.to

.to

Introduced	1995
TLD type	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Tonga Network Information Center (Tonic)
Sponsor	Government of Tonga
Intended use	Entities connected with Tonga
Actual use	Used for a varied assortment of sites, few related to Tonga, some connected with Toronto
Registration restrictions	Open to everyone but some vulgar words not allowed to register and use for spam prohibited.
Structure	Registrations permitted at second level; some Tonga-related entities have domains at third level under labels like .gov.to
Documents	FAQ
Dispute policies	Some trademarked names reserved; no other dispute policy
Website	Tonic

.to is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) of the island kingdom of Tonga.

The government of Tonga sells domains in its ccTLD to any interested party. Because to is a common English preposition, it became popular to craft memorable URLs called domain hacks that take advantage of this, such as Daniel Bernstein's website http://cr.yp.to or Refused's page.to/come.

The .to ccTLD is administered by the Tonga Network Information Center (Tonic).

The city of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada, has TO (pronounced Tee-O) as its nickname. Therefore, the .to extension is used by many small businesses located in Toronto, despite Canada's own .ca.

As the .to domains are paid for, all normal DNS operations are possible and registered sites are not required to display ads on behalf of the registrar. Some domains are free, like .edu.to, but only to real Tongan educational institutions. At this moment businesses registered in Tonga can also get free domains. People who sell on .to domains can claim a bonus.

.to is one of few ccTLDs that (officially) does not maintain a (public) WHOIS database providing registrant information ^[1].

External links

• Registration of .TO domains
• IANA .to whois information

References