Frequently Asked Questions

Domain registration

• Can a foreigner register a .is domain?
• How do I register a .is domain?
• How do I check if the domain I want is available?
• What is the role of the domain's administrative contact?
• Why are there multiple domain contacts?
• What about cost?
• What is Automatic Renewal
• What happens to domains that are unpaid on their expiration date?
• How do I modify my own or my domains registration?
• How do I change my domains zone contact?
• How do I change my domains delegation records in the IS zone?
• How do I register my nameservers with ISNIC?
• How does ISNIC validate the nameservers?
• Why does ISNIC require mininimum TTL values?
• Why does ISNIC require TCP connectivity to nameservers?
• What happens to domains that fail to comply with the ISNIC technical requirements?
• How do I activate a contact object's NIC-handle?
• How do I transfer a domain from one registrant to another?
• What does a "corresponding non-IDN domain" mean to a IDN domain?
• Can I become a .IS registrar?
• What is an agent?
• What is an ISP?
• What is a parked domain ?
• What is Web Forwarding ?

• Can a foreigner register a .is domain?

Yes, you can register a .IS domain!

For further information see Domain Registration in ISNIC's rules.

• How do I register a .is domain?

If you have your own nameservers, you must have configured the domain and the nameservers must be registered with ISNIC. If you do not have any nameservers yet, you can park your domain with ISNIC. See "Domain->Requirements" and "Nameserver->Requirements" . You must also have available the NIC-handles of the domain's contacts, and you yourself must be logged in via "Contacts->Login" . If contact handles are unavailable, you must first register the contacts (and/or yourself) via "Contacts->Register" on the left.

Once logged in, proceed to the registration page ("Domains->Register") and follow the instructions. Your application will be queued, pending payment of registration fees. Note that you have two days to remit the fee, after which the application expires and must be resubmitted if payment is made. Payment can be made on-line using the login information of the Administrative contact or Billing contact of the domain.

• How do I check if the domain I want is available?

All .is domain's are registered in the ISNIC domain registry and their registration information is available via the ISNIC web. However, the registration WHOIS lookup is rate-limited and does not include pending domains. Use a suitable whois client on port 4343 to determine if a particular domain is available for registration. (Or use http://whois.isnic.is:4343/domain.is). These lookups are not rate-limited.

• Why are there multiple domain contacts?

Domains can have up to four different contacts (NIC-Handles). Each contact serves a different role and holds different change-authority over the domain. The contacts use their NIC-Handles to log into the ISNIC web to modify their own, and their domain's registration.

Note that each contact can change their own registration information but only the domain's administrative contact can substitute the domain's existing contacts for new ones.

1. The Administrative Contact (AC) has full change-control over the domain and exercises this control on behalf of the registrant. The AC can change all aspects of the domain's registration, including transferring the domain to a new registrant. The AC is most often simply the registrant himself.
2. The Technical Contact (TC) handles the technical aspects of domain management, it's DNS hosting, web hosting etc. The TC is most often with the domain's network provider. Only the AC can substitute the TC for a new one. The TC can withdraw their services and the AC will then automatically become the technical contact.
3. The Billing Contact (BC) is the recipient of the domain's billing information. The domain's invoices are addressed to the BC. Most often the BC is the registrant himself. The domain's AC must make sure that the appropriate party is registered as the domain's BC at all times. Only the AC can substitute the BC for a new one. The BC can withdraw his services and the AC will then automatically become the billing contact. Bills are never re-issued to the new BC. Upon request, a receipt will be issued to the new BC after the domain's fees have been paid.
4. The Zone contact (ZC) is the technical contact for the domain's nameservers. The ZC owns the domain's master nameserver and is responsible for the domain's compliance with the .is technical delegation requirements. The ZC must be willing and able to configure the nameservers according to these requirements. The ZC is automatically updated when the domain is redelegated to a new set of nameservers.

