MNations Hosting

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MNations Hosting
Type Internet Service Provider
Founded Feburary 23, 2019
Founder Jonah Aragon
Official Website mnations.net
Official Chat Discord
Services Web Hosting
Email Hosting
Web Monetizaton
Alternative DNS Root
Domain Name Registration
ccTLD Operation

MNations Hosting (sometimes stylized as MNATIONS, formerly NationDNS) is an intermicronational organization established by Jonah Aragon in 2019 created to provide micronations with online services, including web hosting, email services, and their own country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) on the NationDNS alternative DNS root.

After its creation, it absorbed the former NationDNS organization.

History

On June 5, 2017, NationDNS responded to a query posted on the new-nations.net discussion board[1] regarding the creation of a .koc top-level domain for the Kingdom of Catan. Major development was made on the creation of a domain-name infrastructure for Catan that would eventually peer with the OpenNIC alternative DNS root, but development stalled due to internal issues.[2] At this point, all services were either transferred to Catan's internal organizations or were shut down.

On May 8, 2018, NationDNS entered into a service level partnership agreement with FreeNIC to create a DNS backend infrastructure for the redevelopment of the organization.

On May 9, 2018, founder Jonah Aragon posted a thread on the Microwiki Forum requesting comments regarding interest in an alternative DNS root for micronations.[3] Multiple parties responded expressing interest in joining, and a few are currently in discussion on becoming members. As of May 12, 2018, member nations of NationDNS include the Nordkavn Federation,[4] and the Principality of Andany.[5] Some other nations have additionally expressed interest, including the Kingdom of Madrona[6][7] and the Thegn-Hold of Siar Fordell.[8]

On Feburary 22nd, 2019, MNations Hosting was founded and absorbed the former NationDNS organization, which now exists as a subsidiary of the organization. NationDNS was restarted and domain reservations were opened to the micronational community.

Services

WordPress Hosting

MNATIONS is a WordPress Multisite hosting provider offering free WordPress hosting to micronations, their citizens, and micronational organizations. As of March 1, 2019, two micronations and one intermicronational group have hosted their websites on MNATIONS' backend.

NationDNS

NationDNS
Type Alternative DNS Root
Founded June 6, 2017[1]
Founder Jonah Aragon
Member Nations 12 (as of March 1, 2019)
Official Website nationdns.mnations.net
Services Alternative DNS Root
ccTLD Operation
Web Monetizaton

NationDNS is an intermicronational organization established by Jonah Aragon in 2017,[1][9] which provides custom ccTLD registrations to micronations. This allows for a micronation to own an entire top-level domain for them to build their internet presence on. They also provide web hosting via WordPress Multi-site,[10] either on a nation's own custom ccTLD or on a *.ndns.co or *.micronations.co subdomain.[11] Micronations can additionally provide their own domain names purchased elsewhere that can be mapped to NationDNS hosted websites.[11]

Eventually, NationDNS intends to provide custom services such as public domain registration on a ccTLD (and related monetization opportunities), as well as email mailbox hosting and customized services (including SSO for a national citizen identification system, online banking services, etc.)[10]

Like all alternative DNS root systems, NationDNS' custom ccTLDs are inaccessible to the majority of the internet population, requiring special non-default computer configuration for access. Nonetheless, several micronations have expressed interest in joining, and NationDNS does provide some hosting services accessible on any computer through the use of the *.ndns.co or *.micronations.co hosting subdomain.

NationDNS is currently not officially affiliated with or incorporated within any micronation itself.

Services are expected to go live as quickly as May 28.[9]

NationDNS' stated goal is to get as many micronations as possible to join in the network to build a universal internet community.[9] The founder of is quoted as stating: "[NationDNS is] really only a viable plan if multiple micronations are interested in this setup.",[9] bringing into question the long-term reliability of the free-tier plan offering. That being said, the number of micronations already expressing support for such an organization is a good sign of future development.

In 2019, NationDNS was absorbed by MNATIONS Hosting.

References