Special-use domain name

A special-use domain name is a domain name that is defined and reserved in the hierarchy of the Domain Name System of the Internet for special purposes. The designation of a reserved special-use domain is authorized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and executed, maintained, and published by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).[1]

Reserved domain names

The following list comprises the domain names list by IANA in the category of special-use domain names.[2]

Domain Purpose Authority document
.alt preventing name collisions with DNS RFC 9476[3]
6tisch.arpa IETF 6TiSCH working group RFC 9031[4]
10.in-addr.arpa private network reverse mapping RFC 6761[1]
16.172.in-addr.arpa
17.172.in-addr.arpa
18.172.in-addr.arpa
19.172.in-addr.arpa
20.172.in-addr.arpa
21.172.in-addr.arpa
22.172.in-addr.arpa
23.172.in-addr.arpa
24.172.in-addr.arpa
25.172.in-addr.arpa
26.172.in-addr.arpa
27.172.in-addr.arpa
28.172.in-addr.arpa
29.172.in-addr.arpa
30.172.in-addr.arpa
31.172.in-addr.arpa
168.192.in-addr.arpa
170.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa NAT64 prefix discovery[5] RFC 8880[6]
171.0.0.192.in-addr.arpa
ipv4only.arpa
254.169.in-addr.arpa Use in multicast DNS (mDNS) RFC 6762[7]
8.e.f.ip6.arpa
9.e.f.ip6.arpa
a.e.f.ip6.arpa
b.e.f.ip6.arpa
.home.arpa Non-unique use on residential networks RFC 8375[8]
.example documentation, tutorials, etc. RFC 6761
example.com use in documentation, tutorials, testing RFC 6761
example.net
example.org
.invalid Avoidance of confusion and errors[9] RFC 6761
.local Used for Multicast DNS RFC 6762: §3 
.localhost Reserved to avoidance of confusion and errors RFC 6761
.onion Anonymous onion service RFC 7686[10]
.test Avoidance of confusion, allowing use for documentation and network testing RFC 6761

See also

References

  1. ^ a b S. Cheshire; M. Krochmal (February 2013). Special-Use Domain Names. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC6761. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6761. Proposed Standard. Updates RFC 1918 and 2606.
  2. ^ "Special-Use Domain Names". Internet Assigned Number Authority. Retrieved 2020-06-16.
  3. ^ W. Kumari; MP. Hoffman (September 2023). The .alt Special-Use Top-Level Domain. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC9476. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9476. Proposed Standard.
  4. ^ J. Simon; K. Pister; M. Richardson (May 2021). M. Vučinić (ed.). Constrained Join Protocol (CoJP) for 6TiSCH. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC9031. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 9031. Proposed Standard.
  5. ^ T. Savolainen; J. Korhonen; D. Wing (November 2013). Discovery of the IPv6 Prefix Used for IPv6 Address Synthesis. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC7050. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7050. Proposed Standard. Updated by RFC 8880.
  6. ^ S. Cheshire; D. Schinazi (August 2020). Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC8880. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8880. Proposed Standard. Updates RFC 7788.
  7. ^ S. Cheshire; M. Krochmal (February 2013). Multicast DNS. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC6762. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 6762. Proposed Standard.
  8. ^ P. Pfister; T. Lemon (May 2018). Special-Use Domain 'home.arpa.'. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC8375. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 8375. Proposed Standard. Updates RFC 7788.
  9. ^ D. Eastlake; A. Panitz (June 1999). Reserved Top Level DNS Names. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2606. BCP 32. RFC 2606. Best Current Practice 32. Updated by RFC 6761.
  10. ^ J. Appelbaum; A. Muffett (October 2015). The ".onion" Special-Use Domain Name. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC7686. ISSN 2070-1721. RFC 7686. Proposed Standard.