Domainz
Encyclopedia
Domainz Limited was the original .nz
registry operator and is now an ICANN
accredited domain name registrar
and web host.
IANA
delegated the .nz namespace to John Houlker on 19 January 1987, and the University of Waikato
issued .nz domain names and maintained the .nz registry during the early part of Internet availability in New Zealand.
During 1996, as Internet use was flourishing in New Zealand, and operation of the .nz registry was becoming burdensome on the University of Waikato, John Houlker, IANA and The Internet Society of New Zealand (Isocnz) agreed to a redelegation of the .nz name to Isocnz.
The University of Waikato was contracted to continue hosting the .nz namespace until Isocnz was in a position to assume full responsibility for the Domain Name System
(DNS).
Isocnz established a subsidiary company “The New Zealand Internet Registry Ltd”, trading as Domainz, to run the .nz registry, on 15 April 1997.
Domainz commenced allocating domain names, to both companies and individuals, evolving what was known as the Domainz Registration System (DRS).
Concern over a new online registry system - which was suffering a welter of problems - and opposition to a lawsuit (against Alan Brown, the founder of ORBS
) both being championed by Domainz CEO Patrick O'Brien saw all available Isocnz council seats (and subsequently the Domainz board) filled by "rebel" members in elections in July 2000.
The SRS was implemented and became live on 14 October 2002, with Domainz as the sole registrar, acting in a stabilising role, until the first competitive registrar connected to the shared registry on 7 December 2002.
Domainz remained as the stabilising registrar until September 2003.
In September 2003, Domainz was acquired by Australian based registrar Melbourne IT
Limited.
In October 2003 there were in excess of 40 registrars interacting with the .nz Shared Registry System.
.nz
.nz is the Internet country code top-level domain for New Zealand. It is administered by InternetNZ through its subsidiary, NZ Registry Services, with oversight and dispute resolution handled by the Domain Name Commission Ltd. Registrations are processed via authorised registrars...
registry operator and is now an ICANN
ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a non-profit corporation headquartered in Marina del Rey, California, United States, that was created on September 18, 1998, and incorporated on September 30, 1998 to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly...
accredited domain name registrar
Domain name registrar
A domain name registrar is an organization or commercial entity, accredited by both ICANN and generic top-level domain registry to sell gTLDs and/or by a country code top-level domain registry to sell ccTLDs; to manage the reservation of Internet domain names in accordance with the guidelines of...
and web host.
IANA
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
delegated the .nz namespace to John Houlker on 19 January 1987, and the University of Waikato
University of Waikato
The University of Waikato is located in Hamilton and Tauranga, New Zealand, and was established in 1964. It has strengths across a broad range of subject areas, particularly its degrees in Computer Science and in Management...
issued .nz domain names and maintained the .nz registry during the early part of Internet availability in New Zealand.
During 1996, as Internet use was flourishing in New Zealand, and operation of the .nz registry was becoming burdensome on the University of Waikato, John Houlker, IANA and The Internet Society of New Zealand (Isocnz) agreed to a redelegation of the .nz name to Isocnz.
The University of Waikato was contracted to continue hosting the .nz namespace until Isocnz was in a position to assume full responsibility for the Domain Name System
Domain name system
The Domain Name System is a hierarchical distributed naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participating entities...
(DNS).
Isocnz established a subsidiary company “The New Zealand Internet Registry Ltd”, trading as Domainz, to run the .nz registry, on 15 April 1997.
Domainz commenced allocating domain names, to both companies and individuals, evolving what was known as the Domainz Registration System (DRS).
Concern over a new online registry system - which was suffering a welter of problems - and opposition to a lawsuit (against Alan Brown, the founder of ORBS
Open Relay Behavior-modification System
Open Relay Behavior-modification System , created and run by Alan Brown in New Zealand, was one of the first DNS-based Blackhole Lists , a means by which an internet domain may publish a list of IP addresses, in a database which can be easily queried automatically by other computer programs on the...
) both being championed by Domainz CEO Patrick O'Brien saw all available Isocnz council seats (and subsequently the Domainz board) filled by "rebel" members in elections in July 2000.
The SRS was implemented and became live on 14 October 2002, with Domainz as the sole registrar, acting in a stabilising role, until the first competitive registrar connected to the shared registry on 7 December 2002.
Domainz remained as the stabilising registrar until September 2003.
In September 2003, Domainz was acquired by Australian based registrar Melbourne IT
Melbourne IT
Melbourne IT is an Australian Internet company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange . Formed in 1996, its primary business is domain name registration in most of the major national and global top-level domains...
Limited.
In October 2003 there were in excess of 40 registrars interacting with the .nz Shared Registry System.