ICANN

A new application for the .lan top-level domain has been submitted through ICANN's New gTLD Program, according to the application summary published on ICANN's application portal. The .lan name is traditionally used for local area networks in private networking setups, so a potential public top-level domain under that name raises questions about conflicts with existing internal network configurations. Discussion is centered on what the application means for network administrators and ICANN's broader expansion of domain name options.

ICANN has published the applications for its 2026 round of new generic top-level domains, the process that lets organisations apply to run their own domain endings such as .brand or .city. The announcement marks the first major expansion round since 2012, and observers are now looking through the applicant list to see which companies, regions and communities want their own piece of internet namespace.

The root DNSSEC trust key used to secure the internet's domain name system is scheduled to roll over on October 11, 2024. ICANN and IANA are updating the root key signing key, and operators of DNS resolvers must ensure their systems accept the new key or risk failing to validate domain names. Cloudflare published guidance explaining the rollover and how network operators can prepare.