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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  • The details registered about me/my company are incorrect or out of date.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

IPv6-only as part of a sustainable business model

"In practice, there's almost no difference between IPv6-only and dual stack"

  • Friday 21 February 2020

Swiss company ungleich profiles itself explicitly as an IPv6-only service provider under the banner of IPv6onlyHosting. They see IPv6 as a natural part of their sustainable business model. The advantages of an internal IPv6-only infrastructure are considerable, for service provider and user alike. Meanwhile, end users on IPv4 have easy service access thanks to ungleich's transparent, service-specific proxies.

"The core of our service offering is virtual machines (VMs) and data storage," says CEO Nico Schottelius. "Alongside the traditional dual-stack systems, we've been offering IPv6-only VMs for several years now."

Proxies

In order to ensure full access to the services running on the IPv6-only systems – that is, access for all internet users, including those on IPv4 – ungleich deploys various protocol-specific IPv6-IPv4 (reverse) proxy servers:

According to Schottelius, the majority of the IPv6-only VMs are used to provide web services, and the set-up described provides adequate accessibility from the IPv4 internet. By operating proxies (via SNI), ungleich is able to make do with fewer IPv4 addresses than would be needed for a dual-stack solution.

Discount

At the moment, ungleich customers get a discount of 8 Swiss francs (7.50 euros) a month on their IPv6-only VMs. And the price differential will soon increase by a euro, because the charge for a dual-stack VM is going up. "We've just reached full capacity on another IPv4 network. So we'll have to start a new one, and that inevitably means higher prices," explains Schottelius.

"Our IPv6 customers get various things free as well, because not everyone is on IPv6. They get one IPv6 VPN thrown in for each VM they lease. As a standalone product, the cost of that would be CHF 120 (EUR 113) a year."

"In practice, there's almost no difference between IPv6-only and a dual-stack VM." If you want to use a protocol that isn't currently supported, no problem: we'll develop a bespoke proxy or connector."

Sustainable proposition

For ungleich, IPv6 is a natural part of a wider proposition. "Our whole company is geared to sustainability," Schottelius asserts. "We use 100 per cent renewable energy, for example, and we're a zero-carbon provider. But that's not all: we use repurposed buildings in the Glarus canton and our (refurbished) servers have no active cooling. We also support the local community with knowledge and affordable digital services."

"Our focus on IPv6 is a natural part of that philosophy: IPv4 is unsustainable, for us, for users and for content providers. If we didn't push IPv6, we'd be neglecting our customers' long-term interests."

No surprises

The main reason for ungleich marketing its IPv6-only service under the explicit name of IPv6onlyHosting is to make the offering completely clear to customers. "We don't want anyone buying the service without realising what it is," emphasises Schottelius. "However, we also want to raise the profile of IPv6, and to challenge the old idea that you need IPv4. Our service offering shows that you don't."

Users are clearly very accepting of the concept. "Over the last year, many of our customers have switched from a dual-stack set-up to IPv6-only. Partly because of the price, no doubt. But also because it's easier to operate. One important benefit is that users can create firewall rules on their VMs to suit their VPNs. Then you can power up your laptop anywhere in the world and securely access your Prometheus portal, for example."

Small technology companies

Small technology companies form the primary target group for ungleich's IPv6-only services. "In most cases, we're talking about firms with between three and twenty workers, developing web applications and the like," says Schottelius. "A lot of them run web application servers, some operate chat systems, such as Mattermost and Matrix, and there's a raft of them doing software development and providing code repository services."

"Customers were initially sceptical when we started with IPv6-only in 2017. But that changed quickly as soon as they got working with their first IPv6 VMs, were able to use a /64 prefix for Docker, or connected their branch offices together via our VPN network.

Heated debate

According to Schottelius, the strategy was the cause of some in-company turbulence at first. "There was a heated discussion within the team about the direction we should take. But in the end it made life easier. If we hadn't adopted IPv6 for our data centre, for example, all our internal switches, routers, access points and the like would now have RFC 1918 addresses. As well as necessitating the use of stateful NAT, that would have created remote access problems with overlapping network address spaces."

"When we began, it was exclusively IPv6," Schottelius continues. "As time went by, we added dual-stack functionality here and there, and now we're back to IPv6-only. We initially developed a proxy for HTTPS, where the TLS certificates were installed. Now we use our own SNI snooping technology for that, so the proxy isn't needed any more."

Modern technology stack

"Ungleich has always embraced cutting-edge technology," says Schottelius. "An IPv6-first approach therefore suits our ethos. It helps us keep things simple and consistent. More than that, it puts us into the orbit of any company minded to build on a modern technology stack and do away with outmoded technology."