FAQ: International E-mail accessibility
am 21.05.2006 06:22:06 von oclArchive-name: mail/country-codes
Last-modified: 2003/02/01
Based on International Standard ISO 3166 Codes
Compiled by Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond
E-mail:
Release: 2003.02.1
Release Notes: a. .AERO and .PRO are now live. New Web links.
b. FX - France (European Territories), deleted
c. modified reference to ISO3166 list
d. added APNIC Whois Web page info
This document is Copyright 1994-2003 by Olivier Crepin-Leblond.
Parts of this document may be reproduced in a commercial publication
ONLY if prior permission has been granted by the copyright holder.
It may however be freely redistributed in its entirety provided that
this copyright notice, its headers "Archive-name", "Last-modified",
and "Release" are not removed. If unsure, please E-mail ocl@gih.com
This document answers the question:
"Has country X got E-mail or Internet access ?".
The following table is a guide of country codes, showing the
countries which have access to Internet or general E-mail services.
The country codes have been derived from the International
Organization for Standardization standard ISO 3166 found on:
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.htm l
A country code is taken as a top level domain once it is registered
by ICANN, www.icann.org so *not* all country codes listed
are top level domains. At the bottom of the table, there is also
a section of general top level domains, based on the information
available at ICANN.
NOTES
I. Description of codes
FI stands for FULL INTERNET access. This includes 'telnet', 'ftp',
and internet E-mail.
B stands for BITNET (Because It's Time NETwork) access although
the address may be in internet DNS (Domain Name System) format.
Please note that this network is being dismantled and quickly
replaced by Full Internet connectivity.
* (Asterisk) means that the country is reachable by E-mail. If this is
not preceded by FI or B, it means that the connection may be a UUCP
connection. An asterisk is included after FI or B for consistency.
C stands for the "courtesy" top level domain. There may actually be no
physical access as such in the country referenced by this top level
domain, but E-mail and/or Web addresses can be obtained under it;
in some cases, this is for an official Web server for that country,
which is facility-managed elsewhere. In other cases, it is a
courtesy domain provided for commercial reasons which may, or may
not be seen as a legitimate use of that top level domain. Indeed
some small countries have generated income by selling or letting
their top level domain, and using the income for the development
of their own internet infrastructure.
PFI stands for a provisional full internet connection.(+)
P stands for provisional connection. (+)
(+) This is used when one or more of the following is true:
- address not verified or lack of address
- UUCP dialup not active
- net connection possible but not officially announced
- premature official announcement of connection
F stands for a country that is connected to Internet only via means
of the FIDOnet network. It is assumed that the FIDO connection in this
case is stable and reliable.
II. Networks which are not included
Networks such as MILNET (U.S. Military's unclassified portion of the
DDN - Data Defense Network) have computers all around the world. It is
generally possible to assume that wherever there is a U.S. military base,
there will be a node reachable through gateways. Similarly, you can bet
that whenever a Space Shuttle (Orbiter in NASA lingo), they're connected
to NASA's Network.
Worldwide Private company networks (banks, computer companies etc. that
have their own worldwide corporate intra-net).
Some networks based on X.400 E-mail, which offer high-cost networking
access. While those types of network are fading fast due to their
high cost compared to the Internet, some regions of the world are
still reacheable only via such networks. The service is VERY COSTLY,
usually takes place via UUCP or X.400 connections. X.400 E-mail is
usually charged to someone and if the telecommunication carrier
cannot find someone to pay for the message transfer, it will reject
it. Although you may be able to RECEIVE E-mail from a user on those
networks, you may not be able to reply to it.
III. Updates
The situation changes from day to day.
The growth in international networking is such that the information
contained in this document may be out of date by the time it reaches
you.
Please send me ( ocl@gih.com ) any updates, including an example
address, for verification purposes.
Furthermore, if you are a connection provider or could provide a
low cost connection in a country, and are not listed as a provider in
that country (see "FURTHER INFORMATION" section), please notify either
Randy Bush
all three of us !).
