This is made possible with the Swedish minority languages (Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Romany and Yiddish) under .se.

A website with content in a minority language can feel more uniform if the domain name is also written in the same language.

Why is .SE striving to expand its character set?

Since .SE should be the obvious choice on the Internet for all of those with a connection to Sweden, we feel that it is important to be able to express one’s identity with us in the official minority languages as well. We do not foresee any mass registration of domain names, but still feel that we are taking an important step in increasing diversity on the Internet.

What languages and characters are covered by .SE’s expanded character set?

The characters in the official Swedish minority languages (Finnish, Sami, Meänkieli, Romany and Yiddish) and in the other Nordic languages are supported.

With the introduction of characters for the official minority languages and the Nordic languages, roughly another 200 characters are being added to the current 42. This primarily concerns 150 Latin characters. These provide support for all languages that use the Latin alphabet, including the Nordic languages and the Swedish minority languages, with an exception for Yiddish, which requires about another 30 characters. Here, you can find a complete character table over all of the characters supported by .SE.

Which web browsers work with IDN?

To be able to handle IDN domain names (e.g. åäöéü), the applications must be adapted. The latest versions of the most common web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Netscape have IDN support as standard. Here you can find more information about software and aids for IDN.

Can I use IDN characters in my e-mail address?

Yes and no. There are currently only a few programs for electronic mail that support IDN domain names. Most e-mail programs, for example, cannot handle the internationalized characters. It is not yet possible to write these characters directly into the to: or from: fields in e-mail messages. It is, however, possible to use the ACE coded representation of an IDN name (e.g. xn—smrgs-pra0j.se for smörgås.se) in common e-mail applications. However, this does not mean that the programs support IDN in the part of the address that is to the left of the ampersand (@) in the e-mail address. This functionality does not yet exist.

What other technical limitations are there to IDN?

All software in which domain names are used, not only web browsers and e-mail programs, must be upgraded to be able to read and convert the coding to understandable words. .SE’s recommends that those who want to register an IDN domain should also have a classic domain name as a complement, because the IDN standard is so new and there are still many Internet users who do not have the software necessary to access these domains, even if they can enter the name on their keyboard.

How do I register a domain name with IDN?

You should contact any of .SE’s registrars, who can help you (registrar list). Unfortunately not all registrars offer support for IDN. Those that do are marked with an x in the yes box on the page you come to if you click on the registrar.

What does .SE’s conversion tool mean to IDN?

In the domain name system, a system for conversion is used to represent internationalized domain names in the domain name system DNS (which can as previously only handle a-z, 0-9 and dash). With our domanhanteraren.iis.se/start/idn/, txt:conversion tool you can convert a domain name to and from this code.

How many characters are included in the expanded character repertoire for .SE?

The expanded repertoire contains more than 240 characters. Primarily, this concerns approximately 150 Latin characters. These provide support for all languages that use the Latin alphabet, including the Nordic languages and the Swedish minority languages, with the exception of Yiddish, which requires about another 30 characters. Here you can find more information about which characters are supported: IDN character table.

When are you going to go the whole way and support all character sets? Why do you limit it to only a few characters?

Each top-level domain chooses the characters it finds reason to support from the broader range available in Unicode.

.SE launched what we call Phase 2 of IDN during the second quarter of 2007. This means that we will allow registration of domain names that contain characters that occur in all official minority languages according to Swedish law, i.e. Finnish, Meänkieli, Sami, Yiddish and Romany as well as the neighboring Nordic countries’ equivalents of å, ä and ö.

Phase 3 will essentially mean that we will also be able to handle the many other languages that are used by large groups of the population. However, this phase has not been finalized and the timetable is consequently not clarified.

There are a number of good reasons to proceed with care, the most important being that when we have ultimately made the possibility of registering new characters available, it will in principle be impossible to reverse the decision. A mistake can consequently prove to be disastrous and an experience that costs us dearly.

Nor does .SE want to see a local Swedish solution, and has instead actively participated in the standardization efforts with the aim of being able to agree on an international standard for the handling of national characters in domain names.

Using different solutions in different parts of the world could, in the worst case, result in the disintegration of DNS. This would in turn make addressing on the Internet ineffective as problems would arise between e.g.:

• Different applications that run on the same computer
• Different operating systems
• Different types of equipment (computer, mobile phone and other Internet-connected types of equipment) For multinational companies and organizations, the problems would be obvious.

Contacts for IDN If you have any additional questions regarding IDN domains, please contact: Anne-Marie Eklund Löwinder, phone: +46-8-452 35 00, anne-marie.eklund-lowinder@iis.se