How to add Non-latin Domain Names in cPanel

Updated on Oct 24, 2022

Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), commonly referred to as non-Latin domains, are a unique category of domain names. IDNs are frequently challenging to type with a conventional keyboard. Furthermore, there are a few specific steps you must take in order to add an IDN to your cPanel. In this article, we'll explain what an IDN is in detail and show you how to add one (or more) in cPanel.

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What is an Internationalized (Non-Latin) domain name?

A domain name that contains at least one label that is displayed entirely or in part in a language-specific script or alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Tamil, Hebrew, or the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures, such as French, is referred to as an internationalized domain name (IDN). Multi-byte Unicode is typically used to encrypt data on these platforms.

What is a Multi-Byte Character Set?

A character is encoded using more than one byte in the Multi-Byte Character Set kind of character set. Because they do not use more than one byte for a character, common character sets like ANSI or ASCII are not of the MBCS type. Because a character is encoded using 4 bytes, the UTF-8 is a multi-byte character set. Any Unicode character can be represented by a series of 1, 2, 3, or 4 bytes.

The DNS is used to store these internationalized domain names (IDN) as Punycode transcriptions. These are going to be ASCII strings.

What is Punycode?

An international character set is encoded using Punycode so that ASCII can be used. Punycode is typically used to encrypt foreign domain names. Here is an illustration of a basic tilde in an international domain name:

  • International domain name: señorita.com
  • Punycode version of the domain name: xn--seorita-5za.com

How to Convert your Domain Name into Punycode

The details on the Unicode.org website can be used to comprehend how Punycode functions. Finding an online converter is the simplest approach to convert an internationalized domain name (IDN), nevertheless. This website's sample can be viewed at www.punycoder.com.

To convert, simply click the convert button after pasting the internationalized domain name into the relevant field. You can register the domain name with the registrar of your choosing after you have the Punycode for the domain. You can use the domain's internationalized form after it has been registered.

How to use IDNs on cPanel?

To use an IDN on cPanel, we need to convert the IP address to the corresponding Punycode first. There are many free Punycode converters available on the web. One that’s very easy to use is Punycoder.

For example, if you have the domain español.com will be converted to xn--espaol-zwa.com. Now you can use xn--espaol-zwa.com to add the domain in your cPanel.

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