The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general. A given machine may have more than one Domain Name but a given Domain Name points to only one machine. For example, the domain names: example.net mail.example.net whatever.example.net can all refer to the same machine, but each domain name can refer to no more than one machine. Usually, all of the machines on a given Network will have the same thing as the right-hand portion of their Domain Names (example.net in the examples above). It is also possible for a Domain Name to exist but not be connected to an actual machine. This is often done so that a group or business can have an Internet e-mail address without having to establish a real Internet site. In these cases, some real Internet machine must handle the mail on behalf of the listed Domain Name

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.

To register a domain name, you can contact a company (such as Network Solutions, Inc.) or you can ask your ISP or hosting company to register names for you. In addition to the suffixes listed above, there is also .edu, .gov, .mil, and the list of country codes, as well as the following:

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain (TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. The primary top level domains are:

• .com - Companies
• .net - Internet Service Providers
• .edu - Educational Institutions
• .mil - Military
• .org - Non-profit organizations
• .gov - Government i.biz - Business

Country codes:

• .co.uk - British
• .es - Spanish
• .ru - Russian