IE Domain Registry t/a .IE Annual Report 2021

.ie accredited Registrar An .ie accredited Registrar is a company that has signed an agreement with IE Domain Registry, authorising it to act as agent for registrants who require a .ie web address. Accredited Registrars include HSPs, ISPs and web development companies. The list of .ie accredited Registrars can be found at www. weare.ie/accredited-registrar-list . Anycast Anycast is a methodology for addressing multiple servers with the same IP address. Data is transmitted to the closest or best receiver in line with predetermined criteria. One benefit is that a denial of service attack can be “localised” and therefore contained. ccTLD Country code top-level domains (ccTLD), are national top-level domains based on the International Organisation for Standardisation’s (ISO) country codes. National top-level domains comprise two letters, for example .ie for Ireland or .de for Germany. CENTR CENTR (Council of European National Top-Level Registries). CENTR is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting the interests of country code TLD managers. The objectives of CENTR are to promote and participate in the development of high standards and best practices among ccTLD Registries. See www.centr.org . DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is an international hierarchical distributed database used to translate alphanumeric domain names, as understood by humans, into IP address, which computers use to find other computers on the internet e.g. www.weare.ie is translated to IP address 77.72.74.172. DNSSEC DNSSEC (DNS Security Extension) is a supplementary service to domain names that makes it possible to check that the DNS information stems from the correct sender and has not been altered during its transmission. When DNSSEC is in use, the computer submitting a query (e.g. an internet browser) is able to determine whether the reply provided for an internet address in the DNS actually comes from the server that is registered with .IE as being the authoritative server. Domain name A domain name is a unique alphanumeric name, which is often linked to a website or e-mail. The domain name is translated in the DNS to an IP address before any internet communication can occur. A registered domain name is a domain name held by a specific registrant following an application process. GAC ICANN receives input and advice from governments through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). The GAC’s key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN’s activities or policies and national laws or international agreements. gTLD Generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as .com, .net and .org are top-level domains. ICANN and IANA ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). An international not-for-profit, private sector organisation created to co-ordinate four key functions of the internet: managing the domain names system, allocating IP addresses, assigning protocol parameters and managing the root server system. IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other internet protocol resources. It is one of the Internet’s oldest institutions, with the IANA functions dating back to the 1970s. Today the services are provided by Public Technical Identifiers, a purpose-built organization for providing the IANA functions to the community. PTI is an affiliate of ICANN, an internationally-organised non-profit organisation set up by the Internet community to coordinate our areas of responsibilities. IGF The Internet Governance Forum (IGF) was established in 2006 by the United Nations to create a forum for discussion of internet governance policy issues. Multi- stakeholders represent countries, commerce and society in general. IPv4 and IPv6 Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth version of the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. (IE Domain Registry’s IPv4 address is 77.72.74.137). In response to a global shortage of addresses, a IE Domain Registry CLG t/a .IE / Annual Report & Review 2021 51 Glossary of Terms