Alternatively, better still, please enter details directly on:
http://www.nsrc.org/db/admin ,the provider update form.
NOTE: This doesn't include providers for North America. If you are a
North American provider, then please DON'T contact us - there are
already thousands of providers out there.
IV. BITNET and .US sites
There are are few BITNET nodes left in the US, but none have a
name in the format `.US', hence the US domain is only FI and *.
The slow shutting down of BITNET is nearly complete, with only a
handful of nodes in existence, most of which are directly reacheable
via the Internet under a DNS name. R.I.P. Bitnet !
V. .edu, .com, etc.
The domains in this section are special in that some of them are
used in more than one country. The domains which have full internet
access are marked accordingly.
VI. UK and GB domains
UK stands for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland. GB actually stands for Great Britain. GB is therefore a
subset of UK. In reality, the GB top level domain has been used mainly
for X.400 addressing of sites, while the UK top level domain is more
commonly used. While in the early nineties, there was an emphasis towards
X.400, and hence towards registration under the GB top level domain,
this policy does not stand anymore, and relatively few sites in the
UK are now registered under the GB top level domain.
VII. Further information column
While there was a time when it was possible to display all
further information about a country's connectivity on this table,
it is now impossible to do so.
We suggest downloading the Web-based version of this document from
http://www.nsrc.org/codes/country-codes.html and selecting the
top level domain concerned - this will point to a wealth of
further information.
VIII. Where to find further information
In addition to the Web form of this document, a number of sites
run on-line information databases, mail-servers, and web information
systems where further information can be found.
- www.internic.net / Network Solutions www.networksolutions.com
Part of this site, the InterNIC database services, contains the
Internet "white pages". The "whois" section of the "white pages"
has registration records for top level domains. Whois can be
accessed via the Web:
http://www.networksolutions.com/cgi-bin/whois/whois
or using the "whois" command available on some computer systems:
(whois -h whois.internic.net).
Registration records for a domain are sometimes useful since they
provide Administrative and Technical Contacts for this domain
and those may hence be able to provide further information.
Whois can also be accessible by E-mailing mailserv@internic.net
and subject: whois
- whois.ripe.net
The Central European Registry run by RIPE, the co-ordinator for
European Internet nodes. It contains a lot of information regarding
European IP, etc. This is where the European WHOIS pages are found:
http://www.ripe.net/perl/whois
- whois.apnic.net
The Asia Pacific Network Information Center, the co-ordinator
for Internet sites in Asia and the Pacific area.
http://www.apnic.net/apnic-bin/whois.pl
- GNET: an Archive and Electronic Journal
This is co-ordinated by Larry Press
bookmarks for worldwide networking resources as well as papers
and documents about connectivity. Access the archive as:
http://som.csudh.edu/cis/lpress/devnat/
- Bitnet Network Information Center
Bitnet LISTSERVs contain files which list all BITNET sites around
the world. For a listing of all BITNET sites, in country code order,
Transfer it from: ftp://ftp.lsoft.com/listserv-data/bitearn.nodes
or: ftp://segate.sunet.se/listserv-data/bitearn.nodes
Since BITNET is being shutdown slowly, the list is only updated
when nodes are removed. Nodes remain in only 9 countries.
- IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
This site keeps a list of country code registries at:
http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm
Effectively, this is the Root-Zone Whois Information.
It is very useful for getting in touch with registration
services for each country.
- ICANN, the Internet Central Authority for Network Numbers
This organisation has taken over the process of Top Level
Domain assignment from IANA, and the process of management
from Network Solutions (the InterNIC). It is found on:
http://www.icann.org
- Internet Software Consortium/Network Wizards Internet Domain
Survey. Every 6 months, a complete Internet Domain survey
of the Internet is attempted, with host counts in all
countries reacheable by the Net.
