Would you believe that there was a time that the internet didn’t
have any domain names? During those days the internet was very
much like a telephone network. If you wanted to visit a site,
you would have to type that site IP address. And without domain
names, visiting other websites became a chore.
In the olden days of computing, websites went by their IP
address. So a particular site might be accessed by typing
its IP address on the browser like so: “200.221.0.183” If
you miss a number, and fail to notice it, you could get connected
to a totally different machine.
The beauty of domain names is this: it allows the user to
use a language friendly text address instead of complicated
numbers. This text address is called the domain name. Computers
need to communicate using these numbers.
But these numbers are confusing to humans because we don’t
talk that way. A system called the DNS (Domain Name System)
takes the domain name you type in the browser and looks up
the corresponding IP address for that domain name.
Domain names usually have two or more parts, or labels,
which are separated by dots. The rightmost part of the domain
name is the TLD top level domain. This is symbolized by a
3 letter marker: ‘com’ for companies, ‘net’ for
networks, ‘org’ for organizations, ‘edu’ for
educational institutions, ‘mil’ for military,
and ‘gov’ for governments.
Lately there have been additions to the top level domains;
the most notable among them is the ‘biz’ top
level domain. Sometimes a CLD or country level domain is
added further right to the top level domain. These domains
are a two letter representation of the country the site represents.
For example: xxxxx.com.au.
The .com is the top level domain; the .au means that the
site is Australian. The xxxxx is the domain name, or subdomain
name, depending on whether there are other non-TLD and non-CLD
labels on the domain name.
Domain names do not belong to anyone, except for the NIC
or Network Information Centre. In theory, anyone could use
a domain name. However, you would still have to pay for the
handling of the domain name registration. Domain names are
not sold, they are leased. After the lease is over, other
people interested in that domain name may apply for its lease
too.
History
It was the ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
that developed the idea of using a more human-legible address
for sites over the internet as opposed to machine IP number.
Originally, each computer on the network would download
a file called hosts.txt. This file would help the computer
map domain names against their actual IP addresses. This
system, fact is still used in network systems such as the
Windows OS.
As time passed by, the networking world reached a consensus
that an international organization to maintain and monitor
these maps. In 1983 Paul Mockapetris invented the DNS. This
is the same system we use today.
Domain names have made surfing the World Wide Web easier.
It has been said in many academic circles that the DNS is
responsible for making the internet user-friendly and accessible
to everyone.
This lead to the dramatic explosion in popularity of the
internet. Now everybody can use the internet without having
to be a rocket scientist or a genius.
James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of TotallyDomain.com and
writes expert articles about domains.
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