About Internet.bzh

What is Internet.bzh?

Internet.bzh helps you check whether your Internet is up to date. Do your website and your email use modern and reliable Internet standards? And if not, what can you do about it?

Where does Internet.bzh come from?

The Internet.bzh test tool is operated by the www.bzh association, which manages the Breton .bzh Internet extension. To offer a test tool to our domain holders, we built on the initiative of the Dutch Internet Standards Platform, which created the Internet.nl site. The goal of this platform is to jointly increase the use of modern Internet standards to make the Internet more accessible, safer, and more reliable for everyone. The platform is a collaboration between the Internet community and the Dutch government. The following parties are currently involved:

• Dutch Cloud Community
• Netherlands Authority for Digital Infrastructure
• ECP
• Internet Society (global)
• Internet Society Netherlands Chapter
• Ministry of Economic Affairs
• NCSC-NL
• Netherlands Standardisation Forum
• NLnet
• NLnet Labs
• RIPE NCC
• SIDN
• SURF
• VvR

The www.bzh association ensures the hosting and deployment of the platform in collaboration with its partners.

Practicing what we preach?

We periodically test the domain names of members of the Internet standards platform. The test reports are publicly accessible.

What are Internet standards?

To exchange data between computers worldwide, we need international agreements on how they communicate. Think of them as the digital “plugs and sockets” that connect everything. These agreements are called Internet standards or protocols. One example is SMTP, a well-known protocol for sending email. This technical core of the Internet is invisible and unknown to most users—but it's crucial for the Internet to function now and in the future.

Why is staying up to date important?

Early Internet standards were designed in the 1970s and 1980s, when the user base was small. Today, there are over three billion users worldwide! And many of them use the Internet for high-value, privacy-sensitive transactions. Legacy standards can’t meet the scale or modern security needs. For example, criminals exploit SMTP to spoof email sender addresses. That’s why we need to start using smarter, more secure standards to ensure the Internet’s reliability. The good news is: these modern Internet standards already exist.

How are we doing on adopting these best practices?

Unfortunately, we still use too many outdated standards that aren’t reliable. Failing to adopt modern standards poses risks not just to individual users, but to the French economy and the global Internet. That’s why we ask you to help improve the Internet by making sure you're using modern Internet standards.

Who needs to take action for modern Internet standards?

Our access, hosting, and email providers need to implement and properly configure modern standards. Do test results show issues? Then send a message to your provider(s). If you run your own connection, web server, or mail server, it's your job to ensure everything is set up correctly.

Why not contact access, hosting, and email providers directly?

We do. But it's also crucial for Internet users to be aware of the situation and raise the issue with their providers. Help us improve the Internet together—demand modern Internet standards.