June 1988
EARN and Eunet introduced the .be domain. Professor Pierre Verbaeten of the Leuven Catholic University (known as “KU Leuven” in Dutch) is appointed manager.
March 1993
KU Leuven gets IP connectivity. The name server for .be is installed on the computers of the Computer Science Department.
December 1993
The first .be domain names are registered manually. Demand for domain names grows. Each application has to be justified with official documents.
1994
A total of 129 .be domain names are registered.
2 February 1999
The not-for-profit organisation dns.be is founded by ISPA Belgium, BELTUG and Fabrimetal (subsequently renamed Agoria). The purpose of the organisation is to take over the registration of domain names from the KU Leuven.
16 March 1999
DNS.be becomes a member of CENTR , the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries.
January 2000
DNS.be takes over the baton definitively from Pierre Verbaeten and the KU Leuven.
December 2000
Liberalisation of the .be domain:
- DNS.be automates the registration system fully
- Companies who conclude a contract with DNS.be are registrars and register their domain names in the automatic registration system of DNS.be
- Everyone can register a .be domain name on a “first come, first served” basis
End of December 2000
The number of domain names more than doubles in less than 3 weeks, from 40,000 at the beginning of December to 89,718.
October 2001
Domain names may change registrants with the consent of both parties.
September 2002
DNS.be sets up a consortium with Sweden and Italy to operate the .eu domain based on the Belgian .be model.
2005
- Start of dynamic updates
2008
- partnership with Close The Gap, that collects old PCs and refurbishes them to be used to support education and social projects.
August 2010
- launch of DNSSEC in the .be zone. This means that signatures and a public key were added to the zone. From October everyone can register .be domain names with DNSSEC.
- first edition of Bike to Close the Gap, a cycling event to gather funds for Close The Gap
2011
- automatisation of the transfers of domain names.
Beginning of 2012
The Flemish and Brussels governments assign the operation of the respective gTLDs .vlaanderen and .brussels to DNS.be.
Spring 2012
.be domain names can contain letters with accents or characters from another alphabet.
2013
Name change: DNS.be changes into DNS Belgium
2014
The new extensions .vlaanderen and .brussels are launched in 5 different phases.
2015
.vlaanderen and .brussels are available for everyone on a first come, first served basis.
2016
- DNS Belgium is one of the founders of the geoTLD group, an international not-for-profit organisation that wants to promote the digital identity of cities and regions.
- ISO 27001 certification
2017
- .be registration system moves to the cloud
- .vlaanderen and .brussels registration system moves to our own platform
2018
DNS Belgium become climate ambassador for Flemish Brabant.
2019
- creation of DigitalForyouth
2020
- SDG pioneer
- Launch registrant verification
2021
- SDG Champion
2023
- SDG Ambassador UNITAR
2024
- #safenotsorry gets BOCA award for best Social Media & best Influencer marketing campaign