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Eu.org, free domain names since 1996
- SuperCuber 4y agoLooks like they are providing subdomains and sub-subdomains, not domains.
- Chilinot 4y agoEverything is a subdomain under the root domain, i.e. the dot (".") in a FQDN
- YPPH 4y agoIf they delegate it to a nameserver you specify, is it much different to a domain? I am assuming they delegate in this manner, as opposed to some free web hosts who would host the nameservers and essentially just let you set A records. Would you say that example.nsw.gov.au is a domain or a subdomain?
- usr1106 4y agoWhat's the difference for an end user except for the extra dot? Isn't that the same with co.uk or com.au? Americans may find that inconvenient, more radical tongues call it a sign of US imperialism that .com is often associated with the home for US companies. Right, technically and probably legally there was a list of domains that you cannot register because they act as a "top-level" like co.uk. Not sure how official and how correct the list is.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ricardo81 4y ago>technically The 'public suffix list' is one: https://publicsuffix.org/learn/ https://publicsuffix.org/learn/
- bipson 4y agoWow, the guys from .aero had a few categories in mind... so did some south american countries. Does anyone know why bulgaria thought this was a good idea? > bg > (a-z).bg > (0-9).bg I can't find the mentioned "rules"-document... Edit: shorter representation of original list
- afiori 4y agohave you seen the Italian and Japanese section of that document? Italy registered subdomains for all its regions and provinces, including spelling variations. All of the following domains are for the same region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentino-Alto_Adige/S%C3%BCdtirol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trentino-Alto_Adige/S%C3%BCdti... trentin-sud-tirol.it trentin-süd-tirol.it trentin-sudtirol.it trentin-südtirol.it trentin-sued-tirol.it trentin-suedtirol.it trentino-a-adige.it trentino-aadige.it trentino-alto-adige.it trentino-altoadige.it trentino-s-tirol.it trentino-stirol.it trentino-sud-tirol.it trentino-süd-tirol.it trentino-sudtirol.it trentino-südtirol.it trentino-sued-tirol.it trentino-suedtirol.it trentino.it trentinoa-adige.it trentinoaadige.it trentinoalto-adige.it trentinoaltoadige.it trentinos-tirol.it trentinostirol.it trentinosud-tirol.it trentinosüd-tirol.it trentinosudtirol.it trentinosüdtirol.it trentinosued-tirol.it trentinosuedtirol.it trentinsud-tirol.it trentinsüd-tirol.it trentinsudtirol.it trentinsüdtirol.it trentinsued-tirol.it trentinsuedtirol.it
- rurban 4y agoSure. They need to ensure, that no South-Tyrolian registers those officially looking ones. After the 2nd world war Italy just invaded south tyrol/now trentino because they mixed up the capitulation date. They still speak tyrolian there, but belong officially to Italy.
- bipson 4y agoYes, but this has a system, where I don't get "0.bg, 1.bg, 2.bg, ..."
- usr1106 4y ago
- dazc 4y ago> 'What's the difference for an end user except for the extra dot?' You hold the domain at the whim of whoever controls the top level. Likely, they'll be less reliable than an official registry.
- vinay427 4y ago> Americans may find that inconvenient, more radical tongues call it a sign of US imperialism that .com is often associated with the home for US companies. I'm not sure why you felt the need to try and make some point about US imperialism in a discussion about a TLD with an extra dot when plenty of countries have a TLD that is customarily used without an extra dot: .de, .ch, .nl, .es, .ie, etc. It's simply a matter of convention (and sometimes local legislation) that .co.uk, .com.uk, .co.in, and others became the norm for commercial entities in these countries while .com similarly became a norm for US companies by convention. There's nothing stopping a non-US company from using a .com domain, as I'm sure you're aware.
