Which name servers are authoritative for the .de zone?
I am a provider. What do I have to do if I want to register domains for my customers?
If you want to be able to make use of DENIC's services directly, you will have to become a member of the DENIC cooperative. An up-to-date list of all our members is to be found on our website. DENIC would be very pleased indeed if you wanted to become a member. Such a decision would prove that you, too, were willing to take a share in the responsibility for forming and further developing the Internet in Germany. Here are the conditions that you will have to fulfil before you will be admitted as a DENIC member: You must administer domains under the Top Level Domain .de; you must not have any form of economic ties with any existing DENIC member; and you must submit evidence of your sustainable financial stability and your technical competence in domain administration. If you satisfy these conditions, you can apply for membership, which you must do in writing. DENIC's Executive Board will decide on whether to admit you or not. You will find details in the “Membership” section of our website.
Why is it that I can't find a domain in the Internet when I know it has been registered?
When a domain is registered with DENIC, it is immediately visible via our whois service, so it is then possible to access certain data about the domain, in particular, the name of its holder. At the same time, technical data is added to the DENIC database regarding the domain's connectivity. Providing connectivity data involves indicating between two and five name servers through which the domain information is available or arranging for at least one direct entry (NSentry) to be made on the DENIC name server.
Once a domain has been fully connected, it is possible to use it to process various services (www, e-mail, ftp, etc.), but it is not mandatory to do so. What this means is that although "de-beispieldomain.de" has been registered, there doesn't have to be a host called "www.de-beispieldomain.de". There are no rules that lay down which services must be provided through a domain, and certainly there is no obligation whatsoever to create a homepage. It is possible for domain holders to decide to use their domains solely for the functions of transmitting e-mail or for file transfers using ftp. The use a domain (in whatever way) at any given point in time cannot be verified either technically or administratively. There would thus be no point in making the effective use of a domain into a precondition for its registration.
Another possibility is that the elusive domain does have its associated homepage, but that its server istemporarily inaccessible.
There is also the possibility that you have made a mistake in entering the URL.
It might be that the technical data have changed since you last accessed it (which will already be documented in our whois database), but that DENIC has not yet generated a new .de zone with the latest information.
In no circumstances does the inaccessibility of a website bestow any sort of right on you to demand its deletion. You can't call for the deletion of any website producing a message such as "under construction" either.
Can I use NAST to check domains under other TLDs?
You may use to query .de and .9.4.e164.arpa domains and also any other domain under any NAST Top Level Domain. Please note, however, that for all domains under other TLDs (such as .com or .net domains) a generic test series will be performed, which does not take any TLD-specific settings into consideration. Hence, tests performed with the same name servers with identical configurations, for a .de and a .com domain for example, may lead to different results.
In case you do not know the requirements for the respective TLD, please contact the authoritative registry. You may consult the website of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority to find out this registry.
Why does DENIC not make available the zone files for .de?
The DENIC zone files contain – roughly spoken – a list of all .de-domains together with information on the name servers that belong to them. DENIC does not hand over these zone files (or parts of it) to any third parties. Such disclosure would run counter to the imperatives of data protection and would undermine the defence of domain holders against possible abuse. Germany's Federal Data Protection Act is rather far-reaching in this respect. Protected "person-related data" includes not only information that is related directly to a particular individual, but also any data that could be used to identify individuals. Since it would be easy to combine the zone file with DENIC's whois query to extract data and to link them to individuals, the data contained in the zone file is protected because it is person-related.
Generally, DENIC collects and processes data about domains and their holders solely for the purpose of domain administration, and that does not require the zone file to be published. Moreover, from the perspective of domain administration, there are no circumstances in which a third party could justifiably need such a file. On the contrary: there would be a big danger of the zone file being used for activities that might jeopardize the interests of domain holders. Spammers or hackers might use it easily as a data source, since there are all existing .de-domains listed in the zone file. Combined with the whois query, these domain data could be person-related. Once the zone file had been published or rendered publicly available, DENIC would have lost any means of monitoring or influencing its use or of establishing and preventing any breaches of others' rights. Even the copyright that DENIC holds for the zone file, prohibiting unauthorized copies and further dissemination, would not provide any real protection.
In this respect, DENIC can be reasonably compared with a bank. No bank publishes a complete list of all the account numbers it has issued; in the same way, DENIC does not make the zone files available either.
