.at
 | |
| Introduced | 1988 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | nic.at |
| Sponsor | nic.at |
| Intended use |
Entities connected with  Austria |
| Actual use | Very popular in Austria |
| Registration restrictions | None, except for restricted subdomains .gv.at and .ac.at |
| Structure | Registrations are directly at second level, or at third level beneath several second-level labels |
| Documents | Terms and conditions (English) |
| Dispute policies | none since October 2008[1] |
| Website | nic.at |
| DNSSEC | yes |
.at is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Austria. It is administered by NIC.AT.
Second-level domains
The .at top-level domain has a number of second-level domains (.co.at, .or.at, .gv.at and .ac.at). However, it is also possible to register directly at the top level. Given the number of English words that end with -at, this presents the possibility for many domain hacks. All second level domain names must be at least three characters long e.g. form.at or bor.at. Domain hacks treating "at" as a word in its own right (such as arrive.at) are also widespread.
Known domain hacks
Many Austrian domain names were registered for English phrases that end with "at". As of today, there are very few such domain names left available on the domain prime market as the result of the domain name speculation. Most of them can be bought on the domain secondary market. Only few domain names got developed. Some known examples of the Austrian domain hacks are:
- donteat.at, a popular Foursquare service
- many.at, link bundler
Properties
A .at-Domain can be between three (two for .co.at, .or.at and .ac.at) and 63 characters long. Registrations of internationalized domain names are accepted.[2] In 2007, it was made possible to register domain names containing only numbers. The .at-Domain started using DNSSEC in 2011 in order to guarantee the authenticity and integrity of the Domain Name System's data.