ICANN reserves .internal for private use at the DNS level

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved the reservation of the .internal top-level domain (TLD) for private use, similar to the reserved IPv4 address blocks for internal networks. This decision aims to provide organizations with a dedicated domain for internal networks that cannot be accessed on the public internet, thus avoiding conflicts and confusion associated with ad hoc TLDs. The .internal domain will not be delegated in the global domain name system, ensuring it remains exclusive for private use. Google has been using .internal for its cloud services to prevent external dependencies and collisions with public TLDs. ICANN acknowledges that while it is uncertain if this will improve the situation, it will not introduce new security or stability issues. The introduction of .internal offers network administrators a sanctioned alternative to creating their own TLDs or using subdomains of existing TLDs for internal purposes.

- ICANN has reserved the .internal TLD for private network use.

- The .internal domain will not be accessible on the public internet.

- Google has utilized .internal for its cloud services to avoid conflicts.

- The decision aims to prevent confusion from ad hoc TLD creation.

- ICANN believes this will not worsen existing security or stability issues.