Will the fields in the Whois display UTF-8 or ASCII/Punycode? What about contact fields?

The "domain name" field will display the registered name in Punycode (e.g.: xn--probestck-w9a.info). Three additional fields are provided:

• IDN Script: The intended script / language (based on RFC3066) of the IDN as determined by the registrant (e.g. "de" for German)
• Unicode Hex: The IDN in Unicode Hex format (e.g. U+0070 U+0072 U+006F U+0062 U+0065 U+0073 U+0074 U+00FC U+0063 U+006B)
• Unicode HTML: The IDN in HTML entity format (e.g.: probestück)

The remainder of the Whois fields, including contact and name server information, only display ASCII text.

Afilias’ Port 43 only displays the Punycode name registered. In order to display the proper UTF-8 compatible name through their Whois display, registrars will have to use the RTK to configure their systems properly.

The HTML entity field is provided to assist registrars in displaying the IDN in its native form on the Web-front without many, if any, changes to their Whois display pages. Be reminded however, that the Whois domain submit will require changes to handle the conversion of an IDN to Punycode before sending it to the Afilias Port 43 Whois server. More specifically, the registrar must integrate the ToASCII tool in the submit form for their Web Whois in order for the domain check to work properly for IDNs. Registrars may also utilize these three new IDN related fields to provide better display formatting for end-users.