COUNTRY CODES 1994/05/19
Based on International Standard ISO 3166 Names
Compiled by Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond
Release Notes: a. China with FI.
b. Malawi, Bangladesh and Eritrea with F (GreenNet node)
Every now-and-then there are enquiries on the net regarding
E-mail to a distant country. The question is often of the type
"has that country got E-mail access ?". The following table is a
guide of country codes, showing the countries which have access to
Internet or general E-mail services. The country codes have been
derived from the International Organization for Standardization
standard ISO 3166. A country code is taken as a top level domain
once it is registered at rs.internic.net so *not* all country codes
listed are top level domains. At the bottom of the table, there is
also a section of general top level domains, based on the information
available at rs.internic.net.
1. Description of codes:
FI stands for FULL INTERNET access. This includes 'telnet', 'ftp',
and internet E-mail.
B stands for BITNET access although the address may be in internet
DNS (Domain Name System) format.
* (Asterisk) means that the country is reachable by E-mail. If this is
not preceded by FI or B, it means that the connection may be a UUCP
connection. An asterisk is included after FI or B for consistency.
PFI stands for a provisional full internet connection.(+)
P stands for provisional connection. (+)
(+) This is used when one or more of the following is true:
- address not verified or lack of address
- UUCP dialup not active
- net connection possible but not officially announced
- premature official announcement of connection
F stands for a country that is connected to Internet only via means
of the FIDOnet network. It is assumed that the FIDO connection in this
case is stable and reliable.
2. Networks which are not included:
Networks such as MILNET (U.S. Army) have computers all around the
world. It is generally possible to assume that wherever there is
a U.S. military base, there will be a node reachable through gateways.
Private company networks such as for DEC (Digital Equipment Corp.),
or Sun Microsystems, for example, have nodes in many exotic locations.
However the connection may take place via UUCP and cost a lot of money.
Those networks have therefore not been included. In addition, those
are PRIVATE networks.
Many companies ( like U.S. Sprint, for example ) offer commercial
services to many countries which are not readily available on
the Internet. The service is VERY COSTLY, usually takes place via
UUCP or X.400 connections. X.400 E-mail is usually charged to
someone and if the telecommunication carrier cannot find someone
to pay for the message transfer, it will reject it. As a result,
those types of network have not been included in the list.
Although a user may RECEIVE E-mail from a user on those networks, one
may not be able to reply to it.
The situation changes from day to day. The growth in international
networking is such that the information contained in this document
may be out of date by the time it reaches you.
If you have any update (i.e. knowledge that a new country is connected),
please send a message to , including an example address
from the country reached so that it can be verified.
Furthermore, if you are a connection provider or could provide a
low cost connection in a country, and are not listed as a provider in
that country (see "FURTHER INFORMATION" section), please notify either
Randy Bush or me.
NOTE: This doesn't include providers for North America.
If you are a North American provider, then please DON'T contact us.
4. .US sites
While there are several hundreds of BITNET nodes in USA, none have
a name in the format `.US'. That's why the .us domain is only FI and *.
5. .edu, .com, etc.
The domains in this section are special in that some of them are
used in more than one country. The domains which have full internet
access are marked accordingly. However, this doesn't mean that *all*
of those domains have full internet access. For example,
only a small proportion of .mil sites have full internet access. The
same is true for .com sites, for example.
6. UK and GB domains
There are two codes for United Kingdom, namely UK and GB. While
UK is used for addressing of most domains in DNS format, the field
GB is used mainly in the X.400 addressing of United Kingdom sites.
However, there is an increasing trend in some United Kingdom sites
being directly connected to Internet under the GB domain. The GB domain
is hence a perfectly suitable Internet top level domain.
When looking for further information, it is worth looking at both
UK and GB for United Kingdom.
7. Further information column
This column contains information as follows:
- E-mail address of a contact from which further information may be obtained
- Details of a gopher system that can be queried for further information
in this case, look at Section 8: Where to find further information
- If no other information available: nameserver details, if any.
This is the main nameserver as listed in the rs.internic.net database.
Those often change as the network grows, and it is hard to keep track of
all nameservers, but they should usually work. Nameservers can be
queried by users using nslookup.
8. Where to find further information
A number of sites run on-line information databases, mail-servers,
and gopher information systems where further information can be found.
Part of this site, the InterNIC database services, contains the
Internet "white pages". The "whois" section of the "white pages"
has registration records for top level domains. "whois" can be
accessed by connecting interactively (telnet rs.internic.net),
or via gopher (gopher rs.internic.net) or using the "whois"
command available on some computer systems (whois -h rs.internic.net).
