Domain name

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A domain name is an identification string that defines an administrative autonomous area, authority or control on the Internet. Domain names are formed by rules and procedures of the Domain Name System (DNS). Any name listed in DNS is the domain name. Domain names are used in various network contexts and for the purpose of naming and addressing specific applications. In general, the domain name is a source of Internet Protocol (IP), such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, the server computer hosting the website, or the website itself or other services communicated through the Internet. By 2017, 330.6 million domain names have been registered.

The domain name is set in the subordinate level (subdomain) of the DNS root domain, which is not named. The first level set of domain names is the top-level domain (TLD), including generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as domains of com, info, net, edu, and org, and the country's top-level domain codes (ccTLD). Below these top-level domains in the DNS hierarchy are second and third-level domain names that are typically open to reservations by end users who want to connect local area networks to the Internet, create publicly accessible Internet resources, or run websites.

This domain name registration is usually managed by domain name registrars who sell their services to the public.

A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) is a fully-specified domain name with all labels in the DNS hierarchy, having no portion removed. Labels in the Domain Name System are case insensitive, and can therefore be written with any desired capitalization method, but most domain names are written in lower case in a technical context.

Video Domain name

Destination

Domain names work to identify Internet resources, such as computers, networks, and services, with text-based labels that are easier to remember than the numerical addresses used in the Internet protocol. Domain names can represent the entire collection of such resources or individual instances. An individual Internet host computer uses a domain name as the host identifier, also called hostname . The term hostname is also used for leaf labels in domain name systems, usually without further subordinate domain namespaces. Hostnames appear as components in Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such as websites (eg, En.wikipedia.org).

Domain names are also used as simple identification labels to indicate ownership or control of resources. These examples are identifiers used in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Domain Keys that are used to verify DNS domains in an e-mail system, and in many other Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).

An important function of a domain name is to provide an easily recognizable and remembered name for Internet resources that are handled numerically. This abstraction allows each resource to be moved to a different physical location in the network address topology, globally or locally on the intranet. Such a move usually requires changing the IP address of the resource and the appropriate translation of this IP address to and from its domain name.

Domain names are used to assign a unique identity. Organizations can choose a domain name that matches their name, helping Internet users to reach them easily.

A generic domain is a name that defines a general category, not a specific or private instance, for example, an industry name, not a company name. Some examples of generic names are books.com , music.com , and travel.info . The company has created a brand based on a generic name, and the common domain name may be valuable.

Domain names are often simply referred to as domains and domain name registrars are often referred to as domain owners , although the registration of domain names with registrars does not confer the legal ownership of the domain name, only the exclusive right of use for time duration. The use of domain names in trade may make them subject to trademark laws.

Maps Domain name

History

The practice of using a memorable abstraction from a host numeric address on a computer network dates back to the ARPANET era, before the advent of the current commercial Internet. In the initial network, each computer on the network retrieves the host file ( host.txt ) from the computer at SRI (now SRI International), which maps the hostname of the computer to a numerical address. Rapid network growth makes it impossible to maintain a centrally managed hostname registry and in 1983 the Domain Name System was introduced on the ARPANET and published by the Internet Engineering Task Force as RFC 882 and RFC 883.

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Domain namespace

At present, the Internet Company for the Defined Names and Numbers (ICANN) manages the development of top-level Internet domain names and architecture. It authorizes domain name registrars, through which domain names can be registered and moved.

The domain name space consists of a domain name tree. Each node in the tree stores information associated with the domain name. This tree is divided into zones starting in the DNS root zone.

Domain name syntax

Domain names consist of one or more sections, technically called labels , which are conventionally merged, and limited by dots, like example.com .

• The rightmost label represents the top-level domain; for example, the domain name www.example.com belonging to the top-level domain com .
• The domain hierarchy drops from the right to left label on the name; each label on the left specifies a subdivision, or a subdomain from the domain to the right. For example: the example label specifies the example.com node as a subdomain of the com domain, and www is the label to create www.example.com , a subdomain of example.com . Each label can contain 1-63 octets. An empty label is reserved for the root node and when fully qualified as a blank label ending by a dot. The full domain name must not exceed the total length of 253 ASCII characters in its textual representation. So, when using one character per label, the limit is 127 levels: 127 characters plus 126 dots have a total length of 253. In practice, some domain registrars may have a shorter limit.
• Hostnames are domain names that have at least one associated IP address. For example, the domain names www.example.com and example.com are also hostnames, while the com domain is not. However, other top-level domains, especially country-level top-level domains, may indeed have IP addresses, and if so, they are also hostnames.
• Hostnames impose limits on allowed characters in the associated domain name. A valid hostname is also a valid domain name, but a valid domain name may not be valid as a hostname.

