Internationalized Domain Name Support

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) enables the use of non-English native language names as host and domain names. To use non-English host and domain names, convert these names into ASCII Compatible Encoding (ACE) encoded names before sending the names to resolver routines as specified in RFC 5890. System administrators are also required to use ACE names in system files and applications where the system administration applications do not support the IDNs.

For more information, see RFC 5890 Internationalizing Domain Names in Applications (IDNA).

Figure 6-1  Example of IDN in Firefox Browser

Oracle Solaris 11 provides two sets of IDN implementations, including libraries and associated utilities: the GNU IDN library and the JPRS (Japan Registry Services co., Ltd.) idnkit-2 library. Some applications might also have their own IDN implementation. For example, Firefox and Thunderbird have their own IDN service in the networking protocol component called Necko.