DENICdirect Frequently asked Questions

No, because DENICdirect is only responsible for .de domains. If you want to register a domain under a generic Top Level Domain (such as .com, .net, .org, .info, etc.), you can do so via one of the ICANN-accredited registrars.

If you wish to register a domain under a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain) other than .de, please ask your provider whether they also offer such domains or contact the relevant registry.

There are two ways to ensure the accessibility of a domain:

The domain is "delegated" from our name servers to other name servers. This means that the addresses of at least two name servers are entered in our databases. Every request that reaches us regarding this domain is forwarded to these name servers. To ensure that the name servers in question are accessible and responsible, their functionality is checked when name servers are entered for the first time.

There is also the alternative option of linking up to five services related to this domain on our name servers, e.g. www.beispiel.de or mail.example.com directly (via a so-called NSentry entry) with the IP address of the host or a mail server via which this service is handled. In this case, no separate name servers are required.

In order to guarantee an optimal service, the whois servers are equipped with a local database for status requests. The local databases obtain their data from the registration database, which can lead to a slight delay. As soon as information about the status of a domain is provided on the basis of a database that is older than five minutes, this is indicated in an additional line in the whois output. However, this does not apply to domain queries via the DENIC web pages.

The output will then look like this:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Domain: denic.de
Status: connect

% DB time is <YYYY-MM-DD> D<HH:MM:SS> +02:00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The "DB time" line is only output when the status is queried and only if the database is older than five minutes. Otherwise the line is missing completely.

No, because DENIC Services only administers domains on behalf of DENIC eG, not IP addresses. This task has been taken over by RIPE NCC in Amsterdam for the European region.

If you need IP addresses to access the Internet, you can usually obtain them from your Internet Service Provider, provided it is one of RIPE's Local Internet Registries (LIR).

If you do not want to connect to the Internet, you can probably also work with a so-called "private address space". This concept is described in detail in RFC1918 (Address Allocation for Private Internets).

In principle, the ownership of a domain can be inherited, so that the heir of the deceased holder takes his place.

If the heir can prove his status as heir to his provider or to DENIC, he will also be entered in the DENIC database as the new domain holder. The heir can, of course, just as easily have the domain deleted or transfer it to a third party.

DENICdirect provides forms for many issues. They make work easier for both sides: All you have to do is print out the forms and fill them in. DENICdirect receives the necessary declarations in any case. This avoids unnecessary queries and delays.

DENICdirect needs the form signed by you or your legal representative so that there are no misunderstandings later on.

Domains that contain a character string that serves to identify an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) cannot be registered under .de. This affects all domains with a hyphen in both the third and fourth position, such as xn--example.de.

Persons or institutions (with legal capacity) that do not have their registered office in Germany can register .de domains.

Further information can be found in DENIC's Domain Terms and Conditions, §3, paragraph 4.

Our online domain query allows you to check whether a domain has already been registered or is still available for registration.

You can register a .de domain through any provider who is either a member of DENIC itself or works together with one of its members. Usually, registration is offered to you when you are planning your Internet presence or is already included in a package offer for Internet access.

If you have decided on a specific provider, you can submit your order directly to them. Please understand that we cannot give you any prices for .de domains in this case, as these are subject to the calculation of each individual provider.

If you do not wish to have the domain registration carried out by a provider, you can alternatively use our DENICdirect service. We will then invoice you for our services in accordance with the current DENIC price list. When making your decision, please bear in mind that we cannot provide you with any other Internet services such as web space or e-mail accounts. You will have to organize these services yourself or purchase them from a provider. Most domain owners therefore prefer to register via a provider.

Regardless of which way you choose to register a domain, there is always a contractual relationship between you as the domain holder and DENIC as the registry. For this contract to come into being, the conditions set out in DENIC's Domain Guidelines must be fulfilled. The contractual conditions are summarized in DENIC's Domain Terms and Conditions.

The connectivity of a domain is the provision of services that make this domain accessible on the Internet. Below the .de top level domain, there are two ways to ensure the accessibility of a domain:

An NSentry is a direct entry in the .de zone. The domain in question is connected directly to the corresponding services via an address record (IN A or IN AAAA) or mail exchanger (IN MX) entry.

Alternatively, the connection can be made via your own name servers. In this case, the .de zone for the domain in question now only contains a reference to the relevant name servers.

Before a newly registered domain can be accessed worldwide, it must be added to the .de zone. This is usually done during the name server update following registration. The same applies to changes to name server entries for domains that have already been registered.

The zone is usually updated within five minutes and then contains all the changes that were confirmed by DENIC before the last update.