Top level domain

Top-level domains (TLDs) like com, net and org are the highest level of Internet domain names. Top-level domains establish the DNS root zone of the hierarchical Domain Name System. Each domain name ends with a top level domain label.

When the Domain Name System was created in the 1980s, domain namespace was divided into two main groups of domains. The country code top level domain (ccTLD) is based primarily on two-character region code of the ISO-3166 country abbreviation. In addition, a group of seven generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are implemented that represent a series of name and multi-organization categories. This is the domain gov, edu, com, mil, org, net, and int.

During the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to create additional generic top-level domains. As of October 2009, 21 generic top-level domains and 250 top level domain level two country codes exist. Additionally, the ARPA domain serves a technical purpose in the Domain Name System infrastructure.

During the 32nd ICANN International Public Meeting in Paris in 2008, ICANN began a new TLD naming policy process to take "significant step forward in the introduction of new generic top-level domains." The program envisions the availability of many new or proposed domains, as well as new applications and implementation processes. Observers believe that new rules may cause hundreds of new top-level domains to be registered. In 2012, the program starts, and receives 1930 applications. By 2016, milestones of 1000 live gTLD are achieved.

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) maintains an annotated top-level domain list in the DNS root zone database.

For specific purposes, such as network testing, documentation, and other applications, IANA also stores a set of custom usage domain names. This list contains domain names like example, local, localhost, and test. Other top-level domain names containing registered trademarks for corporate use. Cases include brands such as BMW, Google, and Canon.

Second level domains and lower levels

Under the top-level domain in the domain name tree is the second level domain name (SLD). This is the direct name to the left of.com,.net, and other top-level domains. For example, in the domain example.co.uk , co is the second level domain.

Next is a third-level domain, written directly to the left of the second-level domain. There can be fourth and fifth domain domains, and so on, with almost no restrictions. An example of an operational domain name with four domain label levels is sos.state.oh.us . Each label is separated by a full stop point (dot). 'sos' is said to be a sub-domain of 'state.oh.us', and 'state' a sub-domain of 'oh.us', etc. Generally, a subdomain is a domain that is under its parent domain. A very deep level example of subdomain ordering is the DNS resolution zone behind IPv6, for example, 1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.ip6.arpa, which is the reverse DNS resolution domain name for the address IP loopback interface, or localhost name.

The second level (or lower level, depending on the established parent hierarchy) domain names are often created by company name (for example, bbc .co.uk), product or service (eg hotmail .com). Below this level, the next domain name component has been used to designate the specified host server. Therefore, ftp.example.com may be an FTP server, www.example.com will be a World Wide Web server, and mail.example.com can be an email server, each intended to perform only the implied function. Modern technology allows multiple physical servers to work well (see Load balancing) or even identical addresses (see Anycast) to serve one hostname or domain name, or multiple domain names to be served by a single computer. The latter is very popular in web hosting service centers, where service providers host many organization websites on only a few servers.

Hierarchical DNS labels or domain name components are separated in names that are fully qualified by the full stop point (dot, . ).

Internationalized domain name

The set of allowed characters in the Domain Name System is based on ASCII and does not allow the representation of names and words from many languages ​​in their original scripts or alphabets. ICANN approves the international domain name system (IDNA), which maps the Unicode strings used in the application's user interface into valid DNS characters set by a coding named Punycode. For example, kÃÆ'¸benhavn.eu mapped to xn--kbenhavn-54a.eu. Many records have adopted IDNA.

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Domain name registration

History

The first commercial Internet domain name, in TLD com , was registered on March 15, 1985 in the name of symbolics.com by Symbolics Inc., a computer systems company in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 1992, less than 15,000 com domains were registered.

In the first quarter of 2015, 294 million domain names have been registered. Most of them are on the TLD, which on December 21, 2014, has 115.6 million domain names, including 11.9 million online businesses and e-commerce sites, 4.3 million entertainment sites , 3.1 million financial-related sites, and 1.8 million sports sites. As of July 2012, the com TLD has more registration than all ccTLD merges.

Administration

The right to use domain names is delegated by the domain name registrar, which is accredited by the Internet Company for the Defined Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization charged by overseeing the name and system of Internet numbers. In addition to ICANN, each top-level domain (TLD) is managed and serviced technically by the administrative organization that operates the registry. The registry is responsible for maintaining a database of names registered in the TLDs it manages. The Registry receives registration information from each domain name registrar authorized to assign names in the appropriate TLD and publish information using a special service, the WHOIS protocol.

