UnicodeDN FAQ

 

1. If I want to register a Chinese domain name, do I need to register both simplified (GB) and traditional (Big5) Chinese?

If you register I-DNS.net (full multilingual domain) name, the answer is NO.

For Versign-GRS (.com/.net/.org), if any character in your domain name is different between
simplified and traditional Chinese, you need to register both. Otherwise, there is no such need.

 

2. Where can I see the current registration details for my domain name?

You can view the current registration details for your domain name by using the UnicodeDN whois service. Please note that this will only display the complete registration details for domain names where Internet Names WorldWide is the registrar.

The UnicodeDN whois service currently refreshes every 30 minutes, so after completing a registration or submitting modifications to your domain name record, you should wait 30 minutes before checking the whois records.


3. What is a whois?

The term "whois" refers to a database of registration details for domain names. It is also a tool commonly used to look up details for a domain name.

All registrars of .com, .net and .org domain names maintain a whois database which holds the registration details for all domain names under their management. Under the Shared Registry System (SRS), there is no central repository of contact details for all domain names registered. So if you want to look up the contact details for a domain name, you first need to know which registrar currently holds the records for that domain.

 

4. How do I update my domain record, change contact infomation, change nameservers, register additional domain under my existing account and even more?

You can enter into "My Account", then type in your domain name and password, and login in to manage your domain names. You will enjoy many value-added services in "My Account" control panel.

 

5. How do I pay for my domain name?

UnicodeDN offers a totally secure, online credit card payment facility. At the last stage of the registration process, you will be asked to enter your credit card number, type and expiry date.

UnicodeDN's registration system is all real-time which means that at the point you receive confirmation, your domain name has been secured and payment has been processed simultaneously.

We currently accept payment for the following types of credit cards: VISA, Mastercard, American Express (AMEX).

 

6. Is the UnicodeDN site secure?

Yes. The UnicodeDN payment gateway uses SSL (Secure Socket Layers) for encrypting data packets between your browser and our system. Our system supports up to 128 bit encryption, however if your web browser does not support this level of encryption then the connection will be at a level specified and or possible for your particular browser.

To make sure that you are connecting to our server at the highest possible level of security, be sure to use the latest available version of your web browser.

 

7. Can I register domain name with payment methods other than credit card?

Yes. However, as cheque payment registration may be delayed for up to 2 weeks due to
mailing time and cheque clearance time, we request you to submit two optional domain name
candidates (total of 3 names submited) in case the requested domain name is registered by
other party in between the cheque handling time.

In addition, an US$10 surcharge applies as the non - credit card payment involves extra manual work to be performed by UnicodeDN staff.

 

8. What is UnicodeDN's refund policy?

Please note that all fees are non-refundable. At the point you receive confirmation of registration, your domain name has already been secured and payment processed in real time.

As part of the registration process, you will be asked to confirm that the spelling of your domain name is correct, that you have chosen the correct extension and that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of the transaction and registration.

 

9. How do I renew my domain name?

Close to the expiry date of your license, UnicodeDN will send a renewal notice to the email address listed as the administrative contact, so it is important to always keep this and other contact details up to date.

 

10. Why do some Chinese characters become numbers when I search for traditional Chinese domain names?

This problem happens if you enter simplified Chinese characters when searching for traditional Chinese domain names in Internet Explorer. So make sure that you input traditional Chinese characters when searching for traditional domain names. If you want to register simplified Chinese domain names, please select "Simplified Chinese (GB)" on domain registration page.

 

* Further questions?

Please email to support@unicodedn.com if you have any further questions.


iDNS FAQ

General

Registration
Processes
Operations
Multilingual Domain Names Hosting

General

iDNS stands for Internationalized Domain Name System - a technology developed by i-DNS.net International enabling the use of multilingual domain names on the Internet.

iDNS internationalises and updates the existing Domain Name System (DNS). The DNS works by linking easy-to-understand, hierarchical names for host computers to unique numerical network addresses. However, to be recognised by the DNS, the names must be registered using the ASCII character set, which cannot be used directly to describe many languages other than English. iDNS technology converts native language encoding to ASCII characters using a conversion process. In this way, iDNS is “backward compatible” with the existing DNS.

iDNS complies with the Row-based ASCII Compatible Encoding (RACE) and fully supports UTF-5, UTF-8 and other local encodings.

What problem does iDNS solve?

