DNS History
What is DNS ?
Any computer or other machine connected to the Internet is allocated an identifying number (the IP address). An IP address consists of 4 numbers between 0 and 255, separated by a full stop. Example: 193.109.126.146.
Routers, which are computers that manage the electronic traffic, make use of this number to find a path to that machine. An IP address can be permanent or temporary. Some computers that are continuously connected to the Internet are allocated a permanent IP address, while others that are connected occasionally are allocated a similar address on a temporary basis. So when a home user connects via his PC, or when he dials up to his provider, that user is allocated a temporary IP address for the time that the machine is online.
You can communicate with another computer by using that address. So you can reach the DNS website by typing the IP address shown above into the "address" field of your browser. In practice, it is very impractical to keep such addresses up to date. This led to the introduction of domain names. Domain names essentially do nothing more than provide a name that is easy to remember, which can be converted into an IP address that routers can use. The conversion information is stored in a hierarchy of "name servers" which are continuously connected to the Internet. The responsibility for the "first level", i.e. the names before the .be, lies with DNS Belgium.
When an end-user types in the address of a website (e.g. www.brusselsairport.be), then a whole series of things happen.
- the end user's PC will ask the name server of his provider (the IP address for this is configured in your computer, or is sent to your computer) which IP address corresponds to this address. The provider maintains a list of addresses that have been retrieved in the past in a "caching name server". If this address does not appear there, the next step is carried out.
- Since this concerns a .be extension (exactly the same happens in the case of a .com or other extension), the provider's name server will pass on the request from its customer (automatically) to the name server of the organization responsible for the .be domain, i.e. DNS Belgium.
- The name server of DNS Belgium receives the request and passes on the IP address of the name server that belongs with the domain "brusselsairport". In other words, DNS does not know the address of the website, but does know all the addresses of the name servers that hold information about all ".be" domain names.
- This address is sent back to the end user's provider, which then uses this address to query the name server that manages the "brusselsairport" domain.
- That name server will then send back the IP address that corresponds to www.brusselsairport.be (the third level contains the "www" indicator: 212.35.104.67. 6. As the final step in this conversion process, the IP address found will be sent to the end user.
- The user can now use this address to set up a connection with the computer on which the website www.brusselsairport.be is located.
The management of the first level name servers (all names before the ".be") is the task of the registry. In Belgium, this task is delegated to DNS BE. This includes the registration of domain names and keeping the name servers continuously operational.
DNS in Belgium
Professor Verbaeten of the Computer Science department of the Catholic University of Leuven started registering domain names in Belgium in 1989.
Up to 1994, 129 names were registered. Since then, the number has risen sharply. see statistics).
At the request of Pierre Verbaeten, the responsibility for the registration of the domain names for .be was transferred to DNS Belgium, a non-profit association, which was established for this purpose on 2 February 1999 (articles of association). The actual transfer took place on 1 January 2000.
Initially, obtaining a domain name was tied to a number of strict rules. For example, the name had to correspond to the name of the company, a brand name or trading style. Furthermore, only businesses could register a domain name. Over the years, the rules have undergone various changes, depending on external factors. In 2000, for example, the rules looked as follows: old registration procedure.
The Board of Directors of DNS decided in June 2000, following the example of other European registers, to make the rules for obtaining domain names under ".be" more flexible. De facto, a complete liberalization took place, where everyone, companies and private individuals, Belgians or foreigners, could register any name they liked. Henceforth, registration would be completely automatic, and could only be carried out via an approved agent. After the development of the necessary software, this liberalization was carried out on 11/12/2000.
At the same time as the liberalization, prices were lowered. The price charged to the agents for 1 year was still 25 EUR from then on. One important restriction was maintained: a domain name could not be transferred to another licensee.
The effect was enormous. At the start of the liberalization, the number of domain names was 40,000. After less than 3 weeks, the number had more than doubled (end of December: 89,718); by the end of March more than 125,000 were registered.
Next, on 1/7/2001, a first price cut was implemented. Registration and annual renewal from reduced to 10 EUR. A year later, this price was brought down still further to 6 EUR.
Meanwhile, the redundant network of the .be name servers was replaced by machines under the control of DNS. In the past, these machines and their connectivity were provided as a free service without any guarantees. This change brought us to a network of our own machines, installed at commercial nodes on the one hand, and Internet exchange points on the other hand.
On 15/10/2001, the rule of non-transferability of a domain name was abolished, and domain names could now be traded freely.
In September 2002, the European Commission issued a call for tenders for the management of the .eu domain. DNS Belgium set up a consortium with its colleagues from Sweden and Italy to respond to the Call. The Belgian model forms the basis of the proposal.
A panel of external specialists awarded the management of .eu to EURid, the consortium of Belgian, Swedish and Italian registries. This decision was published in May 2003.
As from 1 September 2006 the registrar fee of a .be domain name was reduced from 6 € to 5 €; from 1 January 2008 to 3 €. This reduction applies to all new registrations, renewals, transfers and "trades". The fee for the reactivations and transfers out of quarantine remains at the current level of 10 € and 40 €.
