CZ.NIC, the .cz domain administrator, has made the FRED (Free Registry for ENUM and Domain) system available as open-source. The FRED system is an internal project of CZ.NIC. It has been used to administer the ENUM domain names since September 2006 and it is now (as of October 1st, 2007) also used to administer the .cz domain.

FRED was made available as open source under a GNU GPL (General Public License) license. The system and its source code are available at: http://fred.nic.cz. Users can use the software, modify it and distribute it under the conditions specified in the GPL license. The FRED system uses other open source applications, such as Linux, Apache, or PostgreSQL. A number of national domain registrars throughout the world has already expressed interest in using and developing the system. At the moment, FRED has no competition as there is no other comparable open source registration system anywhere in the world.

„The development of our own registration system was an integral part of migration of the physical administration of the .cz domain to CZ.NIC,“ said Jaromír Talíř, head of CZ.NIC's development team. „By making the source code available as open-source, we want to create a community of users which will share experience and best practice in domain administration. The interest of other national registrars has convinced us that it was the right thing to do.“

„The FRED is a very powerful and efficient system. According to loading tests, the system should be able to administer the .com domain register, which is the biggest in the world with more than 65 million users,“ ads Ondřej Filip, the Executive Director of CZ.NIC.

Additional information

More information about the FRED system is available at: http://fred.nic.cz, where the source code and installation packages can also be downloaded. All system functions may be tested using the test register, executable from the boot CD (Live CD) on any computer.