The present Domain Name System (DNS), adopted globally, only allows domain names to be registered in Roman (English) characters, even for countries that do not use these characters in their written language. An understanding of English has become a hidden prerequisite for anyone who wishes to use the Internet.

With iDNS technology, you can register any Internet domain name in any language – Chinese, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Tamil, Arabic, etc. At the same time it is fully compatible with commonly used Internet browsers and is inter-operable with the existing DNS.

Language-specific sites can market the addresses of their site in the native written language, using the appropriate alphabet or ideogram. All people have to do to access the site is type in the domain name in the relevant language. It’s a simple and intuitive process.


  • Provides for a more comfortable Internet experience for non-English speakers, which make up 92% of the world’s population;
  • Asserts cultural identity by enabling users to register their name, company name, or phrase in their native written language;
  • Preserves language integrity and allows users to interact on the Internet in the language they feel most comfortable with;
  • Solves the multilingual deficiency of the current Domain Name System (DNS) by opening up new opportunities as Web access and interaction is facilitated and new name spaces generated;
  • Empowers non-English speaking people to tap into the power of the Internet and eCommerce, thus opening up new markets (especially those where English is not comfortably used);
  • Entrenches a person or company's web identity and web presence as domain names represent the electronic brands of the new economy; and
  • Creates an affinity with the non-English speaking business market by speaking their language.

Registration

The only restriction is that it must be available at the time of registration.

You may register online with any of our Registrar partners located in your home country to do so.

We perform a pure Registry function and we do not seek to regulate the actual registration of names.


No. Your multilingual domain name is a new domain name. Owning the rights to a translated, equivalent word or phrase in English does not automatically secure you the equivalent domain name in another language through iDNS.

Yes. You will need to know the specific characters to use in order to register your Chinese or multilingual domain. Please seek advice regarding the translation of your name and the identification of the most appropriate characters to use.

No. When you register a Chinese domain name in either Big5 or GB encoding, the domain name is automatically registered in both Big5 and GB encoding. Therefore, you need not register the same domain name in the other encoding.

There is still no standard for multilingual domain names at this point in time. Consumer decision on which system to adopt is best based upon consideration of:
  1. Its technology (Interoperability, robustness)
  2. Its deployment (Degree of market penetration, number of current users worldwide)
  3. Its involvement on global Internet forums (ICANN, IETF, APNG, APTLD, MINC)
You may want to read through the other sections of our website to gain a better understanding of our technical elegance, global deployment success and our standardization path.

Processes

You must be able to create and display local script characters on a computer and in the address bar of the browser. This can be achieved using a computer running any of the following:
  • A local language operating system;
  • An English operating system with special "input method editor" software which allows characters in the local script you wish to input into a web browser; or
  • Microsoft Global Input Method Editor software, available via a Windows update from the Microsoft web site.
Please contact your registrar and inform them of your decision to host your own domains. There should be no problem in transferring the domain authority to your own DNS servers.

Please take a look at the Multilingual Domain Names Hosting section of this faq with regards to any technical concerns.


Yes. You can arrange to have both your multilingual and your English domain name point to the same web site, or to different sites, if you prefer.

Operations

 

If you register a multilingual domain name with an i-DNS affiliate, you are then entitled to use the name in the i-DNS.net system - a global multilingual domain name system.

The registration of a domain name entitles the registrant to the use of the domain name in accordance with terms and conditions. Registration does not confer any legal ownership or intellectual property rights over the domain name. The existence or extent of such legal rights depends on the intellectual property rights (eg. trademark rights) you may have over the particular name.

What happens if another system is chosen? What happens to the existing database?

In the event that i-DNS is not adopted as the standard for internationalized domain names, we will:
  1. Adapt our technology to include/comply with the new standard/protocol; or
  2. Migrate our database to the proposed standard

The Multilingual Internet Names Consortium (www.minc.org) was set up expressly to look into the operational policies of Internationalized Domain Names. i-DNS.net International is one of the founding members of this body.

Besides MINC, i-DNS.net also participates actively at working groups within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Asia-Pacific Networking Group (APNG) and the Asia-Pacific Top Level Domain (APTLD) Forum.

Last but not least, it attends all major international Internet forums (ICANN, INET APRICOT) to gain a global perspective on the pulse and policies affecting Internet governance and trends.

We believe that it is this very spirit of consensus building on international forums that will help set i-DNS.net on the right track to standardization.

