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Domain Names
What is a
Domain Name?
A domain name
is an identification label that defines a realm of
administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the
Internet, based on the Domain Name System (DNS).
Domain names are used in various networking contexts and
application-specific naming and addressing purposes. They
are organized in subordinate levels (sub-domains) of the DNS
root domain, which is nameless. The first-level set of
domain names are the top-level domains (TLDs), including the
generic top-level domains (gTLDs), such as the prominent
domains com, net and org, and the country code top-level
domains (ccTLDs). Below these top-level domains in the DNS
hierarchy are the second-level and third-level domain names
that are typically open for reservation by end-users that
wish to connect local area networks to the Internet, run web
sites, or create other publicly accessible Internet
resources. The registration of these domain names is usually
administered by domain name registrars who sell their
services to the public.
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Individual
Internet host computers use domain names as host
identifiers, or hostnames. Hostnames are the leaf labels in
the domain name system usually without further subordinate
domain name space.
Hostnames appear as a component in
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) for Internet resources such
as web sites (e.g.,
www.einvestigator.com).
Domain names are also used as simple identification labels
to indicate ownership or control of a resource. Such
examples are the realm identifiers used in the Session
Initiation Protocol (SIP), the DomainKeys used to verify DNS
domains in e-mail systems, and in many other Uniform
Resource Identifiers (URI). |
An important purpose of domain names is to provide easily
recognizable names to numerically addressed Internet
resources. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g.,
website) to be moved to a different physical location in the
address topology of the network, globally or locally in an
intranet. Such a move usually requires changing the IP
address of a resource and the corresponding translation of
this IP address to and from its domain name.
Domain names are often referred to simply as domains and
domain name registrants are frequently referred to as domain
owners, although domain name registration with a registrar
does not confer any legal ownership of the domain name, only
an exclusive right of use.
This article
primarily discusses the group of domain names that are
offered by domain name registrars for registration by the
public. The Domain Name System article discusses the
technical facilities and infrastructure of the domain name
space and the hostname article deals with specific
information about the use of domain names as identifiers of
network hosts.
Domain Name Resources
The following are resources for
looking up and verifying domain names, determining domain ownership, etc.
| Access Whois |
Simple whois search that
returns domain ownership. |
| Afilias |
Search for the availability of
.info domain names. |
| Allwhois.com |
International whois lookup.
Check domain details worldwide |
| Better-Whois.com |
Queries all registrars and
allows users to receive detailed whois reports via e-mail. |
| The Big Whois |
Search the database and
register your domain name. |
| BizInfoWhois.com |
Offers whois lookups for .biz
and .information domains. |
| BookMyName.com |
Registrar for domain names
located in France. |
| Cool-Whois |
Domain search that features
historical caching of whois information. |
| dnsExit.com |
Domain registration and
searching tools. |
| Domain Fellow |
Generates domain names.
Combines keywords with a database of popular words. Provides multiple
and custom domain name combination and query. |
| Domain Name Suffixes |
A list of domain name suffixes, otherwise known as domain name extensions. |
| Domain Processor |
Domain name
registration for .com .net .org .biz and .info extensions. |
| DomainLocators.net |
Domain name registration
featuring several domain extensions. |
| DomainNameUSA.com |
Search
and register the domain names of .com, .net, .org, biz, info, and
the new .us.
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| DomainPeople.com |
International accredited top level domain registrar.
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| DomainSearch.com |
Search
various domain extensions in real time.
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| DrWhois.com |
Domain and IP
lookup tool.
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| easyWHOiS |
Lookup domains
across all registrars and most country codes.
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| Fasterwhois.com |
Searches
the databases of all registrars of generic top level domains.
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| iDotz.Net |
Domain name registrar
offering several choices of domain extensions.
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| Kloth.net |
Universal whois service to look up internet domain information,
works with many different top level domains.
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| Name Droppers |
Offers
searches for domain names using multiple keywords.
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| Network
Solutions Whois |
Provides a form to find details about
registered domain names.
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Reverse DNS Lookup |
This service converts an IP address to the host name by searching
domain name service tables |
| Safe Domain Search |
Does not use the WHOIS to check domains availability and does not
collect search requests.
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| Schwarzl s Internet Tools |
Domain check, email validation, web server and IP check.
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| Sharedregistry.org |
This
tool searches the shared registry database for whois information. |
| US Registry Whois |
Search for
availability for the .us domain name.
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| Whois Finder |
Offers free whois lookup. Checks domain name registration from worldwide
registries.
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| Whois Search |
Whois
search for many domain extensions.
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Whois Source |
Domain name search
tool that allows a wildcard search.
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| Whoisd |
Universal server for
domain name lookups.
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XWhois.com |
Whois service to check
domain registration from nearly all registries worldwide |
Return to the top
of Domain Names. |
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