.al is the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...

(

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...

) for

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

. It is administered by the Electronic and Postal Communications Authority of Albania (AKEP). AKEP recommends that .al domain registrations be performed with one of the AKEP accredited registrars. There are also international registrars that resell .al domains. Domain names should be between 2 and 63 characters. Although the

Albanian language Albanian (Endonym and exonym, endonym: , , or ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language and the only surviving representative of the Albanoid, Albanoid branch, which belongs to the Paleo-Balkan languages, Paleo-Balkan group. It ...

has a number of special characters, the registry has not enabled the use of IDN characters.

2nd level registrations

In the past, registrations were not permitted directly at the second level, but a few existing names were "grandfathered"; they were uniti.al, tirana.al, soros.al, upt.al and inima.al. In 2012 registrars started to resell .al domain names widely making them popular outside

domain hack A domain hack is a domain name that suggests a word, phrase, or name when concatenating two or more adjacent levels of that domain. For example, and , using the domains ''.bot'' and ''.le'', suggest the words ''robot'' and ''example'' respective ...

s. In November 2014 the registry released two character domain names allowing for free landrush.

3rd level registrations

Registrations used to be only beneath the second-levels, i.e., .com.al, .net.al, .org.al, and .edu.al labeled appropriately for the type of organisation, but many now exist directly below .al.

Whois servers

As of November 1, 2019, the Autoriteti i Komunikimeve Elektronike dhe Postare (AKEP) has mandated that all AKEP accredited registrars begin verifying and updating the WHOIS contact information for all new domain registrations and Registrant contact modifications.

Domain figures

As of the end of 2022 there were 27,275 registered .al-domains.

References

External links

IANA .al whois information

AKEP
Electronic and Postal Communications Authority (AKEP) Country code top-level domains Telecommunications in Albania Internet properties established in 1992 Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries members {{compu-domain-stub sv:Toppdomän#A