For all information: http://www.isc.org/ds
- www.nsrc.org
This Web system, maintained by the Network Startup Resource
Center contains perhaps the most comprehensive collection of
historical information about country connectivity. It is housed at
the University of Oregon Computing Centre.
The information is maintained in a distributed database (mySQL
and Java web server) that allows for friends and colleagues
around the world to help maintain the data about their
respective networks and countries.
It's top level reference is: http://www.nsrc.org/ and the
coloured maps held in http://www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/world.html
point to further information on http://www.nsrc.org/db.
Many thanks to Randy Bush
setting-up this site and this collaborative effort.
IX. Archiving
At each release, this document is archived in a number of archive
sites around the world. Amongst them:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/mail/
# ftp://ftp.uu.net:/usenet/news.answers/mail/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk:/usenet/news.answers/news.newusers.qu estions/
(#) those may not be accessible via Bear access or direct PC access
in some cases.
The document is also retrievable by E-mail from rtfm.mit.edu by
sending an E-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu , blank subject line
and the command: send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codes
The up-to-date, pre-release document is also available using a
simple mail-server robot:
Send E-mail to:
and the command: get mail/country-codes in the body of your message.
The document is also distributed automatically once a month on a
mailing list. To subscribe to that mailing list, send a message to:
country-codes-request@nsrc.org with the command in the body of the
message: subscribe
The whole collection of documents (monthly releases since 1992 !)
is available on: http://www.nsrc.org/oclb
X. World-Wide-Web (WWW) documents
A Web document is available on the World Wide Web. It is based
on this FAQ, and has links to further information for each domain:
http://www.nsrc.org/codes/country-codes.html
A set of clickable international colour-coded maps is available at:
http://www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/world.html
The pages are kindly hosted by the Network Startup Resource Center
computer at the University of Oregon.
Web references for Top-Level information servers for a particular country
should be sent to
XI. Internetology
The Internet has exploded in size in the last few years.
The present document has been edited monthly since 1993, and some Web
pages have been put together to reflect on the continuing spread of
Internet/E-mail in the world since that time, between 1993 and 1997, when
most Internet development took place in terms of new countries getting
connected.
This section is called "Internetology".
It provides a graphical history of the spread of the Net in developing
countries, by taking snapshots of Internet connectivity every six
months since November 1993. All of the maps tie-up with the
information that is included with the FAQ on International E-mail
accessibility.
The reference for the Internetology pages is:
http://www.nsrc.org/codes/bymap/ntlgy/
ISO 3166 Codes + Top level domains.
WARNING:
The link to some countries marked as being connected to Internet via
UUCP or FIDO is often an expensive telephone dialup link. The people
in those countries pay dearly for every byte of information sent to
them. It is therefore not advised to send an electronic mail to a
remote computer in such a country asking about the local weather report.
Please think twice before sending such E-mail. Thank you!
Code Connect Country Further information
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++
AC FI * C Ascension Island
AD FI * Andorra
AE FI * United Arab Emirates
AF P C Afghanistan(Islamic State)
AG FI * Antigua and Barbuda
AI FI * Anguilla
AL FI * Albania
AM FI * Armenia Ex-USSR
AN FI * Netherland Antilles