Registration records for a domain are sometimes useful since they
provide Administrative and Technical Contacts for this domain
and those may hence be able to provide further information.
This is a gopher system run by ripe.net, the co-ordinator for
European Internet nodes. It contains a lot of information regarding
European IP, etc. It may be accessed either as "gopher gopher.ripe.net"
or "telnet gopher.ripe.net" and logging-in appropriately.
It also has a "whois" database.
- GNET: an Archive and Electronic Journal
This is co-ordinated by Larry Press
Archived documents are available by anonymous ftp from the
directory global_net at dhvx20.csudh.edu (184.108.40.206). To
conserve bandwidth, the archive contains an abstract of each
document, as well as the full document.
In addition to the archive, there is a moderated GNET
To submit a document to the archive or subscribe to the moderated
discussion list, use the address firstname.lastname@example.org.
- BITNIC Bitnet Network Information Center
Bitnet LISTSERVs contain files which list all BITNET sites around
the world. For a listing of all BITNET sites, in country code order,
send a message to LISTSERV@Bitnic.educom.edu (or LISTSERV@BITNIC for
BITNET folks), no subject, and the command:
GET NODE INFO3
in the body of the message.
A very long file of information on all international BITNET sites
can be ftp'ed from Bitnic.educom.edu and is called BITEARN.NODES .
It is more than 2Mb long.
This gopher system, maintained by the Network Startup Resource
Center and PSGnet/RAINet contains perhaps the most comprehensive
collection of information about country connectivity.
It may be accessed as "gopher gopher.psg.com". For the gopher client
impaired, one can telnet to gopher.psg.com and login as gopher.
An important feature is an E-mail interface to access the information
in the gopher system.
Send E-mail to: email@example.com
any subject, and in the body of the message:
Example: if you want further information about Brazil (country code BR)
Many thanks to Randy Bush and to John Klensin
for setting-up this site and this
Once released, this document is archived in a number of archive
sites around the world. Amongst them:
(#) those may not be accessible via Bear access or direct PC access
in some cases.
Via E-mail request as follows:
Subject: no one cares
where [ ] = optional
All FAQs are also available via firstname.lastname@example.org or
email@example.com . For an index of all FAQs available,
put the command GET NETFAQS FILELIST in the body of your message.
The document is also retrievable by E-mail from rtfm.mit.edu by
sending an E-mail to firstname.lastname@example.org , blank subject line
and the command: send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codes
The up-to-date, pre-release document is also available using an
experimental simple mail-server that I have setup from my account.
Send E-mail to: with a subject: archive-server-request
and the command: get mail/country-codes in the body of your message.
The document is also distributed automatically once a month on a
mailing list. To subscribe to that mailing list, send a message to:
email@example.com with the command in the body of the message:
where "" is your real name.
ISO 3166 Codes + Top level domains.
The link to some countries marked as being connected to Internet via
UUCP or FIDO is often an expensive telephone dialup link. The people
in those countries pay dearly for every byte of information sent to
them. It is therefore not advised to send an electronic mail to a
remote node in such a country asking "how's the weather there".
When it comes to money, people take things very seriously, especially
since funds are scarce. It is a matter of net etiquette to keep this
in mind. Junk mail sent to any node that has to pay a lot for its
telephone connection will clearly be dealt with HARSHLY and evasive
action may well be taken against those not respecting this notice.
Code Country Conn Notes Further information
AE United Arab Emirates P Apparently dead ns.uu.net
AF Afghanistan(Islamic St.)
AG Antigua and Barbuda * upr1.upr.clu.edu
AL Albania P gwd2i.cnuce.cnr.it
AM Armenia Ex-USSR
AN Netherland Antilles
AO Angola (Republic of) * gopher gopher.psg.com
AQ Antarctica FI * luxor.cc.waikato.ac.nz
AR Argentina FI B * Uni. de Buenos Aires
AS American Samoa
AT Austria FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
AU Australia FI * munnari.oz.au
AZ Azerbaidjan Ex-USSR
BB Barbados * upr1.upr.clu.edu
BD Bangladesh F
BE Belgium FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
BF Burkina Faso * gopher gopher.psg.com
BG Bulgaria FI B * Daniel Kalchev
BH Bahrain B * Gulfnet
BM Bermuda * Tom Coelho
BN Brunei Darussalam
BO Bolivia * gopher gopher.psg.com
BR Brazil FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
BS Bahamas * upr1.upr.clu.edu
BV Bouvet Island
BW Botswana * gopher gopher.psg.com
BY Belarus * Ex-USSR gopher gopher.psg.com
BZ Belize * gopher gopher.psg.com
CA Canada FI B * relay.cdnnet.ca
CC Cocos (Keeling) Isl.
