Domain names[Link]

Allowed names[Link]

Before registering domain names, please make sure your clients accept our ‘Terms & Conditions’ before they can proceed with the registration of a domain name. This is also the case for a transfer.

Domain names must meet several technical requirements:

  • Valid non-IDN names are:

    • minimum 2 characters among the letters ‘a to z’, the numbers ‘0 to 9’ and the hyphen ‘-‘;

    • maximum 63 characters;

    • must not begin or end with a hyphen;

    • must not contain a hyphen ‘-’ on the 3rd AND 4th position.

  • Valid IDN names are:

    • The U-label is minimum 2 characters and the A-label and/or U-label is maximum 63 characters.

    • The U-label can’t begin or end with a hyphen.

    • The U-label must not contain a hyphen on the 3rd AND 4th position.

    • The U-label may only contain characters from the list of allowed characters.

Status values[Link]

The domain object supports the following status values (as described in Section 2.3 of RFC 5731 and Section 3.1 of RFC 3915):

  • ok

  • inactive

  • clientHold/serverHold

  • clientUpdateProhibited/serverUpdateProhibited

  • clientTransferProhibited/serverTransferProhibited

  • clientDeleteProhibited/serverDeleteProhibited

  • clientRenewProhibited/serverRenewProhibited

  • pendingTransfer

  • pendingDelete

  • pendingRestore

  • redemptionPeriod

  • addPeriod

  • transferPeriod

  • renewPeriod

  • autoRenewPeriod

Please note that DNS Belgium (the Registry) may always override status values set by the Registrar.

Following states are not supported:

  • pendingCreate

  • pendingRenew

  • pendingUpdate

IDN[Link]

The implementation of IDN at DNS Belgium is based on the IDNA 2008 standard and the relevant RFCs.

  • There is no variant handling.

  • On the EPP-Interface, we will always return the A-Label of the domain name in the response as this is used to communicate between automated systems, for flexibility, we will accept both U-label and A-label in the request.

The list of allowed IDN characters is a subset of the Latin script.

We also accept IDN for name servers. In the name server name, all characters are allowed.

DNSSEC[Link]

DNS Belgium supports and promotes the use of DNSSEC trust chains as defined in the relevant RFCs (listed in the EPP document).

The EPP interface accepts DS records only. A maximum of 6 DS records can be provisioned per domain. DS records with digest type 1 (SHA-1) will no longer be supported

DS records will be published in the zone immediately. DNS Belgium won’t perform any validation on the DNSSEC information of your domain names. It is up to you, as the registrar, to ensure that the chain of trust isn’t broken.

DNS Belgium supports the following DNSKEY algorithms:

  • 5: RSA/SHA-1 (not recommended)

  • 7: RSASHA1-NSEC3-SHA1 (not recommended)

  • 8: RSA/SHA-256

  • 10: RSA/SHA-512

  • 13: ECDSA Curve P-256 with SHA-256

  • 14: ECDSA Curve P-384 with SHA-384

  • 15: ED25519

  • 16: ED448

URS procedure[Link]

DNS Belgium can lock and/or suspend a domain name in accordance with ICANN’s URS policy.