The top-level domain (TLD) “.np” is the country code TLD for Nepal. This means it is designated for use by individuals, institutions, and organizations based in the country of Nepal, according to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) which is responsible for the global coordination of the DNS Root, IP addressing, and other Internet protocol resources.
The .np TLD was delegated to the country of Nepal by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that oversees TLDs globally, in 1995. As of January 2021, there are over 70,000 .np TLDs registered.
The management and administrative control of the .np TLD is overseen by the Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., located in Kathmandu, Nepal, as per IANA records. They are responsible for regulating the usage and registration of the .np TLD, ensuring proper operation of .np domain technology systems, and defining the policies for .np domain name registration.
The use of .np TLD is allowed for individuals, businesses, organizations, and firms registered in Nepal. Furthermore, regional/operational level domain names (.edu.np, .gov.np, .org.np, etc.) are also provided for entities engaged in different activities. For instance, .edu.np domains are allocated to educational institutions, .gov.np to government institutions, and .org.np to non-profit organizations.
As for the technical description related to .np TLD, it is functionally identical to any other domain name. It works based on the Domain Name System (DNS), an essential component of the functionality of the Internet that translates human-friendly domain names like ‘example.com.np’ into an Internet Protocol (IP) address like 93.184.216.34 that computers use to identify each other on the network.
For instance, when a user makes a request for a website that uses the .np TLD, the Internet service provider contacts the name server for the .np TLD to find the correct IP address for the requested site. The name server responds with the IP address, and the provider directs the user’s request to that address.
Sources include authoritative entities like Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd., who has direct administrative control on the .np TLD. Further technical details are available in the Domain Name System (DNS) specifications, described in RFC 1034 and RFC 1035 published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
