.um
| Introduced | 1997 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Changed to unassigned by ICANN action in 2007 at request of registry |
| Registry | United States Minor Outlying Islands Registry |
| Sponsor | University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute |
| Intended use | Entities connected with United States Minor Outlying Islands |
| Actual use | Has not been in actual use |
| Registration restrictions | None known; registrations apparently not possible yet but look to be available soon |
| Structure | No registrations active |
| Registry website | NIC .um |
.um is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United States Minor Outlying Islands. It is administered by the United States Minor Outlying Islands Registry. Until late 2006 it was administered by the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, which was the original administer of .us, prior to NeuStar absorbing that role. Originally, registrants could only register third-level domains or higher, but in April 2002 second-level domains became available.
The .um registry site is active as of late April 2007; however, a Google search of .um found only one result—the registry site itself. However accessing the same address without the WWW subdomain reveals it is a mirror for ep.net[1] Up until recently, there was an email address through which information can be requested on the homepage of the registry site, but apparently the registry was only accepting submissions of "interest" at that time. However as of 14 September 2007, the registry site has been redesigned and looks like a prototype site that will at some point allow pubic registration. It looks a prototype because the fields are missing from the registration forms, and the pricing information is blank.
In January 2007, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reportedly dropped the .um domain from the master list of domain names in response to the domain's being unused and the desire of the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute to divest itself of responsibility for the domain.[2]. However, .um still exists in the global DNS as of 25 May 2007. Since the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute divested itself of this registry, in late 2006, Bill Manning has been administering it, but it is unclear if he has the authority to do so. He has redesigned the registry site as of 14 September 2007, and started taking steps to allowing public registration, even though officially the domain has been dropped from the master list. The domain could in theory vanish from the global DNS any time, and if he does not have the authority to manage the domain, he could get in major trouble for accepting registration fees for domains that will disappear. The DNS for the domain is currently very poor. Only one out of the three nameservers specified at the root answer authoritatively at the present time, so if that one nameserver went down, the domain would be unreachable.
References
- ^ http://nic.um
- ^ Jesdanun, Anick (24 January 2007). "Unused Domain Name for U.S. Isles Gone". MSNBC (reprint from the Associated Press). Retrieved 2007-03-07.