Domain Name System

up:: The Internet MOC Short: DNS.

The Domain Name system lets the user enter a website over a domain name (like google.com) rather than over numeric IP addresses which are hard to remember.

Top-level domains

There are two types of domain names:

• Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like .com, .org, .gov
• country-code top-level domains, like .de for Germany, .us for the United States and so on.

In 2011 ICANN (who administer DNS) voted to make it easier to create new gTLDs. As a result, there may be plenty more!

Hierarchy

The DNS system is hierarchical.

For example, the company Verisign assigns .com domains like google.com or vox.com. Owners of these domains can in turn create subdomains like mail.google.com.