.NL domain policies

You do not have to be a resident or business operator in the Netherlands to register a .NL domain. Requests submitted without a Netherlands address will automatically have a "SIDN-specified domicile address" provided as the local presence for the registrant.

Technical Requirements for the registration of .NL domain names are included in this article.

In order to activate a .NL domain, the nameservers must comply with the following registry requirements.

• Each domain must have a primary nameserver and at least one secondary nameserver. The nameservers specified for inclusion in the .NL zone file should be redundant machines on separate (sub)networks.
• The name servers specified for inclusion in the NL zone file must be accessible from anywhere on the Internet using IPv4 and preferably also IPv6.
• The name servers specified for inclusion in the .NL zone file must be accessible from anywhere on the Internet using UDP port 53 and TCP port 53. If the domain name generates query responses more than 512 octets long, the EDNS0 protocol (RFC 2671) must also be supported.

Before a domain is added to the .NL zone file, the .NL zone file manager checks all the associated name servers, including nameservers that are not specified, but are (or appear to be) included in the zone file of the relevant domain. The checks will address (but may not be limited to) the following points:

• The zone file NS records must include at least the specified nameservers.
• The primary data source specified in the MNAME field of the SOA record must be a valid host name.
• The MNAME field in the SOA record and the NS and MX records must point to objects with A records (and possibly AAAA records), not to objects with CNAME records.
• The RNAME field in the SOA record must follow the syntax referred to in RFC 1912, section 2.2, and must yield a clear, valid email address that accepts mail.
• The TTL values of the NS records of the name servers included in the .NL zone must not be less than 7200 (2 hours) to prevent unnecessary querying of the .NL zone in the event of misconfigurations. Since such record represents important infrastructure components, which will not be modified quickly without preparation, a default TTL value of 172800 (48 hours) is recommended.
• The expire value in a zone's SOA record must be between 604800 (7 days) and 3456000 (40 days). SIDN's administrative arrangements (e.g. quarantine periods) assume a value in this range. The expire value of a zone must be at least seven times the refresh value, and the retry value of a zone must never be greater than the refresh value.
• In compliance with the standards, for every name server host at any subdomain level within the .NL domain, there must be a glue (A and possibly AAAA) record in the .NL zone file.
• If a name server for a domain is running on a host operated by the relevant registrar, the canonical host name used by the registrar must be included in the zone file and must be specified; it is not acceptable to include an alias of the domain name in question. This is to avoid littering of the .NL zone file with unnecessary glue records and to prevent problems arising if the IP address of such a name server is changed.

Renewal requests should be submitted prior to the domain’s expiry date in order to renew the name.

If a domain name is not renewed by its expiry date, it is not immediately released, but is held in quarantine for 40 days. During that 40 day period, it can be retrieved (reactivated) by the owner; however, the cost to reactivate a domain that is in quarantine is higher than the standard renewal rate. After the 40 day quarantine period, if the domain has not been reactivated, it is made available to the public.

To reactivate a domain name that is in quarantine

1. In the RWI, click Domain Redemption.
2. Complete the Redemption Request Form, and click I understand and agree. 
    A Domain Redemption charge ($80) will be deducted from your Reseller account. The new expiry date is one year from the original expiry date.