CF Central African Rep.
CG Congo * gopher gopher.psg.com
CH Switzerland FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
CI Ivory Coast * gopher gopher.psg.com
CK Cook Islands
CL Chile FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
CM Cameroon FI * in .fr domain gopher gopher.psg.com
CN China FI * iraun1.ira.uka.de
CO Colombia B * gopher gopher.psg.com
CR Costa Rica FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
CS Czechoslovakia FI B * still works... gopher gopher.ripe.net
CU Cuba * gopher gopher.psg.com
CV Cape Verde
CX Christmas Island
CY Cyprus FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
CZ Czech Republic FI * gopher gopher.ripe.net
DE Germany FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
DK Denmark FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
DM Dominica * upr1.upr.clu.edu
DO Dominican Republic * gopher gopher.psg.com
DZ Algeria FI * gopher gopher.psg.com
EC Ecuador FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
EE Estonia FI * Juhan Poeldvere
EG Egypt FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
EH Western Sahara
ER Eritrea F
ES Spain FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
ET Ethiopia F gopher gopher.psg.com
FI Finland FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
FJ Fiji FI *
FK Falkland Isl.(Malvinas)
FO Faroe Islands P danpost.uni-c.dk
FR France FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
FX France (European Ter.) ???
GB Great Britain (UK) FI * X.400 & IP ns1.cs.ucl.ac.uk
GD Grenada P upr1.upr.clu.edu
GE Georgia * Ex-USSR ns.eu.net
GF Guyana (Fr.) * gopher gopher.psg.com
GH Ghana F gopher gopher.psg.com
GM Gambia F gopher gopher.psg.com
GP Guadeloupe (Fr.) * gopher gopher.psg.com
GQ Equatorial Guinea
GR Greece FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
GS South Georgia and
South Sandwich Islands
GT Guatemala * ns.uu.net
GU Guam (US) FI * uog2.uog.edu
GW Guinea Bissau
HK Hong Kong FI B * hp9000.csc.cuhk.hk
HM Heard & McDonald Isl.
HN Honduras * ns.uu.net
HR Croatia FI * dns.srce.hr
HT Haiti P gopher gopher.psg.com
HU Hungary FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
ID Indonesia PFI * gopher gopher.psg.com
IE Ireland FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
IL Israel FI B * relay.huji.ac.il
IN India FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
IO British Indian O. Terr.
IR Iran FI B * Ali Shokoufandeh
IS Iceland FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
IT Italy FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
JM Jamaica * gopher gopher.psg.com
JP Japan FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
KE Kenya * gopher gopher.psg.com
KG Kyrgyz Republic Ex-USSR
KN St.Kitts Nevis Anguilla P upr1.upr.clu.edu
KP Korea (North) P
KR Korea (South) FI B * ns.kaist.ac.kr
KW Kuwait FI * No BITNET gopher gopher.psg.com
KY Cayman Islands
KZ Kazachstan * Ex-USSR in .su domain
LB Lebanon PFI P gopher gopher.psg.com
LC Saint Lucia * upr1.upr.clu.edu
LI Liechtenstein FI * gopher gopher.ripe.net
LK Sri Lanka PFI * Gihan Dias
LS Lesotho * gopher gopher.psg.com
LT Lithuania FI * Ex-USSR aun.uninett.no
LU Luxembourg FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
LV Latvia FI * Ex-USSR lapsene.mii.lu.lv
MD Moldavia PFI * Ex-USSR
MG Madagascar (Republic of) * gopher gopher.psg.com
MH Marshall Islands
MK Macedonia (former Yugo.) * gopher gopher.psg.com
ML Mali * gopher gopher.psg.com
MO Macau FI * hkuxb.hku.hk
MP Northern Mariana Isl.
MQ Martinique (Fr.)
