.to
| Top-level domain .to | |
|---|---|
| introduction | December 18, 1995 |
| category | country-specific |
| Registry | tonic |
| Award | unrestricted |
.to is the country-specific top-level domain (ccTLD) for the island state of Kingdom of Tonga . The domain was introduced on December 18, 1995 .
Registry
The domains below .to are administered by the Tonic registry (“Tongan Network Information Center”). Tonic was founded in 1997 by the Californian IT entrepreneurs Eric Gullichsen and Eric Lyons with the then Crown Prince of Tonga Tupouto'a Tuku'aho . The company operates out of the Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga in San Francisco, ownership is unknown.
properties
A .to domain can contain any alphanumeric characters. Hyphens are permitted, but not at the beginning or the end or the third and fourth positions at the same time. The registry supports any Unicode characters such as umlauts and other special characters. Certain terms, especially those relating to pornographic content , are blocked by the registry. A full list of unusable words is not publicly available.
The registry assigns its domains in an automated process without restricting the applicant's place of residence. A special feature is that Tonic does not offer a Whois service, so that the owners of a .to domain remain completely anonymous. Known sites with the top-level domain, for example the File Hosting Service uploaded.to or copyright problematic video-on-demand offerings Kinox.to , Movie4k.to and S.to .
distribution
According to the company's own information, around 50,000 .to domains were registered between 1997 and 2000. Despite the widespread use of the top-level domain, fees of up to US $ 50 per year are in the top third of all ccTLDs. In contrast to other ccTLDs, .to domains achieve comparatively high retail prices. The currently (as of December 2012) most expensive address ever sold was free-games.to , which changed hands in 2005 for 55,000 US dollars.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Delegation Record for .TO. IANA , accessed February 18, 2013 .
- ^ Zachary Coile: The Tonga Connection. In: San Francisco Chronicle. June 29, 1997. Retrieved August 4, 2012 .
- ^ Stan Bunger: Tonga's Tech Tychoon. In: San Francisco Chronicle. September 3, 1998, accessed August 4, 2012 .
- ↑ a b Tonic Frequently Asked Questions. Tonga Network Information Center, accessed October 6, 2014 .
- ↑ Register new domain. Tonic, accessed on June 6, 2013 (English): “You filthy-minded little pervert! The Kingdom of Tonga admonishes you. Now go back and think of another name that you wouldn't be embarrassed to say to your mother. "
- ↑ Frequently Asked Questions. Tonic Corporation, accessed August 4, 2012 .
- ↑ Düsseldorf Regional Court: Uploaded.to wins against GEMA gulli on September 7, 2010
- ↑ Precious letters: The top-level domains TV, TO and NU. In: CHIP. October 3, 2000, archived from the original on July 1, 2012 ; Retrieved August 4, 2012 .
- ↑ Domain prices at a glance. In: domain-right. Retrieved December 12, 2012 .