On Sat, 1 Feb 2003, at 14:29 [=GMT-0700], Dave Warren wrote: > > > Because, in short, they simply don't work for most of the internet. > > > > Yes, like VeriSigns IDNs, which could be registered via OpenSRS > > Those were carried in the root servers, so they at least had a hope in hell > of working.
They were never in the root-servers, and they shouldn't be. But they weren't really in the com/net/org zones either, where they belong. Verisign did (and does) resolve them over second level domains: bq--*.mltbd.com etc. There are completely separate zones for the IDNs, which you can see if you download them from Verisign. It was and is all quite unofficial. Which is also why the ORG IDNs did not move with the rest, but still live with Verisign. I think you cannot get IDN ORGs anymore. So this shows quite clearly, that it is not supported by ICANN, but is something from Verisign only, or it would have moved with the rest to PIR/ISOC. There is one big advantage with alt root domains above IDNs: They are in ASCII and cause no problems with the DNS on a technical level. A reason for not selling new.net names might be that they can be misleading for they do not work worldwide. The same is true for IDN. But IDN came from Verisign, so everyone bought the idea, and above all the names. Even though a testbed. Why not another testbed with .MOO? Like the one we had before here, but then with working DNS? And for free naturally.