A valid domain may only consist of numbers, the letters A-Z, the character "-" (hyphen) and the other letters listed in the annex to the Domain Guidelines. Hyphens are not permitted in the first and last positions, nor in the third and fourth positions at the same time (e.g. xn--.de). No distinction is made between upper and lower case letters.

The minimum length of a .de domain is one character, the maximum length is 63 characters (see RFC1035). If the domain contains letters from the appendix of the Domain Guidelines, the version of the domain encoded in the so-called ACE form in accordance with RFC3490 is decisive for the maximum length.

Please also refer to the DENIC Domain Guidelines.

Since the registration of a .de domain is the conclusion of a contract, you must fulfill all the requirements on which the effective conclusion of other contracts also depends.

Firstly, this means that you have legal capacity, i.e. that you can be the bearer of rights and obligations, just as any natural or legal person can be. Secondly, you must have legal capacity or be effectively represented.

You are obliged to provide correct and complete data for the domain holder, including an e-mail address, in the domain order.

If you fail to do so and provide an incorrect address or a false name, you risk losing the domain at a later date. Incorrect data entitles DENIC to terminate the contract without notice, and we make use of this right.

When a domain is registered, the domain contract is concluded directly between DENIC and the domain holder, even if the registration is carried out via a provider. This must be the case because DENIC alone, as the registry, can and does provide the "domain" service. The content of the domain contract is also governed by DENIC's Domain Terms and Conditions and DENIC's Domain Guidelines.

DENIC registers domains according to the priority principle: "First come, first served". So if someone else was quicker, you only have the option of using a different name for your domain.

If you have a right to the domain, please also read our information on the DISPUTE procedure at www.denic.de.

It is possible to subdivide a domain into subdomains (for example, a subdomain of beispieldomain.de is info.beispieldomain.de).

However, these subdomains are not registered by us, but must be set up by you or your provider. So if you want to use the web address www.subdomain.de-beispieldomain.de, we will register the domain de-beispieldomain.de for you. To set up the subdomain subdomain.de-beispieldomain.de, please contact your provider.

You have to do this, because according to DENIC's Domain Terms and Conditions, when you apply for a domain, you give an assurance that the registration of the domain you want for you and its use by you do not infringe the rights of third parties. At the same time, you assume the liability risk for the correctness of this assurance. This means that if there is an infringement of rights, you are legally responsible for it. This distribution of risk reflects the fact that you choose your domain yourself and that you will also benefit from its use.

Moreover, you only need to check the domain you want for any conflicting third-party rights, whereas DENIC would have to check around 100,000 new domains every month if it wanted to carry out such a check itself. Apart from the fact that DENIC would not even be able to do this, the mere attempt would mean that the registration of .de domains would have to cost many times more than today's prices in order to cover the personnel costs and that the registration process would take considerably longer. However, this would not be in your interest as a (future) domain holder.

The registration or use of a domain may infringe the rights of third parties. According to DENIC's Domain Guidelines and DENIC's Domain Terms and Conditions, you are therefore obliged to check before registering a domain whether this domain is associated with any such infringements. Irrespective of this, it is also in your own interest to carry out such a check, because if it turns out in the end that your domain infringes the rights of third parties, you may get into trouble with the rights holders and lose the domain.

To determine conflicting third-party rights, you can do at least the following, for example:

Firstly, you should determine whether trademarks identical or similar to your domain are registered or pending at the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA). This can be found out at the patent information centers of the office, via a commercial trademark search service or with the help of patent attorneys or lawyers.

Secondly, you should check whether companies identical or similar to your domain are entered in the commercial register. In some cases, corresponding searches are already offered online; otherwise, for example, chambers of industry and commerce or lawyers can also provide assistance.

Thirdly, it is advisable to use all other search options, such as Internet search engines, trade registers or the Yellow Pages.

If you find out that someone else could also have a right to the domain, you must also do what a court would do in the event of a dispute, namely weigh up whether you or the other person has the better right. This weighing up is very difficult, as the sometimes contradictory court rulings on domain disputes show. Generally speaking, nothing more can be said than this: On the one hand, priority usually plays an important role, i.e. the question of who has been using a certain name for a longer period of time, and on the other hand, the reputation of the names or their users is often important.

In case of doubt, especially if you already have your own concerns, you should not refrain from seeking professional advice (e.g. from a lawyer or, if trademark law is involved, from a patent attorney). In case of doubt, this is always cheaper than being sued later by an overlooked rights holder. It can also be helpful to search for more detailed information yourself (e.g. on the Internet), such as court rulings.
 

You can find all the information you need on the DENIC website in the Nameserver and NSentry Entries section.

There may be several reasons for this. First of all, you should contact your provider. If you are a DENICdirect customer, please contact us.

Yes, the registration documents must be kept available. This refers to the duration of the contract with the domain holder plus the statutory retention obligations. DENIC does not specify the form in which the data and documents must be recorded. However, existing documents and data must be kept and handed over to DENIC on request.