AO FI * Angola (Republic of)
AQ FI * Antarctica intermittent
AR FI * Argentina
AS FI * American Samoa
AT FI * Austria
AU FI * Australia
AW FI * Aruba
AZ FI * Azerbaijan Ex-USSR
BA FI * Bosnia-Herzegovina
BB FI * Barbados
BD FI * Bangladesh
BE FI * Belgium
BF FI * Burkina Faso
BG FI * Bulgaria
BH FI * Bahrain
BI FI * Burundi
BJ FI * Benin
BM FI * Bermuda
BN FI * Brunei Darussalam
BO FI * Bolivia
BR FI * C Brazil
BS FI * Bahamas
BT FI * C Bhutan
BV Bouvet Island
BW FI * Botswana
BY FI * Belarus Ex-USSR
BZ FI * C Belize
CA FI B * Canada
CC FI * C Cocos (Keeling) Islands
CD FI * C Democratic Republic of Congo
CF FI * Central African Republic
CG FI * C Congo
CH FI * Switzerland
CI FI * Ivory Coast
CK FI * Cook Islands
CL FI B * Chile
CM FI * Cameroon
CN FI * China
CO FI * C Colombia
CR FI * Costa Rica
CU FI * Cuba
CV FI * Cape Verde
CX C Christmas Island
CY FI * Cyprus
CZ FI * Czech Republic
DE FI * Germany
DJ FI * Djibouti
DK FI * Denmark
DM FI * Dominica
DO FI * Dominican Republic
DZ FI * Algeria
EC FI * Ecuador
EE FI * Estonia
EG FI * Egypt
EH Western Sahara
ER FI * Eritrea
ES FI * Spain
ET FI * Ethiopia
FI FI B * Finland
FJ FI * Fiji
FK FI * C Falkland (Malvinas)
FM FI * Micronesia
FO FI * Faroe Islands
FR FI * France
GA FI * Gabon
GB FI * Great Britain (UK) X.400 & IP both use this TLD
GD FI * Grenada
GE FI * Georgia Ex-USSR
GF FI * Guiana (French)
GG FI * Guernsey (Channel Island)
GH FI * Ghana
GI FI * Gibraltar
GL FI * Greenland
GM FI * Gambia
GN FI * Guinea
GP FI * Guadeloupe (French)
GQ FI * Equatorial Guinea
GR FI * Greece
GS C South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands
GT FI * Guatemala
GU FI * Guam (US) US domains
GW FI * Guinea Bissau
GY FI * Guyana
HK FI * Hong Kong
HM C Heard & McDonald Islands
HN FI * Honduras
HR FI * Croatia
HT FI * Haiti
HU FI * Hungary
ID FI * Indonesia
IE FI * Ireland
IL FI * Israel
IN FI * India
IM FI * Isle of Man
IO FI * British Indian Ocean Territory
IQ FI * Iraq
IR FI * Iran
IS FI B * Iceland
IT FI B * Italy
JE FI * Jersey (Channel Islands)
JM FI * Jamaica
JO FI * Jordan
JP FI * Japan
KE FI * Kenya
KG FI * Kyrgyz Republic Ex-USSR (in .su domain)
KH FI * Cambodia
KI FI * Kiribati
KM FI * Comoros
KN PFI P C St.Kitts Nevis Anguilla
KP P Korea (North)
KR FI * Korea (South)
KW FI * Kuwait
KY FI * Cayman Islands
KZ FI * Kazakstan Ex-USSR
LA FI * Laos
LB FI * Lebanon
LC FI * Saint Lucia
LI FI * Liechtenstein
LK FI * Sri Lanka
LR FI * Liberia
LS FI * Lesotho
LT FI * Lithuania Ex-USSR
LU FI * Luxembourg
LV FI * Latvia Ex-USSR
LY PFI * C Libya
MA FI * Morocco
MC FI * Monaco
MD FI * C Moldova Ex-USSR
MG FI * Madagascar
MH C Marshall Islands
MK FI * Macedonia (Former Yugoslav Republic Of)
ML FI * Mali
MM * Myanmar
MN FI * Mongolia
MO FI * Macau
MP FI * C Northern Mariana Islands
MQ FI * Martinique (French)
MR FI * Mauritania
MS C Montserrat
MT FI * Malta
MU FI * C Mauritius
MV FI * Maldives
MW FI * Malawi
MX FI * Mexico
MY FI * Malaysia
MZ FI * Mozambique
NA FI * Namibia
NC FI * New Caledonia (French)
NE FI * Niger
NF FI * C Norfolk Island
NG FI F Nigeria
NI FI * Nicaragua
NL FI * Netherlands
NO FI B * Norway
NP FI * Nepal
NR Nauru
NU FI * C Niue
NZ FI * New Zealand
OM FI * Oman
PA FI * Panama
PE FI * Peru
PF FI * Polynesia (French)
PG FI * Papua New Guinea
PH FI * Philippines
PK FI * Pakistan
PL FI * Poland
PM C St. Pierre & Miquelon
PN Pitcairn
PR FI B * Puerto Rico (US)
PS FI * Palestinian Territories, Occupied
PT FI * Portugal
PW FI * Palau
PY FI * Paraguay
QA FI * Qatar
RE FI * Reunion (France)
RO FI * Romania
RU FI * Russian Federation Ex-USSR
RW FI * Rwanda
SA FI * Saudi Arabia
SB FI * Solomon Islands
SC FI * Seychelles
SD FI * Sudan
SE FI B * Sweden
SG FI * Singapore
SH FI * C St. Helena
SI FI * Slovenia
SJ FI * Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands (in .no domain)
SK FI * Slovakia (Slovak Republic)
SL FI * Sierra Leone
SM FI * San Marino
SN FI * Senegal
SO FI * Somalia
SR FI * Suriname
ST FI * C St. Tome and Principe
SU FI * Soviet Union Still used.
