How does http://to./ work?

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[+19] [2] Phoshi

[2009-12-03 18:19:00]

[ internet dns http ]

[ https://superuser.com/questions/78408/how-does-http-to-work ]

So I noticed this on Jeff's twitter. They don't have a tld, it seems?

How've they done this? Magic, bribery, or did a no-tld tld open up recently?

(8) Same question just popped up over on ServerFault with multiple answers. :) serverfault.com/questions/90737/… - JMD

@JMD: Here I was thinking I was going mad from lack of coffee... I thought I'd just seen this question. - AnonJr

http://.to, http://to and http://to. no longer work in 2013 as they apparently did in 2009. - isomorphismes

[+11] [2009-12-03 18:29:28] William Hilsum [

ACCEPTED]

I believe that the way it works is simply who ever owns the TLD .to, simply set up an A record for the TLD itself and are providing this service.

For example, google.com and google.com. are actually the same address.

You can also access this site via http://to

Some domains use this technique to redirect you to where you can purchase domains from, this place seems to offer a free service.

(1) better explanation? I do this all the time... I set up dns records for work which is a map, and then there is extras such as server.work server2.work etc.... - William Hilsum

It doesn't redirect here - tonic.to ... I think that this is actually whoever owns the .to domain names set this up based on the fact that to.com (in your example) is a different website - William Hilsum

The server seems to be down (but DNS still resolves). - Mechanical snail

[+4] [2010-03-28 20:49:34] Arjan

Just to ensure people don't miss JMD's comment:

Many more answers at Server Fault's How the heck is http://to./ a valid domain name? ^[1]

[1] https://serverfault.com/questions/90737/how-the-heck-is-http-to-a-valid-domain-name