Leading European domain name registrar INDOM has designed an ultra fast registration engine for the forthcoming opening of the French domain name spac...

Leading European domain name registrar INDOM has designed an ultra fast registration engine for the forthcoming opening of the French domain name space.

From May 11th 2004, the French domain name space will be much more open, with names registered on the "first come, first served" basis that has long been the norm in places like .COM or .CO.UK.

Domain name registrars are scrambling to meet the expected demand – AFNIC, the non-profit organisation that runs the .FR domain space, anticipates a 100% rise in the number of registrations once the new rules are in place. And to many domain name professionals, those estimates are actually conservative.

There are just 170,000 .FR names registered, a direct consequence of the current restricted access to the French name space. But with European neighbours like Germany and England beating new records almost every day (Germany now has over 7 million .de domains, making it the world's biggest country code domain and the second biggest domain overall behind .COM), France is expected to try and play catch up once its name space is opened up.

Whatever the volume of registration requests, AFNIC accredited registrar INDOM will be ready. Ranked a top ten registrar by AFNIC since the company was created, INDOM has developed an innovative registration engine specifically for the .FR relaunch. "We will be able to register up to 30 names a second," explains Yoann HEBERT, INDOM's IT director.

"We've been able to achieve such a high registration potential by interfacing directly with AFNIC's new registration platform," adds HEBERT. "And we're obviously very pleased with the results: 30 names a second, that's more than a hundred thousand names an hour!"

Ironically, while INDOM's registration engine would be running within standard operational parameters should demand be so high, AFNIC's own systems might not be able to handle the load. The French registry operator's previously tough registration rules meant that the .FR registration process has never been fully automated. So AFNIC has had to bring new systems on line to make the new rules possible.

"No-one expects the numbers of requests to be as high as our engine's maximum registration capabilities," admits Pierre BERECZ, INDOM's general manager. "In any case, if they were, it's unlikely that AFNIC's new systems could cope."

"But we designed our registration engine to be as robust as possible," says BERECZ. "Our clients include large international corporations who have already asked us to register batches of several hundred names for them once the .FR name space is opened up. And they expect us to deliver. The only way to make sure we do is to have the fastest and most efficient tools available. I feel confident that's what we've got. To put things into perspective, consider that if it ran at maximum capacity, our registration engine could almost triple the size of France's domain name space in just two hours!"

The French name space will be opened up on Tuesday May 11th at 9 am. Backed up by the company's advanced registration engine, INDOM's team of dedicated domain name professionals are standing by to help you get the most out of this unique opportunity to penetrate what has up to now been one of Europe's most restricted Internet domains.


About INDOM
Based in France, INDOM is the country's leading provider of worldwide domain name registration and management services. Established in 1997, INDOM has offices in the US and the UK and its head office in Paris.

For more information, please visit: www.indom.us