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Due to a heavy wave of spamming, editing is currently disabled throughout the Wiki.

Welcome to the 42Experiment Wiki, the 42Registry project !

This is YOUR tool. Use it well :-) You may write here anything related to the 42 Experiment. In Any language. Tutorials. Thoughts. DNS configurations. Ideas. Anything is welcome. We believe this community is smart enough to use this wiki in a good manner, and to be self-moderated. If you have NO IDEA where to go, try reading the About page or the FAQ. Please try to keep an exhaustive list of the useful pages here.

WHAT we do, in short

Primarily, the 42 Registry offers a new, experimental, all-numeric Top-Level Domain (TLD) : 42. In other words, when you are a member of the 42 Registry, you can register YOURDOMAIN.42 and make it work.

There are a couple of catches. The fact that it is EXPERIMENTAL means "no warranties, express or implied": this project falls into the Best Effort category. It also means that this TLD is UNOFFICIAL; it will require some tinkering before it works.

In detail, we provide the basic Registry infrastructure (where you get your domain), a DNS Parking service (in case you cannot/don't want to set up your own), and support to the community.

WHY we do it

• Because a numeric TLD is something new. As far as we know, it has never been tested out in the open.
• Because it means being independent from ICANN. ICANN does NOT allow numeric TLDs, so there will not be a conflicting, ICANN-endorsed 42 TLD any time soon.
• Because we CAN. And "we" also means YOU. Technically, the experiment works. It is not officially endorsed by the powers that be, but it works.

HOW we do it

The first step was to create the basic Registry infrastructure. Apart from a few minor glitches, this part of the experiment is now technically operational.

The second step was to provide a DNS Parking service. If you have a domain and choose to "park" it, you will be able to edit DNS Resource Records directly from the Registry website. It means you do not have to build a DNS server at home, if you really cannot or do not want to.

The third step is to find a proper Validation Process. At the moment, all applications are manually evaluated. If the intended Purpose for the Domain is compliant with our Charter, the application is approved by the person reviewing it, usually one of the founders. This system has its pros and cons, so we need to think about a better solution.

WHAT we do, the long version

Running the .42 TLD is just one aspect of the experiment. It is what we started with, but there is more to it.

For this to work, we need a Community. That means you. Gathering people around this new TLD is also part of the experiment.
We would like the Community to be involved. Most importantly, we would like to try different Validation Processes in which the Community decides whether a Purpose is valid or not, instead of just a few people. Finding a democratic way of doing this, one that the Community will adhere to, is not an easy task: it is also going to be an aspect of the 42 Experiment.

The 42 TLD is an independent TLD. In order to reach the .42 domains, you also need to become independent from the DNS servers your Internet Service Provider uses (and even more so if you want to host stuff). You need to tinker with DNS, which probably means you need to learn about it.
What is important is that you CAN, and we believe that you SHOULD: it is simple, harmless, and it also means more freedom.

Additional information

HowTo's

• How to resolve .42 addresses
• How to host a .42 zone with bind under Unix
• How to park a .42 zone
• Use 'dig' in Windows
• How to point your ".42" towards your site or blog ".com" ".org" etc...
• How to make PHP validate ".42" emails

Useful links

• http://42registry.org, homepage and F.A.Q. of the project
• http://42experiment.org, blog of the project
• Hosting, list of hosting providers .42 compliant
• http://search.42, to browse existing domains and see which ones are resolving and host an HTTP server
• Link Pages, all links of this wiki

ISP Support

Moved to ISPs to avoid cluttering the main page.

Ideas for the community

DNS trade

Why not set up a DNS trade market ? Many of our members might not have the resources to set up 2 nameservers for their own purposes. It would be interesting to set up a meeting place, where people could explain both their needs and their available resources, and then trade with others, so that they can set up NS slaves for each other.

DNS Trade - tentative meeting place

Planet

Whats about planet for 42 project?

Ready, shortly we will write about the address and instructions

TODO : Want to help ?

Great !

• We need some Major CLEANUP on this page. If you can make it prettier and more readable, please be our guest !
  • This is the Wiki Main Page: we don't need ALL the information here, just links to it
  • If possible, break the information down into categories: About The Experience, Documentation, Links ...