IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) denotes a domain name, containing diacritic national signs, characteristic of a particular language, for example, in the Polish language those signs are the following: ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ż, ź.

When we enter in the browser's address bar a domain name, containing at least one character other than ASCII, a browser (recognizing IDN) by means of a special algorithm (RFC 3490) converts a domain name into ASCII format, stored in DNS resources.

Yes, however the method of its service/operation will depend on the software, i.e. whether particular software is compatible with IDN or not. Software that does not recognize IDN will accept only ASCII format of your domain (i.e. with "xn--" prefix).

Unicode is a modern method of encoding including characters used worldwide (e.g. tails, hieroglyphs, Cyrillic script), musical, technical, phonetic symbols, etc. Unicode assigns to each character a unique number (code point) irrespective of applied operating system, programme or language. An important feature of Unicode is that the first 128 characters correspond to ASCII codes (range 00..7F). More about Unicode at www.unicode.org.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a system which uses digits to code characters. In the ASCII character table alphanumeric characters are collected with corresponding code points. There are two types of ASCII codes: 7 bit (128 characters) and 8 bit (256 characters) by means of which it is possible to define, for example, Polish national signs.

To convert a domain name, please use IDN/ASCII Converter provided by NASK.

NASK enables registration of domain names with "xn--" prefix the Unicode format of which contains characters of only one of sets of defined national signs. It is not allowed to combine characters of different sets.

NASK maintains on its main server only delegation of domain names with "xn--" prefixes. NASK does not provide IDN converting services and does not bear responsibility for proper operation of IDN in user’s applications. Converting of IDN from one format to the other is effected entirely on the side of a user’s application.

How will my IDN look like in the WHOIS database?

Questions regarding fees should be referred directly to a registrar by assistance of which you want to register your IDN. IMPORTANT! The annual fee for IDN, registered in the .gov.pl domain, amounts to PLN 150 net.

Questions regarding the procedure on change of domain delegation should be referred directly to a registrar. IMPORTANT! If you have IDN, registered in the .gov.pl domain, follow the instruction available on this site.

If your software is not compatible with IDN, please install a special plug-in extending its functionality to service IDNs or upgrade the software to the newest version. If you are not sure whether your software supports IDNs, please contact the software’s provider.