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domain name A name that identifies one or more IP addresses. For example, the domain name microsoft.com represents about a doze IP addresses. Domain names are used in URLs to identify particular Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html, the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.

Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top-level (TLD) domain it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains. For example:

• gov - Government agencies
• edu - Educational institutions
• org - Organizations (nonprofit)
• mil - Military
• com - commercial business
• net - Network organizations
• ca - Canada
• th - Thailand

Due to a shortage of domain names at the top level, the Internet Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC) proposed six new top-level domains, which will start being used sometime in 1998:

• store - merchants
• web - parties emphasizing Web activities
• arts - arts and cultural-oriented entities
• rec - recreation/entertainment sources
• info - information services
• nom - individuals

Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to translate domain names into IP addresses.