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.
About the Author
James Monahan is the owner and Senior Editor of
TotallyDomain.com and writes expert
articles about domains.