MT Malta P ns.iunet.it
MU Mauritius P gopher gopher.psg.com
MW Malawi F
MX Mexico FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
MY Malaysia FI B * mimos.my
MZ Mozambique * gopher gopher.psg.com
NA Namibia * gopher gopher.psg.com
NC New Caledonia (Fr.) * gopher gopher.psg.com
NE Niger * in .fr domain gopher gopher.psg.com
NF Norfolk Island
NG Nigeria F gopher gopher.psg.com
NI Nicaragua FI * gopher gopher.psg.com
NL Netherlands FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
NO Norway FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
NZ New Zealand FI * truth.waikato.ac.nz
PA Panama B * gopher gopher.psg.com
PE Peru FI * gopher gopher.psg.com
PF Polynesia (Fr.) * gopher gopher.psg.com
PG Papua New Guinea * munnari.oz.au
PH Philippines FI * ns.uu.net
PK Pakistan * Imran Anwar
PL Poland FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
PM St. Pierre & Miquelon
PR Puerto Rico (US) FI B * sun386-gauss.pr
PT Portugal FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
PY Paraguay * ns.uu.net
RE Reunion (Fr.) FI * In .fr domain inria.inria.fr
RO Romania FI B * roearn.ici.ac.ro
RU Russian Federation P Ex-USSR
RW Rwanda F gopher gopher.psg.com
SA Saudi Arabia B * GulfNet gopher gopher.psg.com
SB Solomon Islands
SC Seychelles * gopher gopher.psg.com
SE Sweden FI B * gopher gopher.ripe.net
SG Singapore FI B * gopher solomon.technet.sg
SH St. Helena
SI Slovenia FI * gopher gopher.ripe.net
SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen IsFI * in .no domain
SK Slovakia (Slovak Rep) FI * gopher gopher.ripe.net
SL Sierra Leone
SM San Marino
SN Senegal * gopher gopher.psg.com
SR Suriname * upr1.upr.clu.edu
ST St. Tome and Principe
SU Soviet Union FI B * Still used.
SV El Salvador gopher gopher.psg.com
SZ Swaziland * gopher gopher.psg.com
TC Turks & Caicos Islands
TF French Southern Terr.
TG Togo * gopher gopher.psg.com
TH Thailand FI * gopher gopher.psg.com
TJ Tadjikistan Ex-USSR
TM Turkmenistan * Ex-USSR in .su domain
TN Tunisia FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
TP East Timor
TR Turkey FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
TT Trinidad & Tobago * gopher gopher.psg.com
TW Taiwan FI B * gopher gopher.psg.com
TZ Tanzania F gopher gopher.psg.com
UA Ukraine FI * UA Network Enq.
UG Uganda F gopher gopher.psg.com
UK United Kingdom FI B * ISO 3166 is GB telnet news.janet.ac.uk
UK Network Enq.
UM US Minor outlying Isl.
US United States FI * see note (4) venera.isi.edu
UY Uruguay B * gopher gopher.psg.com
UZ Uzbekistan Ex-USSR
VA Vatican City State
VC St.Vincent & Grenadines P upr1.upr.clu.edu
VE Venezuela FI * nisc.jvnc.net
VG Virgin Islands (British)
VI Virgin Islands (US) *
VN Vietnam P
VU Vanuatu * gopher gopher.psg.com
WF Wallis & Futuna Islands
YU Yugoslavia FI B * Bitnet is cut klepec.yunac.yu
ZA South Africa FI * gopher gopher.psg.com
ZM Zambia F gopher gopher.psg.com
ZW Zimbabwe * gopher gopher.psg.com
See Note  for the next top level domains (rs.internic.net):
ARPA Old style Arpanet * alias still works ns.nic.ddn.mil
COM Commercial FI * telnet whois.internic.net
EDU Educational FI B * telnet whois.internic.net
GOV Government FI * telnet whois.internic.net
INT International field FI * used by Nato ns1.cs.ucl.ac.uk
MIL US Military FI * ns.nic.ddn.mil
NATO Nato field * soon to be deleted ???
NET Network FI * telnet whois.internic.net
ORG Non-Profit OrganizationFI * telnet whois.internic.net
DISCLAIMER: while every effort is made to provide accurate information,
this list is not guaranteed to be accurate. This document is in NO WAY
an official document. The information given should not be used as a basis
for routing tables but only as general end-user information. This is a
voluntary effort. I would appreciate greatly if errors/omissions could
be pointed out to me and they would be corrected in the next release.
The information included in this document implies no view whatsoever
regarding questions of sovereignty or the status of any place listed.
Affiliation to Imperial College is given for identification purposes only.
Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, Digital Comms. Section, Elec. Eng. Department
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BT, UK
Internet/Bitnet: - Janet: