.gb

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**.gb**

Introduced	1985
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	retired
Registry	UKERNA
Sponsoring organization	UKERNA
Intended use	Entities connected with United Kingdom
Actual use	Fallen into disuse in favour of .uk
Registration restrictions	No registrations presently being taken
Structure	Government sites formerly found under hmg.gb
Documents
Dispute policies	None
Web site	None

.gb is a defunct Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. Introduced at the same time as the UK's other top-level domain (.uk), it was never widely used, and has since fallen into disuse.

The normal rule in the Domain Name System is that a top-level domain for a country is derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. According to that list the code for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is GB, and the .gb top-level domain was therefore delegated. However, GB is a common abbreviation for Great Britain, which is not the same as the United Kingdom (Great Britain does not include Northern Ireland). Also, the pre-existing JANET Name Registration Scheme had used "UK" as a country code, so the UK applied to Jon Postel of IANA for the .uk TLD. This was granted, and all UK domain names are now issued as .uk, rather than .gb.

.gb was actually used for a number of years, mainly by UK government organisations using X.400-based e-mail infrastructure (thus simplifying the mapping of DNS domains to X.400 addresses)[1]. One .gb subdomain still exists in the DNS (as of 2006): dra.hmg.gb, belonging to Her Majesty's Government's former Defence Research Agency.

[edit] External links

IANA .gb whois information
UKERNA website
www.dra.hmg.gb Last accessible copy of www.dra.hmg.gb in the Internet Archive

Country code top-level domains
Active: .ac .ad .ae .af .ag .ai .al .am .an .ao .aq .ar .as .at .au .aw .ax .az .ba .bb .bd .be .bf .bg .bh .bi .bj .bm .bn .bo .br .bs .bt .bv .bw .by .bz .ca .cc .cd .cf .cg .ch .ci .ck .cl .cm .cn .co .cr .cu .cv .cx .cy .cz .de .dj .dk .dm .do .dz .ec .ee .eg .er .es .et .eu .fi .fj .fk .fm .fo .fr .ga .gd .ge .gf .gg .gh .gi .gl .gm .gn .gp .gq .gr .gs .gt .gu .gw .gy .hk .hm .hn .hr .ht .hu .id .ie .il .im .in .io .iq .ir .is .it .je .jm .jo .jp .ke .kg .kh .ki .km .kn .kr .kw .ky .kz .la .lb .lc .li .lk .lr .ls .lt .lu .lv .ly .ma .mc .md .mg .mh .mk .ml .mm .mn .mo .mp .mq .mr .ms .mt .mu .mv .mw .mx .my .mz .na .nc .ne .nf .ng .ni .nl .no .np .nr .nu .nz .om .pa .pe .pf .pg .ph .pk .pl .pm .pn .pr .ps .pt .pw .py .qa .re .ro .ru .rw .sa .sb .sc .sd .se .sg .sh .si .sk .sl .sm .sn .sr .st .sv .sy .sz .tc .td .tf .tg .th .tj .tk .tl .tm .tn .to .tr .tt .tv .tw .tz .ua .ug .uk .us .uy .uz .va .vc .ve .vg .vi .vn .vu .wf .ws .ye .yt .yu .za .zm .zw
Reserved/unassigned: .eh .kp .me .rs Allocated/unused: .bv .gb .sj .so .um Phaseout: .su .tp Deleted/retired: .cs .dd .zr
See also: Generic top-level domains