Describe a domain name, and provide examples of domain names - Essay Example

Internet Domain s First Last Dr. TeacherFirst TeacherLast Number 25 February Internet Domain Names A domain name is a string of letters and numbers which are used by individuals, businesses, or organizations to name their presence on the web. For example, the domain name ibm.com represents the web presence of the company IBM. Domain names are registered with relevant authorities called “domain name registrars” who help to maintain the uniqueness of the name (“ICANN-Accredited Registrars”, 2011).

The name is divided into two parts. The first part is a unique string selected by the owner of the name. The second part appears to the right of the last period (dot) and refers to the type of presence. For the second part, there are standard strings which define various types or groups, some of which are given below: .edu Educational institutions .gov Government .com Commercial organizations .org Non-profit organizations .net Network organizations The Internet is a web (and thus the name) of countless computer servers internetworked with each other through the IP communication protocol where each node has a unique IP address assigned to it.

The domain names, described above, map to one or more IP addresses and help to create a friendlier, easy to remember layer on top of the IP numbers. The Domain Name Service accessible through every server helps to translate these names to IP addresses. In this way, it is easier to remember www.google.com rather than a string of numbers representing it. Some examples of domain names are: www.microsoft.com Microsoft www.apple.com Apple www.icann.org ICANN Finally, several countries have their own suffixes at the end of the domain name.

For example, .au Australia .uk United Kingdom .mx Mexico References ICANN-Accredited Registrars. (2011, Jan 10). Retrieved from http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html