Domain name

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name. Domain names can also be thought of as a location where certain information or activities can be found.

Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a web site, or the web site itself or any other service communicated via the Internet. In 2014, the number of active domains reached 271 million.

Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless. The first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for reservation by end-users who wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, create other publicly accessible Internet resources or run web sites. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

.uk

.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. As of March 2012, it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide (after .com, .de and .net), with over 10 million registrations.

In October 1984, RFC 920 set out the creation of ccTLDs generally using country codes derived from the corresponding two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 list. GB is the UK's ISO 3166 country code. However, the .uk domain had been created separately a few months before the compilation of the ISO-derived list. Consequently, .gb was never widely used and it is no longer possible to register under that domain.

New registrations directly under .uk have been accepted by Nominet since 10 June 2014 08:00 BST, however there is a reservation period for existing customers who already have a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or .plc.uk domain to claim the corresponding .uk domain, which runs until 07:59 BST on 10 June 2019.

.uk has used OpenDNSSEC since March 2010.

Public limited company

A public limited company (legally abbreviated to plc) is a type of public company (publicly held company) under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited (liability) company whose shares may be freely sold and traded to the public (although a plc may also be privately held, often by another plc), with a minimum share capital of £50,000 and the letters PLC after its name. Similar companies in the United States are called publicly traded companies.

A PLC can be either an unlisted or listed company on the stock exchanges. In the United Kingdom, a public limited company usually must include the words "public limited company" or the abbreviation "PLC" or "plc" at the end and as part of the legal company name. Welsh companies may instead choose to end their names with ccc, an abbreviation for cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus. However, some public limited companies (mostly nationalised concerns) incorporated under special legislation are exempted from bearing any of the identifying suffixes. The term "public limited company" and the "PLC"/"plc" suffix were introduced in 1974; prior to this, all limited companies bore the suffix "Limited" ("Ltd"), which is still used by private limited companies.