French Guiana's territorial extension
Domain gf
The gf domain concerns domain name registration under .gf, the French Guiana extension. The guide details who may file, how to check a label, what the whois displays, which items to budget and how to publish a reliable DNS zone between the coast and the interior. domainegf.com does not run the registry and forwards no request.
Who benefits from carrying a .gf
A .gf speaks to organisations whose public looks for a Guianese address: a logistics operator at Degrad-des-Cannes, accommodation in Kourou, a consultancy, a cultural association in Cayenne, a river lodge, a local authority from the inland communes. A company, an association, a public body or an individual may be the holder if the registry's charter accepts them. That charter, and not a habit picked up on .fr, says whether a link with French Guiana is required.
AFNIC does not sell .gf. Its scope covers .fr, .re, .yt, .pm, .wf and .tf. Confusing those extensions with the one for French Guiana costs weeks. Build a separate case, with the exact name of the holder and a technical contact able to answer when teams are split between the coast and the river.
- Operator based in Cayenne, Kourou or Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni
- Organisation serving the inland communes
- Research body or consultancy present in the territory
- Association or individual admitted by the charter
- Holder of a .fr creating a separate name for its Guianese business
Checking whether a .gf label is free
A .gf name is checked in the registry's tool. It may be free, already created, reserved (institutional name, commune, public project) or frozen while a dispute runs. Namesakes are easy: several operators use the river, the forest or the space industry as an image. Only the answer of the day counts, and it is kept together with the time of the query.
Prepare an unaccented spelling. Creole and the other languages of the territory only fit into a classic label if the registry has opened internationalised names, with precise conversion rules. “saint-laurent” differs from “saintlaurent”. Do not have the address painted on a vehicle until the creation is confirmed: a late refusal costs more than the name.
What the whois is for on a .gf
Querying the whois or RDAP shows the state of the name, its dates, its DNS servers and the contacts made public. It is the tool for telling a living domain from one simply parked as a precaution. Many labels publish no website and are taken all the same. Before building an identity around a word tied to Kourou or to the forest, read the record.
The GDPR often leads to masking the details of an individual holder, without removing the registry's retention of the file. A legal person remains identifiable. After registration, reopening the record is an operational gesture: an email belonging to an agent who has moved prevents the expiry notice from being received. Correct the contact on the day of the change.
Reading a .gf domain quote without picking the wrong line
This guide publishes no price: an invented amount would be false information. The .gf does not follow the .fr price list. Have the creation, the renewal, any transfer and the case fees priced by the office that actually handles the extension. If nobody reviews documents, the “case” line has no reason to appear.
Add the costs the name does not cover. Hosting may be local or located elsewhere: DNS and the HTTPS certificate are separate lines, like the email used on the coast and while travelling. Compare the second-year price rather than the first-year promotion. Ask what happens to the case fees if the name is refused.
Choosing a short .gf, including away from the coast
The .gf is already a short extension: the word before the dot must be short too. It is spelled without ambiguity on the phone, with unaccented letters, digits and, only if it helps, a hyphen. No space, no apostrophe, no leading hyphen. Avoid suggesting that you are the state, a commune or the space centre: those confusions turn against the filer.
Check the trademark register and the names already in use in the territory before investing. Dictate the name to someone who does not know it. If the audience also speaks another language of French Guiana, check that no usual spelling becomes awkward once reduced to the letters classic DNS allows.
How many days between the .gf filing and a reachable site
An automated creation is fast. A reviewed creation — articles, proof of presence, coherence of the label — waits for its reader, which is counted in days. During that wait the name is not delegated: no host can make it answer. The useful calendar is the registry's, not your web provider's.
When the delegation is published, caches still keep the absence of an answer for the TTL. Allow up to two days for a visitor located outside the territory. A distant partner, a client in Saint-Laurent and an agent inland will not necessarily see the site at the same time. Announce the address after a test from an access point that does not share your resolver.
Technical zone of a .gf name
Publish at least two name servers, on networks that do not fall together. The registry and the zone must announce the same NS. A server located under the .gf itself requires glue records, the addresses supplied together with the delegation. Without them, some resolvers never find the zone, hence intermittent failures that are hard to reproduce from Cayenne.
In the zone, set the SOA, the NS, the site's address, the MX and an SPF TXT record before the first message. DKIM signs that mail, DMARC states what to do with forgeries. Enable DNSSEC only if the registry publishes the DS and the signatures are already correct: incomplete DNSSEC makes resolution fail instead of protecting it. Keep the TTL short on the day of the switch.
Duties of the .gf holder
Holding a .gf means holding an accurate record. Contact details, status, a contact able to answer: every change is recorded without waiting for the next incident. The renewal is paid before expiry, with a reminder that does not depend solely on the domain's mailbox. Published content is subject to French law as applicable in French Guiana.
The operator keeps control of usage. A short name attracts attempts at confusion: watch the addresses that send mail and cut off a compromised mailbox quickly. If the registry questions the holder, silence often carries the consequences set out in the charter. The provider can act on the zone; it does not replace the registered person.
Ordering a .gf without skipping steps
The label is checked, the holder is fixed, the servers are announced, the quote is signed, and the name is only announced publicly once resolution has been observed outside the usual network.
Dictate the labels
Write up to three short forms and read them aloud to drop the ones that are heard badly on a poor connection.
Check on the same day
The availability of a .com or a .fr says nothing about .gf. Keep the time and the tool of the query.
Choose the legal holder
The email must be read on the coast as well as while travelling. A single personal mailbox is a failure point.
Supply servers and glue
Two reachable servers are enough. Glue records are added only if those servers live under the filed name.
Read every line of the quote
Creation, renewal, case fees: the three are distinguished before payment, and the contact must be identified.
Test outside the local network
After the registry's approval, check the record, resolution from another access, the page and a message. Only then announce it.
Budget markers for a .gf
The table sorts the items. It does not replace a quote and invents no amount: only the office operating the extension can price it.
| Expense | Use | Timing | Risk if neglected |
|---|---|---|---|
| Creation | Brings the name into existence for the agreed period | When the filing is accepted | Confusing creation with case fees |
| Renewal | Prevents the name from dropping | At each expiry | Putting the reminder only in the domain's mailbox |
| Transfer | Moves technical management | When the holder decides | Ignoring what happens to the anniversary date |
| Case fees | Corresponds to a review of documents | If the procedure is manual | Paying without knowing what happens if refused |
| DNS | Publishes the servers and the zone | As soon as the registry has created the name | Forgetting glue records when they are needed |
| Restoration | Attempts a recovery after expiry | As early as possible | Counting on it as an automatic right |
Useful questions before a .gf filing
The answers below correct three frequent confusions: the .fr registry, the role of the space industry, and the idea that a name without a website would be free.
Does the .gf belong to the same registry as .fr?
No. .fr is operated by AFNIC, which also runs other overseas extensions, but not .gf. A .fr account does not create a Guianese name. You need a case addressed to the .gf registry.
Does the Kourou space centre manage the .gf extension?
No. The place of the space industry in the economy of French Guiana does not make it the operator of the top-level domain. The .gf depends on its registry. A label suggesting otherwise exposes itself to a refusal or a challenge.
Can a .gf be filed with accents or Creole?
A classic DNS label accepts only unaccented letters, digits and the hyphen. A wider spelling exists only if the registry has opened internationalised names. Have this confirmed before choosing.
Does the whois say whether a name with no website is free?
No. The absence of a site does not mean availability. The whois describes a domain that is already registered. If it returns no record, the name may be free or simply reserved: cross-check with the registry's filing tool.
What should I do if the expiry email no longer arrives?
Update the contact at the registry as soon as the address changes, and duplicate the alert in a calendar that is not hosted on the domain. Discovering the cut-off at the last moment leaves very little time for a recovery.
Writing to the registry: the .gf form
Sending a request is coming soon. Until then the .gf form, with the domain searched, the extension, the name, the email and the phone, stays visible and inactive: no network, no whois, no file opened.