DENIC provides the NAST tool for checking name servers.

NAST (NAme Server Tester) is a tool for checking zones and name server configurations. It can be used to check whether the name servers for a domain have been configured correctly and whether the zone complies with DENIC's guidelines. This check can be applied both to domains that are already connected and to new domains that are yet to be registered. This makes it possible to check before registration whether a domain request might fail due to DNS problems.

You may have received an invoice for the following reasons:

1. You have ordered a domain registration or a provider change order from our DENICdirect service.
2. You have received an invoice for the annual maintenance fee because your domain is already administered by DENICdirect.
3. Your domain was in the TRANSIT procedure and you have not carried out a provider change or domain deletion within the free TRANSIT period. To ensure that you do not lose the domain, it has been transferred to DENICdirect's fee-based service.

This is certainly possible. It essentially depends on the time you want to take for the move. In any case, it is advisable to allow for a period of time during which you can be reached via both providers. This will give you time to set up your new Internet presence. You can then ask your old provider to point you to the new website, carry out the provider change and then close the old website.

The more thoroughly you prepare the move, the fewer problems there should be. It is therefore advisable to allow for a transition period of one week.

The insolvency of a domain holder has no effect on the domain ownership, but at most on the power of disposal, which may be transferred to the insolvency administrator.

When a legal entity is dissolved, its remaining assets, including its domains, are always liquidated. This means that the liquidator decides what happens to these domains and DENIC cannot simply delete such domains.

If you are the holder of the domain in question and your domain is administered by a provider, you should contact your provider immediately and inform them of the correct data so that they can pass it on to DENIC.

If you are the domain holder and your domain is administered by DENICdirect, please send your corrections directly to DENIC using the form provided.

If DENIC has provided you with information about the domain holder data of a third party in the course of an individual request (prerequisites for providing such information) and you have subsequently discovered that the data is incorrect, you can inform DENIC of your observation if you can prove at the same time that the data is incorrect or if this is obvious. In this case, a double proof is required: Firstly, you must prove that an attempt to send a document to the domain holder at the address registered with DENIC has failed. This proof can be provided in particular by an envelope marked "Unbekannt" or "Unbekannt verzogen", but also, for example, by a notification from a court that formal service has been unsuccessful. On the other hand, it is not sufficient if the domain holder merely refuses to accept letters or does not collect (registered) letters, because then he exists at the registered address. An envelope with the note "Acceptance refused" or "Not collected" is therefore not sufficient under any circumstances. Secondly, you must provide negative information from the relevant register (e.g. residents' registration office for natural persons and commercial register for legal entities).

If, after receiving information about the domain holder's data (prerequisites for providing such information), you find that the domain holder's registered e-mail address does not work, DENIC will follow up on your information if you send us suitable proof (e.g. a screenshot of the undeliverable e-mail).

The contracts between DENIC and the member and between DENIC and the domain holder are not affected by registration via a reseller. The relationship between the member and the reseller is governed by the agreements made between these parties. The DENIC member in question is responsible for ensuring that its resellers are aware of all DENIC's regulations and that they comply with them.

The easiest way to reach us

by e-mail to direct@denic-services.de,

by fax at +49 6151 629 09 43

or by post:

DENIC Services GmbH & Co. KG
DENICdirect
Heinrich-Hertz-Str. 5
64295 Darmstadt

During our service hours (Monday to Thursday from 8:00 to 18:00, Friday from 8:00 to 16:00) we are also available under the telephone number +49 6151 629 09 42.

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Current notice:

Fictitious invoices from a ".DE German Domain" (info@deutschedomain.com) are currently circulating, claiming to be a service provider for domain registrations. DENIC has nothing to do with these invoices and would like to refer in this context to a warning issued by the North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Advice Center:
www.vz-nrw.de/de-deutsche-domain.

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Before you pay anything, you should first take the time to check what you are being asked to pay for. To be on the safe side, always read the small print.

Invoices for domain registration and other services in connection with your .de domain will only be issued by the service provider (provider, domain provider) that you have commissioned yourself. You will only receive an invoice from DENIC if you are a customer of our DENICdirect service: either because you yourself originally commissioned DENICdirect to administer the domain, or because you did not commission any other provider to administer one of your domains that was included in the TRANSIT procedure.

You can recognize letters from DENIC by the fact that

the letterhead contains the DENIC logo,DENIC's postal address, telephone, fax and e-mail contact details and a DENIC contact person are mentioned,DENIC's VAT identification number (VAT ID) and bank details are mentioned,the domain(s) concerned is/are mentioned.

