In April 1992, the national extension .lu has taken shape under the leadership of the RESTENA research project, which became the Restena Foundation in 2000, and along with it, Luxembourg asserted its presence on the Internet. Over 30 years, there have been many developments in its management and needs.

1992: the birth of the .lu registry and the first domain names

In 1992, at the end of a three-stage process supported by the RESTENA project, turned into the Restena Foundation in 2000, Luxembourg became the 34th country to connect to the internet. 

This remarkable adventure would not have been possible without the trust placed in the RESTENA team by Joyce Reynolds and Jon Postel. Considered internet pioneers, they assumed in 1992 the first functions of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the key gatekeeper for any country wanting to connect to the internet.

30 years of evolution

Over time, the .lu related activities have been structured and grew along with the requests and needs. It became more professional in 2000 with the creation of the Restena Foundation.

• In 1994, a registrar was set up as requests reached the rate of a hundred or so per day and non-scientific bodies asked to benefit from their domain names. 
• In 2001, an internet naming charter for .lu was drawn up in close collaboration with the private and public players representing the national internet community. 
• In 2006, external registrars were first accredited to manage .lu domain names alongside Restena's registrar activity. 
• In 2010, Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs) were introduced, expanding the number of domain names available for registration. 
• In 2011, the .lu zone was signed by DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extension) to protect services using a .lu domain name.