ftp.pasteur.org/FAQ//ftp-pasteur-org-FAQ.zip/FAQ/mail/country-codes

Internet Message Format | 2004-04-18 | 28.6 KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail
Message-ID: <mail/[e-mail]>
Supersedes: <mail/[e-mail]>
Expires: 31 May 2004 11:22:46 GMT
X-Last-Updated: 2003/02/19
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.uucp,news.newusers.questions,alt.internet.services,alt.internet.access.wanted,alt.answers,comp.answers,news.answers
From: [e-mail]   (Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond)
Followup-To: poster
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Subject: FAQ: International E-mail accessibility
Approved: [e-mail]
Summary: This posting gives a list of country codes with email accessibility.
         It is helpful in finding-out if a country has easy access to
         email and internet facilities and is aimed at general email and
         internet users.
Organization: Global Information Highway Limited, London, UK.
Originator: [e-mail]
Date: 17 Apr 2004 11:23:43 GMT
Lines: 606
NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
X-Trace: 1082201023 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 569 18.181.0.29
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu comp.mail.misc:78971 comp.mail.uucp:22709 news.newusers.questions:725946 alt.internet.services:143521 alt.internet.access.wanted:55825 alt.answers:72442 comp.answers:56842 news.answers:269634

Archive-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: <[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 [e-mail]

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.html

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 ( [e-mail] ) 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 <[e-mail]>, Steven Huter <[e-mail]> or me (or
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 [e-mail]
  and subject: whois <name/domain>

- 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 <[e-mail]> and contains
  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 <[e-mail]>, John Klensin
  <[e-mail]> and Steven Huter <[e-mail]> for
  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.questions/

(#) 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 [e-mail] , 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: <[e-mail]> with a subject: archive-server-request
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:
[e-mail]   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 <[e-mail]>. Thanks to all who have helped !


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: [phone] | http://www.gih.com/ | E-mail: <[e-mail]>
Fax  : [phone] |   Always 60 seconds ahead of the past...