The same party can perform all these functions, i.e. the same NIC handle can be registered as the domain's AC,TC,BC, and even ZC. However, if they are not the same, the set of available operations depends on who is logged in to the ISNIC portal according to the following table:

                             Contact
Operation               AC   TC     BC     ZC

Modify Registration    Yes  Yes    Yes     No
Registrant Transfer    Yes   No     No     No
Substitute Contacts    Yes   No(+)  No(+)  No
Renew registration     Yes  Yes    Yes     No
Redelegate domain      Yes  Yes     No     No(*)
Delete domain          Yes   No     No     No
Autorenewal (on/off)   Yes   No    Yes     No
Resign as contact       No  Yes    Yes     No

+ (TC and BC can withdraw their services (resign) AC automatically substituted.)
* (ZC of domains hosted with a registered service provider can redelegate) 

• What about cost?

The annual renewal fee is EUR 39. The first year fee (the registration fee) must be prepaid before registration can proceed. For list of other fees see ISNIC's tariff.

Please note that the first year fee must be prepaid within two (2) days of sending in the application. The application will not be processed unless the registration fee is paid.

• What is Automatic Renewal?

The last step of the registration process allows the registrant to select to pay the fees using a creditcard. The registrant can also register the card details with ISNIC and register his/her domains for automatic renewal. In this case the renewal fee will be debeted to the card 60 days prior to its expiry date, automatically.

Existing domains can similarly be registered for automatic renewal. The domain's administrative or billing contact logs on the ISNIC web, selects Modify automatic renewal status, and clicks Register for automatic renewal for the each domain where automatic renewal is desired, either selecting to use their already registered creditcard, or registering one for the renewal. The domain will then be renewed 60 days prior to its expiry date, automatically every year while the card is valid. Note that the domain's administrative contact must then explicitly Delete the domain if the registration is no longer desired.

• What happens to domains that are unpaid on their expiration date?

If a domain remains unpaid on it's expiration date, ISNIC informs the domain's billing contact (and the domain's administrative contact) that the domain is about to be deactivated (put on hold).

Once the ISNIC staff has verified that no payment has been made, the domain is removed from the .is zone and marked "on-hold" in the whois-registry. This usually happens on the next working day after expiry.

The domain now enters a 60 day grace-period where the domain remains registered but inactive. During this period the registrant can reactivate the domain by paying the renewal fee. No further communications/warnings are issued by ISNIC during this period.

After 60 days, the domain is deleted and available for re-registration.

• How do I modify my own or my domains registration?

Modifications are web-based. You must begin by logging in to the ISNIC web using your NIC-handle and password and select "My page". You will then get a list of domains and nameservers for which you are registered and over which you have change-control. Select the domain/nameserver you wish to modify and follow the instructions.

• How do I change my domains zone contact?

• How do I change my domains delegation records in the IS zone?

Glue record modifications are web-based. Log on to the ISNIC web using your NIC-handle (you must use either the NIC-handle of the administrative contact or of the technical contact). On "My page", select the domain you wish to move (change nameservers for), click "Redelegate" on the menu, and follow the instructions.

Note that you can only move your domain to a new set of nameservers if the domain has already been set up on the new nameserver according the ISNIC's technincal requirements. Please contact your prospective DNS provider (the operator of the new nameservers) if you experience problems/errors when trying to redelegate your domain.

• How do I register my nameservers with ISNIC?

It is important that nameservers are registered with ISNIC by the nameserver operator/owner or their technical representative. The nameserver's technical contact becomes the zone contact for all .is domains delegated to the nameserver and therefore must be whoever administers the nameserver. ISNIC contacts the domain's zone contact in case of technical difficulties with the nameservers and this contact must have systemic access to the nameserver and be able to fix DNS-technical problems.

To register a nameserver you must have available the nameserver's intended technical contact handle (nic-handle). If that is not available the server administrator must begin by registering a contact object for the nameserver. Once you have obtained and activated the NIC handle assigned you can login to our site and proceed with the nameserver registration by clicking on "Register" under the "Nameservers" heading.

