Difference between revisions of "Domain name"

Revision as of 07:22, 31 August 2015

A domain name is an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet.

Description

Domain names are formed by the rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name registered in the DNS is a domain name.

Domain names are used in various networking contexts and application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name represents an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, a server computer hosting a website, or the website itself or any other service communicated via the Internet.

In 2014, the number of active domains reached 271 million.

DNS root domain

Domain names are organized in subordinate levels (subdomains) of the DNS root domain, which is nameless.

First-level domain names

The first-level set of domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent domains com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).

Second- and third-level domain names

Below these 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 who wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, create other publicly accessible Internet resources or run web sites. The registration of these domain names is usually administered by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

Fully qualified domain name

A [[fully qualified domain name] (FQDN) is a domain name that is completely specified in the hierarchy of the DNS, having no parts omitted.

Case insensitive labels

Labels in the Domain Name System are case-insensitive.

See also

• Domain Name System (DNS)
• Internet
• Same-origin policy
• Server (computing)
• Web server
• Website

External links

• Domain name @ Wikipedia