The .nl domain has existed for 40 years and has grown into the digital backbone of the Netherlands. Hostnet lists the oldest domain names. Discover how the internet started here.
For this reason, hosting provider Hostnet reflects on the origins of the Dutch internet: with the help of the Dutch registry SIDN, Hostnet, one of the largest registrars in the Netherlands, lists the 100 oldest domain names in the Netherlands.
First .nl domain name in 1986
But first, a bit of history. The foundation for the Dutch internet was laid by Piet Beertema of the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. After receiving permission from the United States on April 25, 1986, to use the Dutch domain .nl, he registered the very first .nl domain name on May 1: cwi.nl. This made the Netherlands the first country outside the US to have its own country code on the internet.
In the early years, domain names were still processed manually by Beertema himself. The domains were mainly used for email and data traffic. Websites did not exist in those early years; the internet as we know it emerged only with the introduction of the worldwide web in the 1990s.
First users
The first .nl domain names were almost exclusively registered by educational and research institutions. The top 10 oldest domain names consists entirely of knowledge organizations:
The complete list of the 100 oldest .nl domain names can be found on the Hostnet website.
From experiment to digital infrastructure
In the first years, the number of domain names remained limited, but after the introduction of the worldwide web, the number of domains took a significant leap. A new explosion followed in 2003 when individuals could also register a domain name. In that same year, the millionth .nl domain name was registered.
Today, the Netherlands has more than six million .nl domain names and is among the largest and safest country domains in the world. The internet has now become an indispensable part of society. To celebrate the emergence of the Dutch internet, Hostnet has come up with a fun action: participants who leave their email address have a chance to secure their domain name for the next 40 years for free.
