Domain name registration

APNIC is not involved in the process of Domain Name management.

Domain Names are related to, but completely independent from, IP addresses.

When a user types the name of a website in their Web browser (for example: www.example.com), this is a Domain Name. However, the network equipment that links devices on the Internet does not understand these names. instead they rely on the Domain Name System to convert this 'human readable' address into an Internet Protocol (IP) address (for example: 192.168.10.99).

Unlike IP addressing, the management and control of Domain Names is a commercial enterprise. Although not-for-profit organizations coordinate the management of this process, commercial organizations, or registrars, are ultimately responsible for licensing the right to use these unique identifiers.

The responsibilty for Domain Name registrations is devolved from ICANN, through the gNSO and ccNSO to registries in individual economies. These registries then appoint Registrars who may also ultimately appoint resellers to provide an interface to those seeking to register Domain Names.

ICANN

ICANN's role in the Domain Name registration system is to take responsibility for coordinating the management of the technical elements of the Domain Name System (DNS). the objectives are to ensure universal resolvability, so that all users of the Internet can find all the valid addresses. ICANN does this by overseeing the distribution of the unique technical identifiers used in the Internet's operations, and the delegation of Top-Level Domain (TLD) names (such as .com, .info, and so forth).

ICANN does tis with two organizations. The Generic Names Supporting Organization (gNSO) which manages the generic Top levle Domains (gTLD) like .com, .net, .gov and the Country Code Names Supporting Organisation (ccNSO) which coordinates the country code specific Domain strucutre such as .au. tw, or .cn.

APTLD

The Asia Pacific Top Level Domain Association (APTLD) is an organization that unifies ccTLD (country-code Top Level Domain) registries in the Asia Pacific region. APTLD was originally established in 1998, and in 2003 legally established in Malaysia.

APTLD works as the forum of information exchange regarding technological and operational issues of domain name registries in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, APTLD acts as an interface to other international Internet coordinating bodies to foster and encourage the participation of AP ccTLDs in these global forums, as well as acting in the best interests of APTLD members in the global Internet policy making process.

APTLD is a membership-based organization, funded by membership fees.

APTLD summarizes its objectives as:

To promote skills development and information exchange related to Internet domain names among members
To provide a forum to discuss policy matters affecting Internet domain name related entities
To act as an interface with Internet coordination bodies and other bodies involved in Internet domain name operations