How do browsers read and resolve IDNs?
When a compliant browser receives input for an IDN, it converts the IDN into Punycode – the official standard that has been approved for converting IDN domains into resolvable ASCII domains. This process converts the name into an ASCII string with the prefix “xn--” that can be looked up at the TLD nameserver to determine the location of the Web site. Other encodings use different prefixes, e.g., “bq–” is used in Row-based ASCII-Compatible Encoding (RACE). Punycode (“xn--“), was accepted as the IDNA standard by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) on 14 February 2003. Browsers that support this functionality include Internet Explorer 7 or later, Netscape 7.1 or later, Mozilla 1.4 or later, Opera 7 or later, Safari 3.2, and Chrome.