SV FI * El Salvador
SY FI * Syria
SZ FI * Swaziland
TC FI * C Turks & Caicos Islands
TD FI * Chad
TF C French Southern Territories
TG FI * Togo
TH FI * Thailand
TJ FI * C Tadjikistan Ex-USSR
TK Tokelau
TM FI * Turkmenistan Ex-USSR
TN FI * Tunisia
TO FI * Tonga
TP FI * C East Timor
TR FI * Turkey
TT FI * Trinidad & Tobago
TV FI * C Tuvalu
TW FI * Taiwan
TZ FI * Tanzania
UA FI * Ukraine
UG FI * Uganda
UK FI * United Kingdom ISO 3166 is GB
UM US Minor outlying Islands
US FI * United States see note (4)
UY FI * Uruguay
UZ FI * Uzbekistan Ex-USSR
VA FI * Vatican City State
VC P St.Vincent & Grenadines
VE FI * Venezuela
VG FI * C Virgin Islands (British)
VI FI * Virgin Islands (US)
VN FI * Vietnam
VU FI * Vanuatu
WF Wallis & Futuna Islands
WS FI * C Western Samoa
YE FI * Yemen
YT Mayotte
YU FI * Yugoslavia
ZA FI * South Africa
ZM FI * Zambia intermittent
ZW FI * Zimbabwe
See Note [5] for the next top level domains (whois.internic.net):
ARPA * used for reverse-mapping in IPv4
COM FI * Commercial whois.internic.net
EDU FI B * Educational whois.internic.net
GOV FI * Government whois.nic.gov
INT FI * International field
MIL FI * US Military whois.nic.mil
NET FI * Network whois.internic.net
ORG FI * Non-Profit Organization www.pir.org
New Top Level Domains
AERO FI * Air Transport Industry http://www.nic.aero
BIZ FI * Businesses http://www.nic.biz
COOP FI * Non-profit cooperatives http://www.coop
INFO FI * Unrestricted Use http://www.afilias.info
MUSEUM FI * Museums http://www.nic.museum
NAME FI * For regist. by individuals http://www.nic.name
PRO FI * Acct, lawyrs & physicians http://www.nic.pro
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++
DISCLAIMER: while every effort is made to provide accurate information,
this list is not guaranteed to be accurate. This document is in NO WAY
an official document. The information given should not be used as a basis
for routing tables but only as general end-user information. This is a
voluntary effort. I would appreciate greatly if errors/omissions could
be pointed out to me and they will be corrected in the next release.
The information included in this document implies no view whatsoever
regarding questions of sovereignty or the status of any place listed.
--
Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond, Ph.D. |--> Global Information Highway Limited
Phone: +44 (0)7956 84 1113 | http://www.gih.com/ | E-mail:
Fax : +44 (0)20 7937 7666 | Always 60 seconds ahead of the past...