Domain name

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A domain name is an identification label to define a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).

Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the top-level Internet domains (TLDs), such as the prominent domains com, net and org. Below the top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names that are typically open for reservation by end-users that wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, run web sites, or create other publicly accessible Internet resources. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

Individual Internet host computers use domain names as host identifiers, or hostnames. Hostnames are the leaf labels in the domain name system usually without further subordinate domain name space. Hostnames appear as a component in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as web sites (e.g., en.wikipedia.org).

Domain names are also used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of a resource. Such examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), the DomainKeys used to verify DNS domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

An important purpose of domain names is to provide easily recognizable and memorizable names to numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g., website) to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet. Such a move usually requires changing the IP address of a resource and the corresponding translation of this IP address to and from its domain name.

This article primarily discusses the group of domain names that are offered by domain name registrars for registration by the public. The Domain Name System article discusses the technical facilities and infrastructure of the domain name space and the hostname article deals with specific information about the use of domain names as identifiers of network hosts.

For more information about Domain name, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with domain names


Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)

Postal services get exclusive '.post' address

Technology / Internet

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Global postal services will soon have their own address on the Internet, after the web's authority for assigning domain names ICANN, said on Friday that it had approved the new address dot post (.post).


Egypt applies for first Arabic domain name

Technology / Internet

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- Egypt's technology minister says the country has applied to register an all-Arabic domain name.





Search results for domain names


Portions of Arctic coastline eroding, no end in sight, says new CU-Boulder study

Portions of Arctic coastline eroding, no end in sight, says new study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created 8 hours ago | popularity 3.4 / 5 (5) | comments 2

The northern coastline of Alaska midway between Point Barrow and Prudhoe Bay is eroding by up to one-third the length of a football field annually because of a "triple whammy" of declining sea ice, warming ...


A new kind of micro-mobility: Moving tiny particles using magnetic fields

A new kind of micro-mobility: Moving tiny particles using magnetic fields (w/ Video)

Physics / General Physics

created 12 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

A new microscopic system devised by researchers in MIT's department of materials science and engineering could provide a novel method for moving tiny objects inside a microchip, and could also provide new ...


How categories and environment create satisfied and well-informed consumers

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 13 hours ago | popularity 3 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Expert consumers like to be surprised by unusual product formats, while novices crave familiarity, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.


Sucker-footed bats don't use suction after all

Sucker-footed bats don't use suction after all (w/ Video)

Biology / Plants & Animals

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

There are approximately 1,200 species of bats worldwide. Of that total, only six are known to roost with their heads pointed upward. Investigators did not know why, because they knew next to nothing about ...


26 operations, 13 kidneys: hope to few with little (AP)

26 operations, 13 kidneys: hope to few with little

Medicine & Health / Other

created 22 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- Twenty-six operations put healthy kidneys into 13 desperately ill people: Doctors in the nation's capital just performed a record-setting kidney swap, part of a pioneering effort to expand transplants ...


Scientists crack mystery of protein's dual function

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Dec 13, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have solved a 10-year-old mystery of how a single protein from an ancient family of enzymes can have two completely distinct roles in the body. In addition to providing guidance ...


Computing with a wave of the hand

Computing with a wave of the hand (w/ Video)

Technology / Hi Tech

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (14) | comments 7

(PhysOrg.com) -- The iPhone’s familiar touch screen display uses capacitive sensing, where the proximity of a finger disrupts the electrical connection between sensors in the screen. A competing approach, ...


Swedish service performs your last online wishes (AP)

Swedish service performs your last online wishes

Technology / Internet

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 1 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- Sunniva Geertinger was devastated when her boyfriend took his life early this year.


EBay official: Employees shared Craigslist data

Technology / Internet

created Dec 10, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Employees of Internet auction site eBay shared confidential information gained from Craigslist with other employees developing eBay's own online classifieds business, an eBay executive said Wednesday.


Geneticist reveals molecular view of key epigenetic regulator

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 09, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

In a paper published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Michael Kobor reported the structure and function of a key player in regulating chromatin in yeast and humans.



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