What is a domain name?

What is a domain name?

The most common types of domain names are hostnames that provide more memorable names to stand in for numeric IP addresses. This is difficult to remember. They allow for any service to move to a different location on the Internet, which would then have a different IP address. The numeric IP addresses are represented by words or "domain name" that is easier to remember.

By allowing the use of unique alphabetical addresses instead of numeric ones, domain names allow Internet users to more easily find and communicate with web sites and other server-based services. The flexibility of the domain name system allows multiple IP addresses to be assigned to a single domain name, or multiple domain names to be assigned to a single IP address. This means that one server may have multiple roles such as hosting multiple web sites on a single server on a single IP address, or the functions of the domain is distributed among many servers. One IP address can also be assigned to several servers.

Hostnames are restricted to the ASCII letters "a" through "z" (case-insensitive), the digits "0" through "9", and the hyphen, with some other restrictions. Registrars restrict the domains to valid hostnames, since, otherwise, they would be useless. The Internationalized domain name (IDN) system has been developed to bypass the restrictions on character allowances in hostnames, making it easier for users of non-english alphabets to use the Internet.