Domainz Limited is a former domain name registrar and web host company, known as the original .nz registry operator. In September 2003, Domainz was acquired by Australian-based registrar

Webcentral Webcentral, is an Australian digital services provider. It is a publicly-traded company that was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in December 1999. It provides internet domain registration, email/office applications, cloud hosting, ...

(then Melbourne IT Limited).

History

IANA The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet P ...

delegated the .nz namespace to John Houlker on 19 January 1987, and the

University of Waikato The University of Waikato (), established in 1964, is a Public university, public research university located in Hamilton, New Zealand, Hamilton, New Zealand. An additional campus is located in Tauranga. The university performs research in nume ...

issued .nz domain names and maintained the .nz registry during the early part of Internet availability in New Zealand. During 1996, as Internet use was flourishing in New Zealand, and operation of the .nz registry was becoming burdensome on the University of Waikato, John Houlker, IANA and The Internet Society of New Zealand (Isocnz) agreed to a redelegation of the .nz name to Isocnz. The University of Waikato was contracted to continue hosting the .nz namespace until Isocnz was in a position to assume full responsibility for the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources on the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information ...

(DNS). Isocnz established a subsidiary company, “The New Zealand Internet Registry Ltd”, trading as Domainz, to run the .nz registry, on 15 April 1997. Domainz commenced allocating domain names, to both companies and individuals, evolving what was known as the Domainz Registration System (DRS). Concern over a new online registry system, which was facing numerous problems, and opposition to a lawsuit (against Alan Brown, the founder of ORBS) were both championed by Domainz CEO Patrick O'Brien. This saw all available Isocnz council seats (and subsequently the Domainz board) filled by "rebel" members in elections in July 2000. The SRS was implemented and became live on 14 October 2002, with Domainz as the sole registrar, acting in a stabilizing role, until the first competitive registrar connected to the shared registry on 7 December 2002. Domainz remained as the stabilizing registrar until September 2003, when it was acquired by Webcentral for $A1.5 million.

References and sources

History from New Zealand Commerce Commission
(PDF)

External links

Internet New Zealand

Domainz Corporate Site
Domain name registrars Internet in New Zealand Web hosting {{WebManTools