Domainz

From Wikipedia, the free 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 Internet NZ(INZ) agreed to a redelegation of the .nz name to INZ

The University of Waikato was contracted to continue hosting the .nz namespace until INZ was in a position to assume full responsibility for the Domain Name System (DNS).

INZ 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 resellers (“registrars” or “nameagents”) and individuals, evolving what was known as the Domainz Registration System(DRS).

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 theshared 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.

Presently there are in excess of 40 registrars interacting with the .nz Shared Registry System.