- Grimburger 4y agoAnd to nitpick .au is actually available now too. It's actually not that popular with most people I know because it sort of muddies the water with most Australians being very comfortable with .com.au and having a basic understanding of its restrictions. https://domains.google/tld/au/ https://domains.google/tld/au/
- sam0x17 4y agoHow the TLDs work is a really classic example of US imperialism. For example .gov is impossible to get for non-US entities, yet literal towns have .gov domains within the US, and there are even examples of people using .ca to mean california. Meanwhile outside countries have to resort to things like .gov.uk. That's right, tiny rural towns in the US have a better domain than the main UK government sites. Likewise .com typically implies US, as affirmed by the .com.mx, etc variants If ICANN wasn't super biased towards favoring the US, do you really think .gov would have been approved in the first place?
- vinay427 4y ago> For example .gov is impossible to get for non-US entities I'll gladly concede this point. I do agree that ICANN favors the US for .gov (and .mil). It would definitely be preferable if these weren't approved at all or at least weren't restricted to US entities. > Likewise .com typically implies US, as affirmed by the .com.mx, etc variants I responded to this in my previous comment. As far as I know there wasn't a decision to systematically favor US companies, so I'm not sure what this has to do with US imperialism. There are many websites in the UK and other countries that use .com, even if it's still far more common for US entities, and there's nothing stopping more from doing so.
- jeroenhd 4y agoThe difference is that this is just a website that offers subdomains and not a TLD. co.uk and com.au operate very differently through a network of registrars and such. The same company that put restrictions on the .uk TLD also manages the co.uk domain in a similar fashion to other TLDs, for example. You won't see co.uk ever expire because it's owned and manages by the same company that manages the TLD, but it's perfectly possible for eu.org to mess up their renewal and disappear from the internet. There's no direct connection between .org and the company managing these subdomains. Calling American TLDs like com/net/org imperialism is too extreme. The internet was developed by Americans for American use and other countries were added to the domain system later. When com/net/org because available, the entire system was completely centralised on the USA so it's not that strange that other countries had to make do with just a national TLD. That's not some kind of attempt of the USA to enforce their rules on the world, that's just historical development. These days, all kinds of TLDs are available, including ones in non-Latin scripts. I don't ever see any .भारत domains on the web (and I wouldn't even know how to type it if I saw it) but it's an available TLD for anyone to use. There are even geographical TLDs like .frl (Fryslân) and .wien (Vienna) that go way overboard with the TLD concept imo.
- usr1106 4y agoOther countries were added in the mid/late 80s. That's well before most American companies got their domain. In a more equal world co.us or com.us would have been the primary place for domestic use once it has been clear that it's no longer a national thing. I have no strong feelings about this part of US dominance, it's just a fact of life. There are worse things. Like US agencies doing mass surveillance on foreigners worldwide. Or using extra-terratorial sanctions, assuming they are world-government.
- nix23 4y agoJust as a reminder, there is https://freedns.afraid.org/ https://freedns.afraid.org/ too..with lots of free domains.
- msk-lywenn 4y agoI've been using freedns to host my eu.org domain for years. Both are super handy and reliable.
- jeroenhd 4y agoAnd let's not forget the ever popular, ever spam filled domains managed by https://dot.tk https://dot.tk Like always, free domains often come with weird or shady requirements, I wouldn't rely on them too much. That said, they're great if you're not willing to spend money on a domain yet and just want to experiment.
- easrng 4y agodot.tk will take away your domains if they get popular and redirect them to ads. Also, their website is a pain to use. I haven't heard of afraid.org doing any nefarious things. I used to use a domain from them (https://easrng.us.to/ https://easrng.us.to/) before I got https://easrng.net https://easrng.net and never had any problems.
- brnt 4y agoI had this too. Very annoying. I only use them as private shortcut domains now. Also, they tended to be flagged when hooked up to services (mail hosts for example).
- nix23 4y ago>I wouldn't rely on them too much. Yeah don't rely on free stuff like google workspace legacy ;) But it's also a really good dns server.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- jer0me 4y agoReminds me of https://js.org https://js.org
- jpswade 4y agoThis is the internet I grew up with, and I miss it.
- enriquto 4y agoEverything is still there, what do you mean? I still write html by hand and everything works as expected.
- jotm 4y ago"I miss it, but I won't use it" heh I also miss videogames but can't be arsed to play any since I lost interest. It's kinda weird how that works.
