- Your ‘domain’ is uniquely identified by its name (domain name) and an Internet protocol (IP) number.
- In the internet, the Domain Naming System (DNS) dictates that the domain name is composed of the ‘hostname‘ and its ‘network‘ such as earth.com. Earth is the hostname located in the com network. Earth can also be used as a network. So then, the domain America.earth.com uses America as the hostname in the earth network, which is in the com network. America is also referred to as the subdomain of the earth.com domain.
- The Internet Protocol (IP) number is the address identifying which computer in the internet is hosting a domain. The vast numbers of computers in the world currently used requires an address of 128 bits.
- The Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is the address used in a browser to locate web sites and files on the internet. It is composed of three parts. For example, http://America.earth.com/central is composed of: 1) the network protocol http; 2) the domain name America.earth.com; and the file location central. The domain name America.earth.com, consists of the hostname America, the second level network earth, and the primary network com. For an URL like http://earth.com, the hostname is earth in the network of com.
