The Central Domain Register accepts only domains consisting of standard ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) characters. To register a domain with specific alphabet letters, they should be converted to a special IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) format. In general, IDN domains, or Internationalized Domain Names, are domain names that allow using characters from various languages and scripts beyond the traditional ASCII characters.
IDN allows people worldwide to use domain names in their native languages, making the internet more accessible and inclusive. This means that domain names can include characters from scripts like Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, and many others, as well as Latin alphabet characters with diacritics (like accents). Since the Domain Name System (DNS) primarily uses only default ASCII characters, all Internationalized Domain Names are converted into an ASCII-compatible format called Punycode. This conversion allows computers or servers to understand and process these domain names. Generally, what a user sees in their native language in the URL link is converted to Punycode so that the computers can understand it.
How to register and host an IDN domain with Time4VPS
On our page, IDN domains can be registered using the original name with specific characters or converted into an ASCII-compatible format (Punycode).
An example of an IDN domain
mano-svetainė.lt – domain name uses specific symbols of the Lithuanian language;
xn--mano-svetain-pvb.lt – IDN format, contains only allowed ASCII characters.
In summary, IDNs are a massive step in globalizing the internet, allowing people to navigate and use it in their preferred languages.