 

Multilingual Domain Names Hosting

Currently, multilingual domain names can be hosted on Unix and Windows NT/Windows 2000.

You may do so by modifying the DNS hint file or installing iBIND.

iBIND can be installed and will run on most versions of Unix e.g. FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris.

By modifying the DNS hint file.

You will need to run Windows NT 4.0 and Microsoft DNS. If you are using service pack 4 and above for your WinNT, you can only configure it as an authoritative name server and not as both a caching and authoritative name server.

Yes. Windows 2000 Microsoft DNS works in the same way as Windows NT.

No. You must use a ACE (UTF-5 Chinese, RACE for Japanese and Korean) representation of your native string domain name.

 

Unix/Linux Hosting Example for i-dns.net Domains
For example we have registered 南极星.网络(njstar.net in Chinese) with Unicodedn.COM, and we have pointed the name server to my name servers (ns1.njstar.net and ns2.njstar.net) through UnicodeDN 'my account' section - Name Server Setup. Once in your account, please note the ACE for 南极星.网络 is L357M781M61F.NF51NEDC

 

1. DNS setup with BIND 8.x

In file /etc/named.conf add

//南极星.网络 
zone "L357M781M61F.NF51NEDC" IN {
	type master;
	allow-query { any; };
	file "njstarml.net.zone";
};
			  

The file 'njstarml.net.zone' looks like this

; authoritative data for [njstarml.net]
$TTL 86400
@IN    SOA  ns1.njstar.net. root.ns1.njstar.net. (
            2001061818  ; serial
            7200        ; refresh
            3600        ; retry
            608400      ; expire
            86400 )     ; minimum

; Name servers

        IN    NS   ns1.njstar.net.
        IN    NS   ns2.njstar.net.
        IN     A   66.70.40.230    ; address of [njstarml.net]

; MX for [njstarml.net]
        IN    MX   10 mail.njstar.net.
        IN    MX   20 mail.njstar.com.

; Aliases

www     IN     A   66.70.40.230    ; address of [www.njstarml.net]
			  

2. Virtual Host setup with Apache

If you setup a name-based virtual host with Apache web server, you should set the server name to L57M781M61F.NF51NEDC.aced.net and/or www.L357M781M61F.NF51NEDC.aced.net

If your vitual host is IP-Based (ie this domain has unique IP), then the server name is not important.

 

3. Re-start your Name Server and Webserver

After step 1 and 2, you should now restart your Name Server and Webserver.

/etc/init.d/rc/httpd restart

/etc/init.d/rc/named restart

 

Now, if you enter the name L57M781M61F.NF51NEDC.aced.net in any browser, it should find your site. If you use NJStar Asian Explorer and enter the Chinese Domain Name, it will be automatically resolve to correct address.

 

Unix/Linux Hosting Example for Verisign ML.com Domains
For example we have registered 南极星.com(njstar.com in Chinese) with Unicodedn.COM, and we have pointed the name server to my name servers (ns1.njstar.net and ns2.njstar.net) through UnicodeDN 'my account' section - Name Server Setup. Once in your account, please note the ACE for 南极星.com is bq--3bx3g3jskuie5ouik4.mltbd.com (.mltbd will be removed when Test Phase is done)

 

1. DNS setup with BIND 8.x

In file /etc/named.conf add


//南极星.com 
zone "bq--3bx3g3jskuie5ouik4.mltbd.com" IN {
	type master;
	allow-query { any; };
	file "njstarml.net.zone";
};
			  

The file 'njstarml.net.zone' looks same as i-dns.net hosting example above.

 

2. Virtual Host setup with Apache

If you setup a name-based virtual host with Apache web server, you should set the server name to bq--3bx3g3jskuie5ouik4.mltbd.com and/or www.bq--3bx3g3jskuie5ouik4.mltbd.com

If your vitual host is IP-Based (ie this domain has unique IP), then the server name is not important.

 

3. Re-start your Name Server and Webserver

After step 1 and 2, you should now restart your Name Server and Webserver.

/etc/init.d/rc/httpd restart

/etc/init.d/rc/named restart

 

Now, if you enter the name bq--3bx3g3jskuie5ouik4.mltbd.com in any browser, it should find your site. If you use NJStar Asian Explorer and enter the Chinese Domain Name, it will be automatically resolve to correct address.

 

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