- nabla9 4y agoI do too. Unfortunately these relics show what the old internet would be today. *.eu.org is mostly populated by scammers. Building a new internet that starts from where the old internet ended and makes internet work again like old internet is what we need. You need reputation control and propagation etc.
- logifail 4y ago> individuals should be able to have and own their own domain names We should probably remember that no-one "owns" a domain, at least not in the traditional sense of ownership.
- IshKebab 4y agoWhat traditional sense?
- josephcsible 4y agoWith traditional ownership, you can pay a lump sum of money for something up front, and then it's yours forever unless you decide to get rid of it. With domains, you have to keep paying over and over or your "ownership" gets revoked.
- iso1631 4y agoOwnership rights vary from culture to culture and from country to country. Even in the US you don't get to own something forever, you get to own it until someone takes it off you to build a shopping mall for example. In most countries, leased property is often referred to as "owned", yet you have to keep paying over and over to renew that lease.
- mkmk3 4y agoPretty surprising to me if others agree, if you lease a car you dont own that car, do you?
- permo-w 4y agomy parents lease a car. I would regard it as their car, and possibly go so far as to say they own it, if I wasn't thinking too hard about it, and maybe even if I was. it's in their possession.
- 4y ago
- meattle 4y agoI’m involved with a URL shortener service. Service had to ban this domain as sub-domains from this domain seem to be loved by spammers/scammers to host their scams…
- ibz 4y agoFree services attract spammers. No surprise. The "free" model is broken. Imagine how easy Twitter would get rid of spam accounts if they only charged a few sats per tweet.
- permo-w 4y agosats?
- Gigachad 4y agoVery likely referring to “satoshis” which is a small amount of bitcoin.
- dontbenebby 4y ago> Very likely referring to “satoshis” which is a small amount of bitcoin. Hackerfreund, nie vergessen: Drei können ein Geheimnis bewahren, wenn zwei davon John McAfee und Dan Kaminsky sind. (Ich schalte jetzt wieder auf Englisch um, ich muss mich auf maschinelle Übersetzungen für synchrone Gespräche verlassen) Do people still think Satoshi was a singular guy? I had a convo at a picnic about how it was probably a team and some very smart people acted like they hadn't thought of that, people who definitely had heard of Shamir's Secret Sharing and read Wired or whatever, so should have been able to connect the dots that maybe "Satoshi" was a set of people ,and one of them died or lost access to a key. Here is the wayback archive of Wikipedia from that summer: https://web.archive.org/web/20130208051024/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir's_Secret_Sharing https://web.archive.org/web/20130208051024/https://en.wikipe... And a current link to the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing
- 4y ago
- teekert 4y agoNice to see this here, this was my go to as a student (around 2003?). Now I don't feel buying (renting) a nice domain, but this is really nice to learn about how the system works and you don't have a lot of money or just want to make many domains fast and free for experimentation. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20140802223207/http://rpi.nl.eu.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20140802223207/http://rpi.nl.eu....
- Kab1r 4y agoI've been using this for about 2 years now with cloudflare.
- DeathArrow 4y agoThey provide free subdomains, not free domains. Title is misleading.
- aaomidi 4y agoEh not really. There’s really not much of a difference. For example would you consider .co.uk domains as subdomains
- bartvk 4y agoVisually and in perception, there's a huge difference.
- MaxBarraclough 4y agoI don't think there's much difference in perception. bbc.co.uk is a perfectly ordinary domain, for instance.
- zaarn 4y agoDomains, if you check the public suffix list, the eu.org stuff is entered as public suffix, so it counts as a domain like any other to the browser and the eu.org part is just the TLD.
- dizhn 4y agoFrom the site "The main goal of EU.org is to provide free subdomain registration to users or non-profit organizations who cannot afford the fees demanded by some NICs." They don't claim to be issuing domain names at all.
- zaarn 4y agoAnd? Since they're on the public suffix list, they might as well be issuing domains. Subdomains work differently in a browser compared to a domain and since the eu.org stuff is handled as domain by browsers I see no issue describing it as such.
