.SO

.SO is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Somalia. The TLD is intended to be use by individuals and commercial entities associated with the Somalia.

Introduced	1997
Country	Somalia
Registry	dotSO
IDN Capable	No
Webpage	Register .SO

Registry

TLD	-
Allowed TLDs	-
Registry	CoCCA
Dispute Policy	Rules
Registrar	1api GmbH
WHOIS-Server	whois.nic.so
WHOIS-Update	Real-Time
Min. Characters	3
Max. Characters	63
Character Set	Letters and numbers Hyphens ("-"), however not at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD IDN: not allowed
Limitations	Registrant Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Admin Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Tech Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Billing Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1
{{{Possible Extensions}}}
IDN capable	No
Restore capable	Real-Time
Handle Updates	Supported
Registration System	Real-Time
Allowed number of NS	0 to 13
Registry Nameservercheck	No
Host IP-Addresses Type	IPv4
Hosts managed as	Object
Root Nameserver Update	hourly
SEC DNS Interface	not available
Transferclass	Pull
Transfer Periods	0Y
Transfer Authcode required	Yes
Transfer Real-Time	Yes
Transfer Lock	Yes
Owner Change by	Update

Periods

{{{Possible Extensions}}}
Registration Periods	1-10 years
Add Grace Period	0 days
Accounting Period	0 days
Finalization Period	0 days
Failure Period	44 days
Payment Period	-61 days
Deletion Restorable Period	30 days
Deletion Hold Period	0 days
Explicit Renewals	Yes
Renewal Periods	1-9 years

API

Registrant Nexus Requirements

Any Applicant, any party submitting a Domain Name Registration Request and any Domain Name Holder represents and warrants that:

• it meets the nexus requirement of having a bona fide connection to Somalia, which includes but are not limited to a) institutions and organizations in Somalia; b) residents of Somalia; c) others who have a legitimate, clear and provable connection to Somalia;
• it will meet the nexus requirement above at all times during the period in which the domain registration is valid; to its knowledge, the registration of the Domain Name mentioned in the Application or Domain Name Registration Request will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party;
• it is not submitting the Application or Domain Name Registration Request and, upon registration, will not use the Domain Name for an unlawful purpose (which, for the avoidance of doubt, includes concepts and content relating to indecency, pornography and gambling), contrary to public policy or morality, for offensive purposes, to mislead the public and/or contrary to good and fair business practices; and
• it will not knowingly use the domain name in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, including third party interests; and
• it will keep the WHOIS information related to the Domain Name accurate and up-to-date at all times, both with its Registrar and the Registry.

Domain Registration

Domains can be registered in Real-Time with the API AddDomain command.

command = AddDomain
domain  = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
nameserver0 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver1 = (NAMESERVER)

OPTIONAL

auth = <TEXT> | <NULL>
transferlock = 0 | 1 | <NULL>
subuser = <TEXT> | <NULL>

Domain Transfer

The transfer has to be initiated by the gaining registrar and can be requested with the API TransferDomain command.
A valid Authorization Code must be provided to initiate a transfer successfully. You may obtain the authorization code from the losing registrar.
Domain transfers are processed in Real-Time.
A pending transfer will auto-approve after 5 days.

command = TransferDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

auth = <TEXT> | <NULL>
action = REQUEST | APPROVE | DENY | CANCEL | USERTRANSFER

OPTIONAL

order = CREATE | REPLACE | UPDATE
period = <PERIOD>
transferlock = 0 | 1 | <NULL>
subuser = <TEXT> | <NULL>

Delete Domain

Domains can be deleted with the API DeleteDomain command.
There is a Deletion Restorable Period of 30 days and a following Deletion Hold Period of 0 days.
It is not possible to delete .SO domains if there are active Host Records. Attempting to do so will return the error "Object association prohibits operation: subordinate hosts".

command = DeleteDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

Restore Domain

Restores can be processed in realtime. A restore is possible within 30 days upon deletion. Please use the command RestoreDomain.

command = RestoreDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

OPTIONAL

renewalmode = <NULL> | <TEXT>
subuser = <TEXT>

Ownerchange

An Ownerchange is free of charge and can be done with the API ModifyDomain command.

TLD specific

Authorization code

There are special requirements regarding the format of the authorization code. Please consider the following restrictions, if you want to assign a new authorization code to a .SO domain:

• Minimum 8 characters
• having at least one (1) numeric,
• one (1) alphabetic, and
• one (1) special character

These syntax rules are legible as of November 14th, 2009. It is possible that updates for domains which still have an "old" AuthCode assigned, will fail with this error message:

505 AUTH - minimum 8 characters, containing at least one numeric, one alphabetic and one special character

You may generate a valid random auth code by adding this parameter to the ModifyDomain command:

GENERATERANDOMAUTH = 1

Example:

 command = ModifyDomain
 domain = domain.so
 generaterandomauth = 1

Addons

The following overview shows you all available Domain Addons which can be used for this special kind of TLD. It also shows the respective API parameters which are required to activate the Domain Addons:

Addon Class	Parameter to (de)activate *1)	Renewal term *2)	Affected Parameters *3)
Proxy (WHOISTRUSTEE_SO2)	X-ACCEPT-WHOISTRUSTEE-TAC = 0 | 1	1 month	All Contacts

*1) Parameter to (de)activate: When accessing our backend through the API, you can either activate the addon with X-ACCEPT-WHOISTRUSTEE-TAC=1 or deactivate it with
      X-ACCEPT-WHOISTRUSTEE-TAC=0

*2) Renewal Term: Is the minimum renewal term of the "Addon Class"

*3) If you are using a "Proxy" Domain Addon normally all contact handles are affected (registrant, admin, tech, and billing contact).
      

RegistrarOC

Restore Process

To restore a domain as a RegistrarOC customer, you simply have to execute the RestoreDomain command. HEXONET directly forwards the restore request to the registry, which performs the restore in real-time. As soon as the restore is complete, the domain will get assigned to your account with the original domain data.

Please do not initiate a restore directly at the registry (e.g. using the registrar webinterface). All restore operations must be performed through our system.