2 letter .co.uk domains

meinthecorner · Dec 9, 2005

Evening - Just been plodding around and noticed that most 2 letter .co.uk's "contravenes naming rules" and to please see http://www.nominet.org.uk/ReferenceDocuments/Rules for more details.

OK so when \ why did it change so you couldn't reg 2 letter domains? I see some that were regged after 1997?

I would click on the helpful link from the whois, but the page doesnt exist!

Jay Daley · Dec 12, 2005

meinthecorner said:
Evening - Just been plodding around and noticed that most 2 letter .co.uk's "contravenes naming rules" and to please see http://www.nominet.org.uk/ReferenceDocuments/Rules for more details.

You can't register two letter co.uk names but you can register two letter ltd.uk and plc.uk. I can't remember off hand about the other SLDs.

meinthecorner said:
OK so when \ why did it change so you couldn't reg 2 letter domains? I see some that were regged after 1997?

Eh? Which ones?

meinthecorner · Dec 12, 2005

Jay Daley said:
Eh? Which ones?

http://195.66.240.211/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=a1.co.uk

http://195.66.240.211/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=99.co.uk

Edit just realised they contain numbers... Is this the reason?

Jay Daley · Dec 12, 2005

meinthecorner said:
http://195.66.240.211/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=a1.co.uk

http://195.66.240.211/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=99.co.uk

Edit just realised they contain numbers... Is this the reason?

Yes. These are letter+digit not 2 x letter.

meinthecorner · Dec 12, 2005

Yeah spotted that this evening when thy brain wasn't engaged with alcohol ;-)

jonno · Dec 12, 2005

what about li.co.uk then?

that doesn't contain numbers?

Jay Daley · Dec 12, 2005

jonno said:
what about li.co.uk then?

that doesn't contain numbers?

That's a pre-Nominet name. In other words it was registered before Nominet took over the management of .uk. You can tell this by the absence of a registration date (or if the registration date is 1st August 1996 or earlier) on the WHOIS.

There are several of these around but no more can be registered.