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Frequently asked questions

  • I am looking for a domain name registrant. Where can I look it up?

    The Whois is an easy-to-use tool for checking the availability of a .nl domain name. If the domain name is already taken, you can see who has registered it.

    On the page looking up a domain name you will find more information about what a domain name is, how the Whois works and how the privacy of personal data is protected. Alternatively, you can go straight to look for a domain name via the Whois.

  • I would like to transfer my domain name to another registrar. What is the procedure?

    To get your domain name transferred, you need the token (unique ID number) for your domain name. Your existing registrar has the token and is obliged to give it to you within five days, if you ask for it. The procedure for changing your registrar is described on the page transferring your domain name.

  • The details registered about me/my company are incorrect or out of date. How can I get them updated?

    To update the contact details associated with your domain name, you need to contact your registrar. Read more about updating contact details.

  • Why is my domain name in quarantine?

    When a domain name is cancelled, we aren't told the reason, so we can't tell you. You'll need to ask your registrar. The advantage of quarantine is that, if a name's cancelled by mistake, you can always get it back.

    One common reason is that the contract between you and your registrar says you've got to renew the registration every year. If you haven't set up automatic renewal and you don't renew manually, the registration will expire.

  • Ik heb een klacht over mijn provider/registrar. Kan ik daarvoor bij SIDN terecht?

    Wanneer je een klacht hebt over of een geschil met je registrar dan zijn er verschillende mogelijkheden om tot een oplossing te komen. Hierover lees je meer op pagina klacht over registrar. SIDN heeft geen formele klachtenprocedure voor het behandelen van een klacht over jouw registrar.

  • What conditions do I have to meet as a registrar?

    Would you like to be able to register domain names for customers or for your own organisation by dealing directly with SIDN? If so, you can become a .nl registrar. Read more about the conditions and how to apply for registrar status on the page becoming a registrar.

More frequently asked questions

Apple: connections established 40% faster with IPv6 than with IPv4

Any delay opening a web page costs money

The logo of the Apple brand in front of an Apple store
  • Monday 14 September 2020

Opinion has long been divided as to whether IPv6 is or isn't faster than IPv4. Some studies have found evidence that IPv6 is indeed faster, while others (including one focusing specifically on IPv6 and Facebook) have drawn the opposite conclusion. In many cases, comparative research has failed to detect any significant speed differential, but some investigators have suggested a trend, with IPv6 gradually catching up to IPv4 over several years. The various studies are summarised here [1, 2]. Viewing the evidence in the round, our impression has so far been that the two protocols are similar in terms of speed. However, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC20) in June of this year, software engineer Jiten Mehta urged delegates to make use of the latest internet networking technologies – especially IPv6 – when developing apps. His contention was that, on average, IPv6 network connections are established 1.4 times faster. The main reason apparently being that native IPv6 connections don't use (CG)NAT and therefore route IPv6 traffic more efficiently.

Optimisation features

In theory, IPv6 should be slightly faster than IPv4, since it has certain optimised header features, enabling IPv6 packets to be routed faster. What's more, (native) IPv6 connections don't require in-transit address translation of the kind needed with any IPv4 connection that involves (CG)NAT (i.e. most IPv4 connections). On the other hand, IPv6 support was added to network equipment later. That could mean that some ASIC hardware's IPv6 support isn't realised in an ideal way, and that router enhancements might tip the balance in favour of IPv4.

IPv4 overtaken

Stats published by APNIC show a clear improvement over time in IPv6's performance relative to IPv4. In recent years, the difference in average round-trip times (RTTs, or ping times) has steadily declined.

It is apparently only because of the situation in Asia that IPv6 has yet to overtake IPv4 in the global speed stats. "The countries whose performance is worst are countries with highly restrictive internet access policies (such as China, with its Great Firewall)," says Marco Davids, Research Engineer at SIDN Labs. "That may well influence speeds. Another possible reason why IPv6 doesn't outperform the older technology is that peering may not be as good for IPv6, meaning that network packets have to take a slower route to their ultimate destination."

If we look only at Europe and America, we see that IPv6 now outperforms IPv4. In the last of the three graphs below, you can see that the Netherlands is following a typical European development path.

Nuancing

Lee Howard, CEO of IPv6 access provider Retevia, has long argued that IPv6 is faster than IPv4. In a presentation [1, 2, 3] to the NANOG 76 conference last year, he showed how native (dual-stack) IPv6 and IPv4 connections are generally equally fast. On mobile networks, however, IPv6 connections over NAT64 appear to be up to 25 ms faster than IPv4 connections over NAT64. The most likely explanation for the discrepancy is the need for NAT translation or a delay in the CLAT software on mobile devices. Howard claims that IPv6 has the edge on landlines as well, with data indicating that the average IPv6 connection is realised 15 ms faster than with IPv4. Moreover, on landlines, the difference appears to depend on the IPv6 fail rate. According to Howard, the explanation may lie with the 'Happy Eyeballs' algorithm (RFC 8305), which enables dual-stack applications to initiate parallel IPv6 and IPv4 connections more or less simultaneously. As a result, the worst IPv6 scores aren't included in the stats, he suggests, because they result in a failure.

Lost earnings

On the internet, speed matters. Delays that affect end users (web pages that are slow to load), have a direct impact on reach and earnings. Amazon once said that every 100 ms delay resulted in a 1 per cent loss of sales. According to Akamai, cumulative speed-related losses can be as high as 7 per cent. And Google discovered long ago that a half-second increase in the time it took for its home page to load translated into a 20 per cent drop-off in traffic, no less. Google also takes page loading time into account when ranking search results. More information about the impact of long loading times is available here [1, 2, 3].