.br
 |
|
| Introduced | 1989 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | Registro.br |
| Sponsor | Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil |
| Intended use | Entities connected with  Brazil
|
| Actual use | Very popular in Brazil (Largest Portuguese language Web presence) |
| Registration restrictions | Varying restrictions based on which second-level name registration is within. In all cases the registrant must have either a CPF or CNPJ, documents usually granted only to Brazilian residents or recognized companies |
| Structure | Registrations are at third level beneath various categories and they were allowed at the second level for institutions of third level education until 2000; a wide variety of second-level categories exist, but .com.br is still much more popular than others |
| Website | Registro.br |
| DNSSEC | yes |
.br is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Brazil. It was administered by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (Comitê Gestor da Internet no Brasil) until 2005 when it started being administered by Brazilian Network Information Center (Núcleo de Informação e Coordenação do Ponto br). A local contact is required for any registration. Registrations of domain names with Portuguese characters are also accepted.
With the exception of universities, the second-level domain is fixed and selected from a list that defines the category. For example, site.art.br is in the art (music, folklore etc.) category, and site.org.br is in the non-governmental organization category. Institutions of tertiary education were allowed to use the ccSLD .edu.br, although some use .com.br and others (mainly public universities) use .br. There are also some other few exceptions that were allowed to use the second level domain until the end of 2000. As of April 2010, most domain registrations ignore categories and register in the .com.br domain, which has over 90% of all registered domains. The .jus.br (Judiciary), and .b.br (banks) domains have mandatory DNSSEC use.
Created and delegated to Brazil in 1989 by Jon Postel, initially the domain was operated manually by Registro.br and administered by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP). Originally, only researchers and institutions to which they belonged had the interest and ability to adopt the new system and register domains under .br.
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