- NKosmatos 4y agoOh great, another source of "nice looking" .eu.org domains to be used by spammers and for phishing. I bet there will be many naive users (to put it lighlty) that will fall for a scam originating or using such domains :-(
- Tepix 4y agoWhat makes these domains more suitable for scams than other domains? The fact that they're free? The scams i am getting use low quality domain names hidden behind the domain they are faking.
- NKosmatos 4y agoThe fact that you can use a legitimate looking subdomain without the need to hide it or fake it, like bank.eu.org in order to trick users that it's indeed a real domain coming from EU official site. We all know that to average internet users .org = organization so you can imagine how they will interpret any .eu.org domain :-)
- southerntofu 4y agoDoes anyone have news regarding ccor.org, the cooperative that wanted to take over and operate .org registry when PIR attempted to sell it off? We could certainly use more cooperative registries/registrars, if only to make domain names more accessible to poorer folks. I was so excited about ccor.org and i'm sad there's been no development since PIR/ICANN folks dropped their corrupt deal.
- Akronymus 4y agoHuh, seems interesting. Altough, having to have an email server is kinda concerning, but I do get where they come from.
- FernandoMax 4y agoIt seems more like "free sub-domains" not domains. EU.org is not endorsed to any European Union initiative. These things are quite unstable. I've seen URL shorteners (even one from goo.gl) and URL "redirectioners" and a lot of things like that disappear. Like Geocities in the wind. Sadly only archive.org is a source of memories.
- mike_d 4y ago> EU.org is not endorsed to any European Union initiative. EU.org predates the European Union.
- MrPromethee 4y agoA website created in 1996 doesn't predate an organization founded in 1993. However, it does predate the .eu domain.
- cal85 4y ago“Since 1996” seems very stable for a free URL shortener, if true. Edit: but I agree with your main point, .eu.org isn’t a real TLD as they make out in the title.
- mtVessel 4y agoIs it a static page? Nothing on it indicates it has been updated since, say, 1997.
- dontbenebby 4y ago> It seems more like "free sub-domains" not domains. Is a free subdomain free? You make it orders of magnitude easier to do weird tracking if you use an overly specific subdomain rather than placing things "after the slash". To give a case study: I had an old housemate freak out when I questioned their integrity and they said "that was after the slash" -- I used to pay for the internet and collect $ for it, I didn't log anything and asked folks to not share the WPA(2?) password. He also told me he took a special route to campus because some of the undergrads didn't close their blinds, then took umbragen I decribed him to others with the wrong adjective. (At least when I look out my window with a pair of binoculars, it's to look for tacticool weirdos, not titties worse than what you can find for free with a simple Bing search[1]) //[1] and please forgive the wall of text, bootstrapping new social networks post COVID has been harder than expected, since the folks who were very predatory about gatekeeping the definition of espionage freak out if you point out GDPR is a European law, and I've been a permanent resident of Pennsylvania all my life.
- arnaudsm 4y agoReminds me of the free .tk domains. It attracted so much spam and malware that Facebook ended up banning the tld. This is why we can't have nice things.
- dontbenebby 4y agoTK was the new .ru, which sucked since while Putin is a jerk, most Russian people are quite nice, just less talkative than people from where I grew up.
- skrebbel 4y agoMy former student association, BEST, ran on https://best.eu.org https://best.eu.org for over two decades. They also have best-eu.org as a mitigation strategy (they unfortunately didn't manage to grab best.eu back when .eu launched). IIRC the eu.org was always reliable so it's not been a problem. They do a lot of nontrivial IT, with all kinds of internal sites of varying quality, tons of email lists on a homecoded engine, and so on, and so forth. While I was involved (over a decade ago, mind), the domain was never a source for trouble. I think you could do worse for a free subdomain provider.
- wink 4y agoI have two of those, back from when getting a domain name for a project seemed prohibitively expensive and they've since been repurposed for other projects, but I've never had a problem using them, I think I last switched NS records in 2018.