Internet name to an IP address

A Domain Name Server (DNS) is a standardized system that relates an internet name (such as google.com, yahoo.com, GiantPile.com, and so on) to an IP address. When you type google.com in your browser’s address bar and hit enter, the DNS will translate your request to the corresponding IP address.

For the DNS to find the appropriate IP address of the remote computer that will process your request, your domain name in the address bar must be a valid domain name. Otherwise, you will get an error such as:

A domain name typically consists of these basic parts and in this order:

• Machine name
• Network name
• Top-level domain name

Note the domain you type in the address bar must follow these different parts in the order listed above. Otherwise, the DNS will fail to find an appropriate IP address for your request. This is also true with the use of dots (or periods). Dots are used to separate the different parts of a domain name. Figure 1 shows you the basic parts of a internet name: images.google.com.

Figure 1 — the basic parts of an internet name: machine name, network name, and top-level domain name

In figure 2, the process of DNS translation is shown in action. As the figure 2 shows, google.com is equivalent to the IP address 64.233.169.104. This means you can access Google’s home page using http://www.google.com or http://64.233.169.104.

Figure 2 — translating google.com to the corresponding IP address

Top-level domain (TLD)

The top-level domain name is an indication of a domain registrar’s organization. When a domain is registered (or when a website/internet name is made known to computers), the person registering the domain decides on the TLD suffix. There are basically six main choices for TLDs, as listed in table 1.

There are also two-letter geographic-specific domain names, as listed in table 2.

Posted on: 7:20:07 PM EDT July 23 2007

1. Why do Indian people never fail? Because they keep finding more ways of how something does not work (they keep looking for solutions)!

2. Why did not a wrestler want to fly in an airplane? He thought the airplane did not have any muscles to lift him.

3. Why is a photographer'ts son giving smiles during a lightning storm? The son thinks his dad is taking pictures!