Registries and registrars typically charge an annual fee for domain name delegation services to users and provide a set of default name servers. Often, these transactions are called sales or lease domain names, and registrars can sometimes be called "owners", but there is no actual legal relationship associated with the transaction, only the exclusive right to use the domain name. More precisely, authorized users are known as "registrars" or as "domain holders".

ICANN publishes a complete list of TLD registrars and domain name registrars. Registrant information associated with the domain name is maintained in an online database that can be accessed with the WHOIS protocol. For most of the country's top 250 domain level (ccTLD) domains, domain registrars retain WHOIS information (Registrant, name server, expiration date, etc.).

Some domain name registrars, often called network information centers (NICs), also serve as registries for end users. Major generic top-level registry, such as for com , net , org , info domain and more, use the model registry-registry consisting of hundreds of domain name registrars (see list in ICANN or VeriSign). In this management method, the registry only manages the domain name database and its relationship with the registrar. The registrar (domain name user) is a customer of the registrar, in some cases through an additional layer of reseller.

Technical terms and processes

In the process of registering a domain name and retaining authority over the new namespace created, the registrar uses some key piece of information linked to the domain:

• administrative contacts . Registrants usually designate administrative contacts to manage domain names. Administrative contacts typically have the highest level of control over a domain. Management functions delegated to administrative contacts may include the management of all business information, such as the name of the record, postal address, and contact information of the registrant's official domain and the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry to retain the right to use the domain name. In addition, administrative contacts install additional contact information for technical and billing functions.
• technical contacts . Technical contacts manage domain name server names. Technical contact functions include ensuring compatibility of domain name configuration with domain registry requirements, maintaining domain zone records, and providing ongoing functionality of name servers (leading to domain name accessibility).
• Billing contacts . The party responsible for receiving the billing invoice from the domain name registrar and paying the applicable fees.
• Name server . Most registrars provide two or more name servers as part of the registration service. However, registrars may specify their own authoritative name servers to host domain resource records. The registrar policy governs the number of servers and types of server information required. Some providers require the appropriate hostname and IP address or just the hostname, which must be solvable either in the new domain, or somewhere else. Under the traditional requirements (RFC 1034), usually at least two servers are required.

The domain name consists of one or more labels, each of which is formed from a collection of ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, -), but does not start or end with a hyphen. These labels are not case sensitive; for example, 'label' is equivalent to 'Label' or 'LABEL'. In the textual representation of a domain name, the label is separated by a full (period) point.

Business model

Domain names often seen in analogies to real estate in a domain name are the foundations upon which a website can be created, and the highest quality domain names, such as sought real estate, tend to bring significant value, usually due to the potential of brands online, used in advertising, search engine optimization, and many other criteria.

Some companies have offered low cost domain registration, under cost or even free with various models adopted to cover fees to providers. This usually requires that the domain be hosted on their website within a framework or portal that includes ads wrapped around the content of the domain holder, an income that allows the provider to recoup costs. Free domain registration when DNS is new. Domain owners can provide an unlimited number of subdomains in their domain. For example, the owner of example.org can provide subdomains like foo.example.org and foo.bar.example.org to the party.

Many of the desired domain names have been assigned and users should look for other acceptable names, using Web-based search feature, or WHOIS and dig up the operating system tools. Many registrars have implemented a domain name suggestion tool that searches for domain name databases and suggests available alternate domain names related to the keywords provided by users.

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Resale of domain name

The resale business of a registered domain name is known as an aftermarket domain. Various factors affect the perceived value or market value of a domain name. Most high-priced domain sales are done privately.

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Confusion of domain name

Intercapping is often used to emphasize the meaning of domain names. However, DNS names are not case-sensitive, and some names may be misinterpreted in certain capitalization uses. For example: Who Represents , artist and agent database, selects whorepresents.com , which can be misread as gift whore . Similarly, a network of therapists is called therapistfinder.com . In such situations, the exact meaning can be clarified by using hyphens in the domain name. For example, Experts Exchange, the programmer's discussion site, for a long time using expertsexchange.com , but eventually changed the name to experts-exchange.com .

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Use in website hosting

The domain name is a component of the uniform resource finder (URL) used to access the website, for example:

• URL: http://www.example.net/index.html
• Top-level domain: net
• Second level domain: example
• Hostname: www

Domain names can point to multiple IP addresses to provide server redundancy for offered services, a feature used to manage large and popular website traffic.

Web hosting services, on the other hand, run servers that are usually only given one or more addresses while serving websites for many domains, a technique referred to as virtual web hosting. Such an overloading IP address requires that each request identify the domain name referenced, for example by using the HTTP request header field Host: , or Server Name Indication.

