domain name

domain name
    n 1: strings of letters and numbers (separated by periods) that
         are used to name organizations and computers and addresses
         on the internet; "domain names are organized hierarchically
         with the more generic parts to the right"
    

fully qualified domain name
domain name
FQDN

   <networking> (FQDN) The full name of a system, consisting of
   its local {hostname} and its {domain} name, including a
   {top-level domain} (tld).  For example, "venera" is a hostname
   and "venera.isi.edu" is an FQDN.  An FQDN should be sufficient
   to determine a unique {Internet address} for any host on the
   {Internet}.  This process, called "name resolution", uses the
   {Domain Name System} (DNS).

   With the explosion of interest in the {Internet} following the
   advent of the {World-Wide Web}, domain names (especially the
   most significant two components, e.g. "sun.com", and
   especially in the ".com" tld) have become a valuable part of
   many companies' "brand".  The allocation of these, overseen by
   {ICANN}, has therefore become highly political and is
   performed by a number of different registrars.  There are
   different registries for the different tlds.

   A final dot on the end of a FQDN can be used to tell the DNS
   that the name is fully qualified and so needs no extra
   suffixes added, but it is not required.

   See also {network, the}, {network address}.

   (2005-06-09)