Domain Name
A domain name is one that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name google.com represents about a dozen IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.graduateshotline.com/tope.html, the domain name is graduateshotline.com
Every domain name has a suffix that informs us which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:
- gov
- Government agencies
- edu
- Educational institutions
- org
- Organizations (nonprofit)
- mil
- Military
- com
- commercial business
- net
- Network organizations
- ca
- Canada
- th
- Thailand
Since the Internet is based on IP addresses and not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.