Who is responsible for the European IP address space?
Currently, administration of the IP address space worldwide is divided up over five different organizations: RIPE NCC, AfriNIC, ARIN, APNIC and LACNIC. . It is RIPE NCC in Amsterdam that is in charge of the European space.
RIPE NCC assigns big address blocks to its members, the Local Internet Registries (LIRs), and these, in turn, make addresses available to the users in their particular regions.
Can DENIC help me to find out the source of Spam mails and internet attacks?
DENIC is only responsible for the registration of domains directly under the Top Level Domain (TLD) .de. It is the domain holders who are responsible for their individual domains as well as the contents and services that are available through them or processed by them.
Thus, DENIC never is in a position to directly identify the source of spam mails or hacker attacks. DENIC is not able to block them, nor is it able to take any further steps.
Please address your enquiries or information about a potential unlawful or improper use of a .de domain to the e-mail address listed under ABUSE in the DENIC-domain query.
What is the Top Level Domain .eu?
The European Commission decided, as a means of encouraging e-business in Europe and to support the creation of a own European Internet identity, to establish the Top Level Domain .eu. The organization EURid, which was set up jointly by the national registries for .be, .se and .it, has been chosen as the .eu registry.
How are Internet addresses (IP addresses) structured?
A classical IP address is made up of four bytes (as defined in Internet Protocol Version 4 - “IPv4” for short). Generally, Internet addresses are written in such a way that each byte is represented by a decimal number and the bytes are separated from one another by dots (example: 192.168.4.13).
This system was first introduced in the 1980s. Theoretically, it has a capacity of around 4 000 000 000 IP addresses.
In practice, however, the vast majority of these addresses are not available for use on account of groupings and other mechanisms, so that, as the Internet continued its rapid expansion, it became necessary to think about extending this address scheme. These addresses, which are only 32-bits long are beginning to run out, and new ranges of functions that ought to be integrated are creating the need for additional address space.
For this reason, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed a new version of the Internet Protocol (IPv6), and in 1998 it was given the status of a draft standard [RFC2460]. According to this newer model there are no longer just four bytes available for each IP address, but 16. This increases the total number of addresses to 2^128 (aprroimately 3.4 E+38).
Why did I reach a DENIC information page when trying to access an internet address (URL)?
This particular information page has been set up for the holder of the domain concerned, who possibly was not reachable by post, to make him aware that the domain (website) is not accessible and that he/she should contact DENIC as soon as possible.
Do I get an IP address from DENIC?
No. DENIC's job is just to administer domains, not IP addresses. The latter function has been entrusted to RIPE NCC in Amsterdam for the European space.
Is DENIC also responsible for domains that have a further ending after ".de"?
No. DENIC is only responsible for the registration of domains under the Top Level Domain (TLD) .de (for Germany).
The second-level domain "example.de.vu" has nothing to do with the Top Level Domain .de, but is a domain under the county code TLD .vu (which stands for Vanuatu). DENIC has nothing at all to do with the registration of this domain.
What can I do if I discover illegal contents on a website?
DENIC's function is limited to the registration and administration of domains and it is thus not responsible for the contents of websites.
What other Top Level Domains exist besides .de?
A general distinction is made between generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), such as .com, or .info, and country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs), such as .de.
You will find information about the gTLDs on the website of the international organization ICANN.
The website of IANA gives you an overview of the more than 240 ccTLDs that exist today. Here, you also find a list of the names and addresses of the registries in charge of each ccTLD.
Many registries make information about domains and domain holders publicly available through a so-called whois search. For many of the gTLDs, you can use the whois search offered by Internic. If this is not possible, please contact the particular registry in charge of the TLD you are interested in to get further information.
DENIC is a cooperative and its full name is “DENIC eG”. It is the registry for the domains below the Top Level Domain .de, i.e. it administers all second level domains that end in .de. Additionally, DENIC is the registry for all ENUM-domains which cover the German telephone number space.
The domain administration is an operation requiring the most sophisticated technology. Its most essential components are the provision of an automatic electronic registration system and the operation of the domain database and the name-server service for the .de zone and the German ENUM zone. DENIC's database thus contains information about which domains have already been registered, who the domain holder is and, by no means least important, on which computer the services associated with the domain are to be found.