We have become aware of cases in which domain holders have also been requested to make payments by other companies. These letters could be mistakenly interpreted as an invoice from DENIC. Therefore, if another company that you do not know demands money for a domain service, please check very carefully whether the request for payment is justified. If you are unsure, ask your domain provider's customer service.

The processing time for a fully completed domain request form is usually no more than 2 working days.

Important:
Our online registration wizard is not yet the binding order. It helps you to enter all the required information and then generates a PDF. Please print out the generated domain application form, sign it and send it to DENICdirect:

Fax: (+49) 6151 629 09 43
E-mail: direct[at]denic-services[dot]de

Letter:

DENIC Services GmbH & Co. KG
DENICdirect
Heinrich-Hertz-Str. 6
64295 Darmstadt

In addition to the desired domain, our domain application form or the online registration asks for information about the domain holder, the invoice recipient and the technical entries.

You will find further explanations of all the necessary information in DENIC's Domain Guidelines.

Please note:
Please note that the DENICdirect service does not include any technical services such as Internet access, e-mail accounts or web space. You can only obtain these services from an Internet Service Provider. 

If you want to register your domain via DENICdirect, you can choose between two order types: "NSEntry" and "Nameserver".

DENIC NSEntry

With this type of order, up to five mail exchange or address entries are possible within one domain. It is always preferred if you do not want to operate your own name servers, as the necessary effort would not be worthwhile. This order type covers www.domain.de, ftp.domain.de and mail forwarding. The technical entries for the domain must be specified to us when the order is placed.

DENIC name server

This means the delegation of responsibility for a domain to at least two name servers named by the customer. All name server requests for the domain in question are then forwarded to these responsible name servers. The technical entries for the domain must be named to us when the order is placed.

The domain holder can initiate changes (so-called updates) at any time, which we will then enter immediately. These include changes to the order type (NSEntry or name server) as well as the entries themselves and the contact details. Changes must be made in writing and must be submitted to us as a complete order. The fees for these updates are already included in the maintenance costs.

Important note:

Domain registration via DENICdirect does not include Internet access or web space. You can only obtain these services from an Internet service provider, including many of our members.

In order to transfer a registered domain to another holder, DENICdirect requires a transfer declaration signed by the previous domain holder stating that they are terminating their contract with us and transferring all rights and obligations to the domain to the new holder.

We also need a completed and signed domain request form from the new domain holder. These documents are best sent to us by e-mail. Alternatively, you can send it by fax or post.

Please also note the DENIC Domain Terms and Conditions and the Domain Guidelines.

To delete your domain, please print out the domain deletion form, fill it in completely, sign it and send it to DENICdirect.

Please note:
Please note that any domain fees due must still be paid in the event of a domain deletion.

Domain fees already paid by you will not be refunded in the event of deletion, even if the period for which these fees were paid has not yet expired.

In addition to the ASCII characters (the 26 Latin letters, the ten digits and the hyphen), other characters can be used with IDNs under .de. These include the umlauts ä, ö and ü as well as the eszett and letters with accents and other diacritical characters. We have compiled a list of the IDNs currently valid under .de for you in a table.

The reasons for selecting these 93 characters include :

• DENIC supports all characters from the Unicode blocks "Latin-1 Supplement" and "Latin Extended-A", which are marked as "PROTOCOL VALID" in RFC 5892 (The Unicode Code Points and Internationalized Domain Names for Applications).
• DENIC is a non-discriminatory and open registry. In Germany, there is no meaningful demarcation regarding the choice of different characters, since letters from both Northern and Southern and Eastern European languages have found their way into the German written language. 
• It is therefore reasonable and appropriate to choose two character blocks that cover most of the basic Latin letters of the European language area with supplementary characters, and the most frequently occurring characters of these character sets can be entered with the standard keyboards available in Germany without any particular effort.

A domain must consist of at least one and can consist of a maximum of 63 characters. In the case of IDNs, the question arises as to whether this length refers to the IDN (straße.de) or the ASCII character string (xn--strae-oqa.de).

For technical reasons, the maximum character length is limited to 63 characters of the ASCII character string. The minimum character length, on the other hand, refers to the IDN.

No, because these entries are transferred directly to the name server, no conversion takes place. Only names consisting of the previously permitted ASCII characters are permitted as host names for name servers and NSentry entries. For example, the Punycode encoding dns.xn--strae-oqa.de can be used as a host name in name server entries, but not the corresponding IDN dns.straße.de.

This regulation has the advantage that any Japanese, Chinese and Cyrillic hostnames can be used as name servers and there are no restrictions on a character set. Although such hostnames cannot be registered under .de, other registries are free to choose the letters and characters they allow, and of course they are guided by the needs of local Internet users.

All "ß" domains can be used immediately after registration. The output via the DENIC information services is in real time.