Automatic domain name checking tool unveiled by ICANN

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Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has launched a new set of tools for webmasters and developers that automatically adds support for new top-level domains (TLDs), including those created since 2001 and any new ones that may be introduced in the future.

The organisation, which oversees the domain name system of Internet addresses notes that in addition to the original .com and .net domains and more than 240 country codes, there are also .aero, .biz, .cat, .coop, .info, .jobs, .mobi, .museum, .name, .pro, .tel and .travel, with .asia expected to be added shortly.

"This choice is a good thing but some users of these new domains have had problems using e-commerce and other websites that don't recognise some new top-level domains," said Kim Davies, the technical liaison for ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). "That means email and website addresses from some of these TLDs get rejected as invalid."

"The toolkit helps to fix this problem by ensuring that software developers and application providers have the most up-to-date information about the Internet's domain name system (DNS). It also saves developers and site operators the potentially expensive and time-consuming task of re-programming their systems each time a new TLD is added.

The toolkit code is easily inserted into existing programs or applications and will automatically check the validity of an email address or URL against the authoritative DNS data, known as the "root-zone."

Once installed, no additional updates are necessary. Any changes will be automatically noted by the program.

"In the long run, this will ensure that the addition of new TLDs will be as smooth as possible, and make sure all Internet users get full usability of their domain," said Davies.

The Universal Acceptance Toolkit is available for free download at icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-22mar07.htm. Additional information is available from icann.org/topics/TLD-acceptance/.

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