In anticipation of Russia’s delegation of the new Cyrillic domain .РФ, the Coordination Center for TLD .RU has carried out a regular testing in order to check consistency of modern operational systems and programs with IDN (Internationalized Domain Names).
The new operational system Windows 7 and its applications Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, as well as Windows XP (Internet Explorer 6, Outlook Express 6) and Windows Vista have been tested.
It has become clear that as of today browsers Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer are practically entirely ready for the launch of domain .РФ. There are minor problems with e-mail programs. Not all tested programs provide an authentic Cyrillic representation of e-mail addresses and operate hyperlinks.
This test is the second one run by the Coordination Center. The first one was conducted by the Coordination Center in 2008. At the time, browsers Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Fire Fox, Safari and Opera were tested. Yet the last year’s test data showed that all these browsers function with IDN practically without a fault. Cyrillic names of websites in browsers’ address string are represented correctly, the addressing also functions correctly.
There is also an IDN general test, which the ICANN regularly conducts together with the Internet users. IDNs are tested in eleven languages, including Russian, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, and other languages. The test is fully open for Internet users. All test IDNs constitute analog names of example.test (the Cyrillic one being “пример.испытание”) in different languages and are addressed to ICANN’s IDNwiki site. The same site posts test results and discussions which testify that there are undoubtedly problems with IDNs functioning, however, they are mainly due to operations of various e-mail programs and applications.
Overall, it can be noted that thanks to such tests, operations with IDNs are gradually improving. And while there are no problems with domain names in national scripts in any browser, in the near future the functioning of e-mail programs and other applications will be put right.
