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What is a domain name?
A domain name is a way to identify and locate computers and resources connected to the Internet. No two organizations can have the same domain name.
Every company or organization that wants to be on the internet must register a domain name for use as their on-line identity or name that clients will use to access on-line services such as the organization's website or email system.
Each domain name corresponds to numeric IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. An IP address takes the form of 4 set of numbers, each one between 0 and 255, separated by periods. The Internet uses the numeric IP address to send data. For instance, you may be connecting to a World Wide Web server with the domain name "rs.internic.net", but as far as the network is concerned, you are connecting to the Web server with the IP address associated with that domain name.
The Domain Name System completes the task of matching domain names to IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. Domain names, and their corresponding IP addresses, must be unique. If more than one organization on the Internet had the same domain name, confusion would occur when the network tried to identify and communicate with the computers within those organizations. For example, if there were two separate universities, one in South Dakota (University of South Dakota) and one in California (University of San Diego), they cannot both use the domain name "usd.edu", because the Domain Name System would not know which one of the universities' IP addresses were associated with that domain name.
The Domain Name System is a collection of databases that contain information about domain names and their corresponding IP addresses. Domain name servers are computers that translate domain names to IP addresses. This system allows Internet users to deal with the more intuitive domain names, rather than having to remember a series of numbers.
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