: Can I define the letter case of a Domain Name? I want to purchase a second level domain (on the web platform Altervista.org) with the .com extension. Since within the domain verification process

@Murray155

As the other answers stated, DNS is case-insensitive, however that hardly matters here. You can serve HTTP 404 pages for some requests and HTTP 200 pages for others from the same IP.

You can check the Host HTTP header and server different content based on the capitalization of it. You could serve a 404 page or a redirect if the capitalization isn't correct.

However, AFAIK, all common browsers will convert the domain portion of a url to lowercase (probably to protect against registering domains with similar looking characters, like I (capital i) instead of l) and also send an all lowercase value for the host header, so you would end up with an infinite redirect in browsers, but there is nothing in theory, about HTTP that prevents you from doing it. It is a browser limitation.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Courtney195

Whilst DNS itself is case-insensitive, at least one search engine allows you to declare preferred case in search results: Yandex.



The Case of the site name tool lets you set preferred capitalisation in certain cases. This can be accessed in Yandex.Webmaster under Appearance in search results > URL letter case.

I've set this for a few of my sites and it's quite nice to see.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Berumen354

Well technically you can register your domain in any case. But for the record, no matter how you type your domain in the browser it will transform to small case. This is because DNS is not case sensitive.

If it makes sense... YAhOO.com should be no different to yahoo.com or yAhOo.com... You can play around your browser's address bar and see what happen.

This link should be able to help you understand the concept further.

Vote Up Vote Down

@Turnbaugh106

No. You can't. This isn't possible. DNS is case insensitive.

Vote Up Vote Down

@LarsenBagley505

No, it will not affect the final letter case format of your domain whatever letter case you choose while registering it.

The Domain Name System (DNS) names is case insensitive and you can not manipulate this by any mean when you register it or even define it to search engines for "good looking" purposes.

All cases (upper and lower) will be accepted when you type it on your browser or your FTP client software or your email client software or your links.

You can read all the Case Insensitivity Clarification for the DNS standards on Internet Engineering Task Force website

Vote Up Vote Down