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    • .no

    Country-code top-level domainsDNSSEC

    Overview

    .no is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Norway. It is managed by Norid (UNINETT Norid AS), a Trondheim-based registry owned by the state-owned Uninett and supervised under Norwegian communications regulation. The TLD is widely used in Norway, primarily with registrations at the second level.

    History

    • Delegation/operation
      • Responsibility for .no was delegated in the 1980s; management was awarded early on to Pål Spilling and later transferred to Uninett. Norid became the dedicated registry organization and was established as a limited company within Uninett in 2003.
    • Key milestones
      • 1987 (17 March): .no delegated/operational management established.
      • 1995: 1,000th domain registered.
      • 2001: Policy liberalization and automation led to a registration boom (100,000th domain in 2001).
      • 2004: Additional Norwegian and Sami characters permitted in domain names.
      • 2007: All-numeric domain names allowed.
      • 2011: priv.no opened (individual second-level registrations); 500,000th domain reached in January 2011.
      • 2014 (17 June): Private individuals permitted to register directly under .no (in addition to priv.no).
      • 2014 (9 December): DNSSEC support enabled for .no.
    • Scale
      • Around 849,843 registered .no domains (reported 15 March 2023).

    Usage and Audience

    • Typical registrants
      • Organisations with a presence in Norway (registered in the Brønnøysund Register Centre / Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities) — public and private companies, government bodies, municipalities, schools and cultural institutions.
      • Norwegian residents (individuals) may register under priv.no and, since 2014, directly under .no.
    • Common patterns
      • Most Norwegian sites use second-level .no domains rather than third-level registrations.
      • Several category-specific and geographic second-level domains exist (e.g., oslo.no, vgs.no for upper secondary schools, museum.no).
    • Non-residents
      • Non-residents may use trustee services based in Norway, but the trustee becomes the legal owner of the domain.

    Registration Rules

    • Eligibility
      • Organisations: must be registered in the Central Coordinating Register for Legal Entities (have an organization number), have a Norwegian postal address, and be able to document activity in Norway on request.
      • Individuals: must be registered in the National Registry with a national identity number, be resident in Norway and 18 years or older to register under priv.no; since June 2014 individuals can also register directly under .no (with limits).
    • Limits
      • Organisations: up to 100 domains directly under .no per organization number; also allowed additional registrations under category/geographic second-level domains (five additional under each second-level domain noted in policy).
      • Individuals: up to five domains directly under .no; plus up to five priv.no domains and geographical domains with which they have association.
    • Name syntax and length
      • Length: 2 to 63 characters.
      • Allowed characters: letters a–z, digits 0–9, hyphen (-), the three Norwegian letters (æ, ø, å) and a set of Sami characters (á, à, ä, č, ç, đ, é, è, ê, ï, ŋ, ń, ñ, ó, ò, ô, ö, š, ŧ, ü, ž). The name must start and end with a letter or digit (i.e., cannot start or end with a hyphen).
      • All-numeric names permitted since 2007.
    • Reserved and prohibited names
      • Many names are blocked (including names that form second-level domains or geographic names) and eight specific Internet terms cannot be registered: ftp, localhost, whois, www, no, nic, internet and internett. Additional general-category names (e.g., com.no, as.no) are also blocked.
    • Second-level domains
      • Three types: geographic (counties, towns, municipalities), category-oriented (e.g., vgs.no, museum.no) and some managed by other government agencies (e.g., dep.no for government departments). Use of geographic SLDs requires a local association.
    • Registration process and parties
      • Registrations are performed through accredited registrars; Norid operates the registry and sets policy.
      • Registrars must meet technical/administrative criteria, pay fees (annual registrar fee and deposit) and meet minimum activity requirements.
      • Norid charges registrars per registration/change and an annual per-domain fee.
    • Dispute handling
      • Norid uses retrospective dispute resolution: disputes are handled by the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee or through Norwegian courts. Trademark and marketing law may provide grounds for transfer; courts have treated domains as assets that can be seized under certain conditions.

    SEO and Brand Impact

    • Trust and abuse
      • .no is considered trustworthy in Norway due to strict eligibility rules and strong local presence requirements.
      • The strict policy has resulted in a near-absence of cybersquatting and domain warehousing for .no.
    • Renewal and stability
      • Reported renewal rate of 90.6% in 2009, significantly higher than many more permissive TLDs.
    • Security
      • DNSSEC was enabled for .no in December 2014 to improve DNS integrity.

    Notable Cases or Examples

    • Legal and policy cases
      • volvoimport.no: ownership dispute reached the Supreme Court of Norway (example of domain disputes reaching highest courts).
      • .co.no controversy: dispute involving the third-level domain co.no (Elineweb A.S., CoDNS and Norid) led to court cases in 2011–2012 concerning ownership and operation of the co.no subtree.
    • Other ccTLDs reserved to Norway
      • Norway has two other allocated ccTLDs, .sj (Svalbard and Jan Mayen) and .bv (Bouvet Island); neither are open to public registration and are reserved.

    Operator

    Norid A/S

    Whois

    % IANA WHOIS server
% for more information on IANA, visit http://www.iana.org
% This query returned 1 object

domain:       NO

organisation: Norid A/S
address:      Abelsgate 5
address:      Trondheim N-7465
address:      Norway

contact:      administrative
name:         Hilde Thunem
organisation: Norid A/S
address:      Postboks 4769 Torgarden
address:      Trondheim  NO-7465
address:      Norway
phone:        +47 73 55 73 55
e-mail:       hilde.thunem@norid.no

contact:      technical
name:         Jarle Greipsland
organisation: Norid A/S
address:      Postboks 4769 Torgarden
address:      Trondheim  NO-7465
address:      Norway
phone:        +47 73 55 73 55
e-mail:       jarle@norid.no

nserver:      I.NIC.NO 194.146.106.6 2001:67c:1010:1:0:0:0:53
nserver:      NJET.NORID.NO 156.154.101.12
nserver:      NOT.NORID.NO 156.154.100.12 2001:502:ad09:0:0:0:0:12
nserver:      X.NIC.NO 128.39.8.40 2001:700:0:412f:0:0:0:40
nserver:      Y.NIC.NO 193.75.4.22 2001:8c0:8200:1:0:0:0:2
nserver:      Z.NIC.NO 158.38.8.133 2001:700:0:52d:158:38:8:133
ds-rdata:     38032 13 2 6d374d769d1e4388b1a549a6da2f7d89371db6abaa53d20eec70844db4062e51

whois:        whois.norid.no

status:       ACTIVE
remarks:      Registration information: http://www.norid.no

created:      1987-03-17
changed:      2022-01-14
source:       IANA

    Registrars