What does it mean when a site has multiple (dots) in a domain

for example www.gov.on.ca

[ryan_b83]

How does this domain work?

www.gov.on.ca

is the domain on.ca with a subdomain of gov? Does anyone know how this works as far as registering?

Thanks,
Ryan

[encyclo]

For the .ca ccTLD, several years ago it was only possible to register domains with the prefix relating to your province - .on.ca, .qc.ca, .ab.ca etc. Only companies able to prove that they have operations across Canada could register a .ca domain without indicating a province. This requirement was dropped a long time ago, and most people now choose a .ca rather than a province-specific domain. Such domains are however still available, but most budget registrars don't bother - the demand is very small apart from the renewal of legacy domains.

In the case of .ca, it is not possible to register the same domain name with different provincial suffixes. So if example.qc.ca is registered, example.ab.ca or example.ca are unavailable (there are some very rare exceptions which require direct CIRA approval). As such, on.ca or qc.ca are not domain names as such.

For other ccTLDs, the rules can be different. For example, .uk domains come in .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk variations, and the same name can be registered by different people under different variations.

If you are considering registering a new .ca domain, I would not bother with the provincial prefix - very few domains of this type are registered now.