The .eg conspiracy
Posted on | June 23, 2005 |
.eg, is the registered domain suffix for Egypt which ironically Egyptians are not allowed to use it freely to register their websites as the government is in 100% control for all registrations that contain the .eg suffix.
You will never be able to register “anyname”.eg from any international registrar that allow the registration of international domain names. Instead you are obliged to register it through the government, and to do so you must present you business or activity legal and registration papers.
I believe you are thinking “What legal and activity paper are we talking about here? What if I just want to register “myname”.eg for personal use? Well my friend, I sympathically would like to inform you can not.
So what’s .com.eg? or .gov.eg? or .net.eg? or .org.eg? Aren’t these the Egyptian domain names?
Nope, sorry. These are some of the domains registered with .eg that are owned by the government.
Is that good or bad?
The only advantage of having such a system in naming the domains is that Egyptian websites could have their own categories. Other than that, it’s nothing but a complete disaster.
One of the main reasons that I call this a disaster is the illiteracy of the Egyptian internet users regarding this matter. Do not get me wrong, as my intention is not to explicitely call Egyptian internet users illeterate.
When you register myname.com.eg is never the same like www.myname.com.eg. In myname.com.eg the government is registering myname as a subdomain to .com.eg, yes and therefore www.myname is the subdomain for the second scenario.
Too keep this long story short, if you had not registered both myname.com.eg and www.myname.com.eg, than the chances are indeed that you could get a 404 - Page not found error on the unregistered name.
The other even worse disaster is that you should host your website and emails under any *.eg domain in Egypt. I do not mean that all the Egyptian host suck, but again the government has more or less full control on your data and what you present, not forgetting the relatively high price for what you get in return, and the not so efficient service.
Regarding content control. A politcal party’s website has been put down by it’s local host company (which is one of the biggest in Egypt). Now that’s democracy and free speech.
Another reason to say Shame…
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8 Responses to “The .eg conspiracy”
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June 23rd, 2005 @ 9:52 pm
The same laws apply in most of Europe.
June 24th, 2005 @ 12:31 am
Hello DNA
Thanks for your comment on this post.
Somehow, I am aware of that the law uplies in most of europe, or at least you have to have a legal and correct address in the specific country at which you want to register the domain with it’s international suffix. Nevertheless, you can register the domain for personal use, which is again not the case here. At the same time, most of these european countries will give you a first level domain, and not a subdomain as the give in Egypt.
Even in the US is the same case, you are not applicable to register a .US domiain name unless you have an address in the US.
Nevertheless, thanks again for your comment. Appreciated!
June 24th, 2005 @ 1:59 am
I didn’t quite get the http://www.domain.com.eg or domain.com.eg difference you are referring to. Can u please explain it a little further?
As for registering domains in Europe, your statement isn’t necessarily true:
Canadian requirements are not as stringent as those in Egypt or Ireland but pretty annoying too:
http://www.cira.ca/en/documents/q3/CanadianPresenceRequirementsForRegistrants-EffectiveDateJune52003.txt
France requires that you be listed on an official list of accepted private individuals or companies to register an FR domain. These rules are due to be relaxed at the end of the year to allow anyone with links to France to register.
http://www.eu-domain.bz/fr.php
Croatia and Finland require a trade entity:
http://www.eu-domain.bz/hr.php
http://www.eu-domain.bz/fi.php
In Sweden you must have a registered address:
http://www.eu-domain.bz/se.php
In Ireland, you must have an Irish business, or one related to Ireland, or have Irish citizenship:
http://www.eu-domain.bz/ie.php
As for registering personal domains in Egypt, I’m not too sure - I’m sure you can, although the registrar in Egypt (EUN) doesn’t mention it:
http://www.frcu.eun.eg/docs/e/dns.php
You might be right, but the laws about having to trade in Egypt to be able to register an .eg domain are quite normal.
June 24th, 2005 @ 2:08 am
DNA
I will explain in my next post.
Talking europe, I was referring to the countries that I usually deal with.
like
Germany (.de) and Denmark (.dk) also Japan (.jp) where you must be residents with a valid address.
Will let you know the http://www.domain.com.eg or domain.com.eg difference in my next post.
JP
June 24th, 2005 @ 2:24 pm
I understand why it is restricted. I would propose that .org.eg be exclusively for established organizations, .com.eg for established buzinesses and .net.eg to everyone without restrictions. I don’t like the french system where there is almost no .com.fr or .org.fr but all is .fr without distiction.
July 18th, 2006 @ 9:42 am
ANY DOMAIN
YOU MUST BE SEO SPESIALIST
January 18th, 2008 @ 1:59 pm
Blogging a i new great way to share information…learn and even make friends…and it is very fun
February 6th, 2008 @ 2:33 am
I ran into your post by coincidence. I know it’s been up there for a while now, but I thought i’d put my two cents in:
Would just to correct a couple of points:
1. .com.eg, .org.eg are Egypt’s TLD’s. In the same way that .co.uk exists in UK, .co.jp in Japan, and .com.au in Australia, to name a few examples.
2. When you register “mydomain.com.eg”, you automatically have control over “www.mydomain.com.eg” and “anything.mydomain.com.eg”. It’s a just a matter of configuring it with your ISP.
3.. You are not restricted to hosting the website in Egypt. The DNS server must be located in Egypt, but the website doesn’t have to. There are exceptions to this of course, with google.com.eg coming to mind.