.gb is a reserved

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

country code Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science ...

top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the ...

(

ccTLD A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It ...

) for the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The domain was introduced with RFC 920 in October 1984 that set out the creation of ccTLD generally using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the

ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It ...

list. However, the .uk domain had been created separately a few months before the compilation of this list. Consequently, .gb was never widely used. It is no longer possible to register under this domain. .gb was used for a number of years, mainly by British government organisations and commercial

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail The mail or post is a s ...

services using X.400-based e-mail infrastructure. This simplified translating between DNS domains and X.400 addresses, which used "GB" as a country code. With the demise of X.400 e-mail and IANA's general aim of one TLD per country, use of .gb declined; the domain remains in existence, but it is not currently open to new domain registrations. , dra.hmg.gb still exists, with at least three subdomains resolving through DNS (although none serve a website): hermes.dra.hmg.gb, delos.dra.hmg.gb, and dfhnet.dra.hmg.gb. The domain was originally owned by the Defence Research Agency, which became the

Defence Evaluation and Research Agency The Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) was a part of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) between 1995 and 2 July 2001. At the time it was the United Kingdom's largest science and technology organisation. It was regarded by its official h ...

in 1995 and was split into QinetiQ and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2001; the website became defunct some time thereafter. , Central Digital and Data Office's (see

Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive b ...

) intention is to inform

ICANN The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN ) is an American multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespac ...

early in 2023 that the UK wishes to retire .gb.

References

External links

IANA .gb whois information

JANET(UK) website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120308201033/http://lists.gllug.org.uk/pipermail/gllug/2002-April/021662.html Official country code for Britain = GB or UK?Email discussion on GB domain (2002) with historical zonefiles. Country code top-level domains Domain names of the United Kingdom Computer-related introductions in 1985 Internet properties established in 1985 1985 establishments in the United Kingdom {{Compu-domain-stub sv:Toppdomän#G