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Abuse and settings

Critics often claim abuse of administrative power over domain names. Of great importance is the VeriSign Site Finder system that redirects all.com and.net domains that are not registered to the VeriSign webpage. For example, at a public meeting with VeriSign to broadcast technical concerns about SiteFinder, many people, active in the IETF and other technical agencies, explained how surprised they were by VeriSign who changed the fundamental behavior of the major components of the Internet infrastructure, did not gain customary consensus. SiteFinder, initially, assumes every Internet request is for a website, and monetizes a query for an incorrect domain name, takes the user to the VeriSign search site. Unfortunately, other apps, like many email implementations, treat a lack of response to domain name requests as an indication that the domain does not exist, and that messages can be treated as undeliverable. The original VeriSign implementation solves this assumption for email, as it will always resolve the wrong domain name with SiteFinder. While VeriSign later changed the SiteFinder behavior in relation to emails, there was still widespread protest about VeriSign's actions more in its financial interests than the interests of the Internet infrastructure component that VeriSign was the caretaker.

Despite widespread criticism, VeriSign only reluctantly deleted it after the Internet Company for the Name and Number Assigned (ICANN) threatened to revoke its contract to manage the root name servers. ICANN publishes a large collection of exchanged letters, committee reports and ICANN decisions.

There is also significant jitters about US political influence over ICANN. This is a significant issue in attempting to create a.xxx top-level domain and sparking greater interest in an alternative DNS root that will be beyond the control of a single country.

In addition, there are many allegations of running the front of the domain name, where the registrar, when given whois question, automatically register the domain name for themselves. Network Solutions has been accused of doing this.

Truth in Domain Name Act

In the United States, the Truth in the Domain Name Act of 2003, in combination with the PROTECT Act of 2003, prohibits the use of misleading domain names with the intention of attracting Internet users to Internet pornography sites visited.

Truth in the Domain Names Act follows the more common Consumer Protection Act of Consumer Protection passed in 1999 aimed at preventing typos and the use of deceptive names and trademarks in domain names.

Seizures

• Notification of seizures

At the beginning of the 21st century, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) pursues foreclosure domain names, based on legal theory that domain names are the property used to engage in criminal activity, and thus subject to foreclosure. For example, in a foreclosure domain name of a gambling website, DOJ refers to 18 USCÃ,§§981 and 18 USCÃ,§Ã, 1955 (d) . [1] In 2013, the US government seized Liberty Reserve, citing 18 U.S.C.Ã, Ã, § 982 (a) (1) .

The US Congress passed the Online Infringement and Counterfeit Online Act in 2010. The vice president of the Electronics Electronics Electronics Association, Michael Petricone worries that foreclosure is a blunt instrument that could harm a legitimate business. Following joint operations on February 15, 2011, the DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security claimed to have captured ten website domains involved in advertising and distributing child pornography, but also mis-captured domain names from major DNS providers, temporarily replacing 84,000 websites with seizure notices.

In the United Kingdom, the Police Intellectual Property Crimes Unit has attempted to seize the domain name of the registrant without a court order.

Suspension

PIPCU and other UK law enforcement organizations make domain suspension requests to Nominet they process on the ground of breach of terms and conditions. Approximately 16,000 domains are suspended each year, and about 80% of the requests come from PIPCU.

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Fictitious domain name

A fictitious domain name is the domain name used in fiction or popular culture to refer to domains that do not actually exist, often with unofficial or unofficial top level domains like ".web", the use of which exactly the same as the 555 dummy phone number used in movies and other media. The canonical fictitious domain name is "example.com", specifically set aside by IANA on RFC 2606 for such use, along with .example TLD.

Domain names used in fictional works are often registered in DNS, either by their creators or by cybersquatters trying to benefit from it. This phenomenon prompted NBC to purchase the Hornymanatee.com domain name after talk show host Conan O'Brien pronounced the name during ad-libbing on his show. O'Brien then created the website based on the concept and used it as a joke on the show.

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See also

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References

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External links

• (domain bias in web search) a study by microsoft
• Domain Name in Curlie (based on DMOZ)
• New GtLD Program Fact Sheet - October 2009 (PDF)
• IANA Two-letter Country Code TLD
• ICANN - Internet Company for the Defined Name and Number
• Internic.net, public information about internet domain name registration service
• Internet Domain Names: Background and Policy Issues of Congressional Research Services
• RFC 1034, Domain Name - Concepts and Facilities, Internet Protocol Standard
• RFC 1035, Domain Name - Implementation and Specification, Internet Protocol Standards
• UDRP, Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
• Custom use domain names

Source of the article : Wikipedia