• How does ISNIC validate the nameservers?

The only way to test a particular UDP service is to query the service that listening on the particular port. Thus the only way to test if a DNS server is running on UDP port 53 is to make a DNS query. As there is no way of knowing wich zones are served by that host, so a query for the root zone NS records is made. A secondary query is also made, in case the root zone fails.

To verify that a nameserver is running, a reply is required. It can be any RCODE as long as some reply is sent. A timeout is not acceptable.

According to RFC1035 the RCODE should be one of those below: (RCODE names are from BCP42/RFC2929)

SERVFAIL 2  Server failure - The name server was 
            unable to process this query due to a
            problem with the name server. 
  
REFUSED  5  Refused - The name server refuses to 
            perform the specified operation for
            policy reasons.  For example, a name 
            server may not wish to provide the
            information to the particular requester,
            or a name server may not wish to perform 
            a particular operation (e.g., zone
            transfer) for particular data.

Or the reply can be NOERROR, with the root zone NS records, but not replying at all is not an option.

• Why does ISNIC require minimum TTL values?

It is important to realize that TTL is not an attribute of a domain (zone). TTL is an attribute of each record in the zone. ISNIC only requires a minimum TTL on the nameserver records within the domain (NS resource records). The value of the TTL field in the NS records affects the query-rate on the .IS nameservers, therefore there is a certain minimum enforced. Please note that this minimum TTL requirement only applies to the NS records. It is possible to debate as to what precisely the minimum value should be, but experience in recent years suggests that these values should only be lowered from rather high defaults if some changes are planned. According to RFC1912:

  "Popular documentation like [RFC 1033] recommended a day for the minimum TTL, 
   which is now considered too low except for zones with data that vary regularly. 
   Once a DNS stabilizes, values on the order of 3 or more days are recommended. 
   It is also recommended that you individually override the TTL on certain RRs 
   which are often referenced and don't often change to have very large values 
   (1-2 weeks). Good examples of this are the MX, A, and PTR records of your 
   mail host(s), the NS records of your zone, and the A records of your nameservers." 

and according to RFC1030:

  "Most host information does not change much over long time periods. A good way 
   to set up your TTLs would be to set them at a high value, and then lower the 
   value if you know a change will be coming soon. You might set most TTLs to 
   anywhere between a day (86400) and a week (604800). Then, if you know some 
   data will be changing in the near future, set the TTL for that RR down to a 
   lower value (an hour to a day) until the change takes place, and then put it 
   back up to its previous value." 

A recent study on DNS performance concludes that

  "It is not a good idea to make the TTL values low on NS records, or 
   for A records for name servers. Doing so would increase the load on the root 
   and [g]TLD servers by about factor of five and significantly harm DNS scalability."

from DNS Performance and the Effectiveness of Caching by Naeyeon Jung, Emil Sit, Hari Balakrishnana and Robert Morris ACM Transactions on Networking, Vol. 10, NO. 5 October 2002.
This applies to all TLD servers, both gTLD- and ccTLD-servers as well as to the root servers.

• Why does ISNIC require TCP connectivity to the nameservers?

According to RFC5966:

" ....any DNS server needing to send a UDP response
 that would exceed the 512-byte limit is for the server to truncate
 the response so that it fits within that limit and then set the TC
 flag in the response header.  When the client receives such a
 response, it takes the TC flag as an indication that it should retry
 over TCP instead."

And in section 4 of RFC5966 states:

"  All general-purpose DNS implementations MUST support both UDP and TCP
   transport.

   o  Authoritative server implementations MUST support TCP so that they
      do not limit the size of responses to what fits in a single UDP
      packet."

Accordingly, ISNIC requires nameservers hosting .is domains to support queries over TCP.

• What happens to domains that are not compliant with the ISNIC technical requirements?

