TLD is delegated and alive. pete@tango:~$ dig -t ns xxx ; <<>> DiG 9.7.0-P1 <<>> -t ns xxx ;; global options: +cmd ;; Got answer: ;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 47132 ;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 6, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0 ;; QUESTION SECTION: ;xxx. IN NS ;; ANSWER SECTION: xxx. 300 IN NS a0.xxx.afilias-nst.info. xxx. 300 IN NS c0.xxx.afilias-nst.info. xxx. 300 IN NS a2.xxx.afilias-nst.info. xxx. 300 IN NS b0.xxx.afilias-nst.org. xxx. 300 IN NS b2.xxx.afilias-nst.org. xxx. 300 IN NS d0.xxx.afilias-nst.org. ;; Query time: 100 msec ;; SERVER: 10.0.2.24#53(10.0.2.24) ;; WHEN: Fri May 13 12:10:59 2011 ;; MSG SIZE rcvd: 162 Anyway, I'd recommend them to read RFC2182 ... -J