.gb

Reserved Internet country-code top level domain for the United Kingdom Gerber files .GB (file extension) June 2020 February 2026 .gb #CCF 24 July 1985 Country code top-level domain Unused (reserved) Fallen into disuse in favour of .uk No registrations presently being taken name.gb, Government Websites assigned as .hmg.gb Entities connected with Great Britain (the United Kingdom) JANET (Jisc) .gb is a reserved Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom, derived from Great Britain. The domain was introduced with RFC 920https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc920 live https://web.archive.org/web/20250616052949/https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc920 16 June 2025 RFC 920: Domain Requirements J. Postel and J. Reynolds Network Working Group October 1984 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 list. However, the .uk domain had been created separately a few months before the compilation of this list.https://books.google.com/books?id=sMKmdJq7iE0C&pg=PA79 live https://web.archive.org/web/20230408055927/https://books.google.com/books?id=sMKmdJq7iE0C&pg=PA79 8 April 2023 Ruling the Root: Internet Governance and the Taming of Cyberspace Milton Mueller 79 MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 2002 9780262632980 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 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.https://www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/notes.html International E-mail Accessibility Crepin-Leblond Olivier M. J. 2003 23 June 2008 live https://web.archive.org/web/20080521011327/http://www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/notes.html 21 May 2008 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. 2026, there are at least three subdomains resolving through DNS (although none serve a web page or use): hermes.dra.hmg.gb, delos.dra.hmg.gb, and dfhnet.dra.hmg.gb.https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#ANY/hermes.dra.hmg.gb live https://archive.today/20250713144709/https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/%23ANY/hermes.dra.hmg.gb 13 July 2025 DNS lookup for hermes.dra.hmg.gb 21 September 2026 Google Apps Toolbox https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#ANY/delos.dra.hmg.gb live https://archive.today/20250713144707/https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/%23ANY/delos.dra.hmg.gb 13 July 2025 DNS lookup for delos.dra.hmg.gb 21 September 2026 Google Apps Toolbox https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/#ANY/dfhnet.dra.hmg.gb live https://archive.today/20250713144706/https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/dig/%23ANY/dfhnet.dra.hmg.gb 13 July 2025 DNS lookup for dfhnet.dra.hmg.gb 21 September 2026 Google Apps Toolbox They were originally owned by the Defence Research Agency,https://books.google.com/books?id=vm0bm8hdDjkC&pg=PA335 Computer Security – ESORICS 94 November 1994 Dieter Gollman Springer-Verlag Brighton 978-3-540-58618-0 335 A Consideration of the Modes of Operation for Secure Systems which became the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 1995 and was split into QinetiQ and the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in 2001; the websites became defunct some time thereafter.https://web.archive.org/web/20010517040139/http://www.dra.hmg.gb/ 17 May 2001 DERA http://www.dra.hmg.gb DERA dead 26 November 2006 November 2022, Central Digital and Data Office's intention was to inform ICANN early in 2023 that the UK wishes to retire the .gb ccTLD.Eden Terence Terence Eden Is it time to retire the .gb top level domain? https://cddo.blog.gov.uk/2022/11/15/is-it-time-to-retire-the-gb-top-level-domain/ live https://web.archive.org/web/20250629005229/https://cddo.blog.gov.uk/2022/11/15/is-it-time-to-retire-the-gb-top-level-domain/ 29 June 2025 15 November 2022 Central Digital and Data Office Blog 15 November 2022 UK GovernmentMay 2025 References External links IANA .gb whois information JANET(UK) website https://web.archive.org/web/20090221173552/http://www.ja.net/ 21 February 2009 Last accessible copy of www.dra.hmg.gb in the Internet Archive Official country code for Britain = GB or UK? Email discussion on GB domain (2002) with historical zonefiles. Others collapsed Category:Country code top-level domains Category:Domain names of the United Kingdom Category:Internet properties established in 1985 Category:1985 establishments in the United Kingdom sv:Toppdomän#G