All .is domains are checked for compliance with the ISNIC technical requrements once a month. Those that fail this compliance test (which you can execute at Domains->Check Setup any time) are then tested weekly and their technical- and zone contacts informed via email about the nature of the problem. If the technical/zone contact fails to remedy the situation and the domain fails these tests for eight consecutive weeks, the domain is deactivated (removed from the .is zone, put on hold).

The domain now enters a 60 day grace-period where the domain remains registered but inactive. No further communications/warnings are issued by ISNIC during this period.

If, during the grace-period, the registrant arranges for the domain to become compliant again (by fixing the nameserver setup, redelegating to a compliant set of nameservers or by parking the domain) it is automatically reactivated.

After 60 days, the domain is automatically reactivated as a parked domain.

• How do I activate a contact object's NIC-handle?

When a contact object (admin, technical or billing contact) is registered with ISNIC an email is sent to the registered email address requesting that the person (or role) confirm their willingness to register, and the validity of the email address. This email contains an URL that must be followed to activate the NIC-handle.
Alternatively, the NIC-handle can be activated by selecting a password. Visit here and type in your NIC-handle and then select the "Forgotten your password.." link.

• How do I transfer a domain from one registrant to another?

The domain is transferred from one registrant to another via the ISNIC web interface. One of the domains contacts logs on using his/her NIC-handle and password, selects the domain to transfer, and selects "Transfer". The contact will be prompted for the details on the new registrant. The domains current administrative contact will then be asked to confirm the transfer request, and once that is received, the request is queued for processing.

It is often simplest for the current administrative contact to change the admin-c to that of the new registrant (or his representative). The new admin contact can then effect the transfer and other changes that need to be made to the domain's registration when it is transferred from one registrant to another.

Please note that if the new registrant is a foreign party, special rules apply and manual confirmation may be required..

• What does a "corresponding non-IDN domain" mean to a IDN domain?

• Can I become a .IS registrar?

ISNIC does not have any official registrars. The registrants have direct access to the .IS registry and deal directly with the registry. Anyone can host .IS domains as long as their nameservers meet ISNICs technical requirements, and the domains zone as set up on those nameservers meets ISNICs delegation requirements.

A company that agrees to host .IS domains for their customers, needs to register their nameservers with ISNIC, see "How do I register my nameservers with ISNIC?", and make sure they are willing to meet ISNICs delegation requirements.

A company can additionally apply for status as an official ISNIC service provider (ISP) for .is domains and/or status as an agent for registrants. ISP's have additional control and access.

• What is an agent for registrants?

An agent is a person or company that has applied for and been granted an agent status with ISNIC. Usually the agent simply manages the domain's registration with ISNIC on behalf of the registrant. Please see the application forms for the terms and conditions of agent registration.

• What is an ISP?

A ISNIC service provider is a hosting provider that has registered with ISNIC as such and is willing and able to host .is domains according to ISNIC's technical delegation requirements. The ISP is listed with ISNIC, and has access to the ISP portal on the ISNIC web. Please see the application forms for the terms and conditions of such registration.

• What is a parked domain?

Domains can be parked, i.e. temporarily delegated to a special set of parking nameservers. A registrant may park a domain if e.g. the zone is not ready at the time of registration or the production nameservers have gone offline for a long period of time and the domain is in danger of being deleted. While a domain is parked it will not receive any email and no websites will be active. If you choose to park a domain you select the option "Parking" from the ISP's dropdown list. The registrant can park or unpark a domain at any time (via the ISNIC web -- see "How do I change my domains delegation records in the IS zone?" ). Domain parking is a free service.

• What is Web Forwarding ?

Web Forwarding is a service provided by ISNIC to direct your domain to a IP address or a pre-defined web URL. If you choose to use an IP address, the webserver should be configured to display your website - you should contact your webserver administrator to make sure this is possible.
You can also enter a URL or a server name. Valid URL's are for example: http://www.isnic.is and http://www.isnic.is/faq.
Web Forwarding is a free service.