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A hostname (occasionally also, a sitename) is the unique name by which a network attached device (which could consist of a computer, file server, network storage device, fax machine, copier, cable modem, etc.) is known on a network. The hostname is used to identify a particular host in various forms of electronic communication such as the World Wide Web, e-mail or Usenet. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
WWWs historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau The World Wide Web (or the Web) is a system of interlinked, hypertext documents that runs over the Internet. ...
Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...
Usenet (USEr NETwork) is a global, distributed Internet discussion system that evolved from a general purpose UUCP network of the same name. ...
On the Internet, the terms "hostname" and "domain name" are often used interchangably, but there are subtle technical differences between them.
Overview
Hostnames are used by various naming systems, NIS, DNS, SMB, etc., and so the meaning of the word hostname will vary depending on naming system in question, which in turn varies by type of network. A hostname meaningful to a Microsoft NetBIOS workgroup may be an invalid Internet hostname. When presented with a hostname and no context, it is usually safe to assume that the network is the Internet and DNS is the hostname's naming system. The Network Information Service or NIS is Sun Microsystems’ “Yellow Pages†(YP) client-server directory service protocol for distributing system configuration data such as user and host names between computers on a computer network. ...
“DNS†redirects here. ...
Server Message Block (SMB) is an application-level network protocol mainly applied to shared access to files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. ...
NetBIOS is an acronym for Network Basic Input/Output System. ...
Host names are typically used in an administrative capacity and may appear in computer browser lists, active directory lists, IP address to hostname resolutions, email headers, etc. They are human-readable nick-names, which ultimately correspond to unique network hardware MAC addresses. In some cases the host name may contain embedded domain names and/or locations, non-dotted IP addresses, etc. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
In computer networking a Media Access Control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier attached to most network adapters (NICs). ...
On a simple local area network, a hostname is usually a single word: for instance, an organization's CVS server might be named "cvs" or "server-1". The Concurrent Versions System (CVS), also known as the Concurrent Versioning System is an open-source version control system invented and developed by Dick Grune in the 1980s. ...
Internet hostnames On the Internet, a hostname is a domain name assigned to the host. This is usually a combination of the host's local name with its parent domain's name. For example, "en.wikipedia.org" consists of a hostname ("en") and the domain name "wikipedia.org". This kind of hostname is translated into an IP address via the local hosts file, or the Domain Name System (DNS) resolver. It is possible for a single host to have several hostnames; but generally the operating system of the host prefers to have one hostname that the host uses for itself. The term domain name has multiple related meanings: A name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. ...
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
In computing, a hosts file, stored on the computers filesystem, is used to look up the Internet Protocol address of a device connected to a computer network, such as your home computer connected to the Internet. ...
“DNS†redirects here. ...
An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. ...
Any domain name can also be hostname, as long as the restrictions mentioned below are followed. So, for example, both "en.wikimedia.org" and "wikimedia.org" are hostnames because they both have IP addresses assigned to them. The domain name "pmtpa.wikimedia.org" is not a hostname since it does not have an IP address, but "rr.pmtpa.wikimedia.org" is a hostname. All hostnames are domain names, but not all domain names are hostnames. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...
Restrictions on valid host names Hostnames, like all domain names[1], are made up of a series of "labels", with each label being separated by a dot. Each label must be between 1 and 63 characters long, and there is a maximum of 255 characters when all labels are combined.
Unlike domain names, hostname labels can only be made up of the ASCII letters 'a' through 'z' (case-insensitive), the digits '0' through '9', and the hyphen. Labels can not start nor end with a hyphen. Special characters other than the hyphen (and the dot between labels) are not allowed, although they are sometimes used anyway. Underscore characters are commonly used by Windows systems but according to RFC 952 they are not allowed and several systems, such as DomainKeys and the SRV record deliberately use the underscore to make sure their special domain names are not confused with a hostname. Since some systems will check to make sure that hostnames contain only valid characters and others do not, the use of the invalid characters such as the underscore has caused many subtle problems in systems that connect to the wider world. There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...
DomainKeys is an e-mail authentication system designed to verify the DNS domain of an E-mail sender and the message integrity. ...
An SRV record or Service record is a category of data in the Internet Domain Name System specifying information on available services. ...
So, the hostname "en.wikipedia.org" is made up of the DNS labels "en", "wikipedia" and "org". Labels such as "2600" and "3com" can be used in hostnames, but "-hi-" and "*hi*" are invalid.
A hostname is considered to be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) if all the labels up to and including the top-level domain name (TLD) are specified. Depending on the system, an unqualified hostname such as "compsci" or "wikipedia" may be combined with default domain names in order to determine the fully qualified domain name. So, a student at Harvard may be able to send mail to "joe@compsci" and have it sent to compsci.harvard.edu. A fully qualified domain name (or FQDN) is an unambiguous domain name that specifies the nodes position in the DNS tree hierarchy absolutely. ...
A top-level domain (TLD) is the last part of an Internet domain name; that is, the letters which follow the final dot of any domain name. ...
Harvard University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a member of the Ivy League. ...
Choosing host names General guidelines on choosing a good hostnames are outlined in RFC 1178. The folklore interest of hostnames stems from the creativity and humour they often display. Interpreting a sitename is not unlike interpreting a vanity licence plate; one has to mentally unpack it, allowing for mono-case and length restrictions and the lack of whitespace. Hacker tradition deprecates dull, institutional-sounding names in favour of punchy, humorous, and clever coinages (except that it is considered appropriate for the official public gateway machine of an organisation to bear the organisation's name or acronym). Mythological references, cartoon characters, animal names, and allusions to sci-fi or fantasy literature are probably the most popular sources for sitenames (in roughly descending order). The obligatory comment is Harris's lament: "All the good ones are taken!" It is proposed that this article be deleted, because of the following concern: Notability is not established If you can address this concern by improving, copyediting, sourcing, renaming or merging the page, please edit this page and do so. ...
It is often possible to guess a hostname for a particular institution. This is useful if you want to know if they operate network services like anonymous FTP, World-Wide Web or finger. First try the institution's name or obvious abbreviations thereof, with the appropriate domain appended, e.g. "mit.edu". If this fails, prepend "ftp." or "www." as appropriate, e.g. "www.data-io.com". You can use the ping command as a quick way to test whether a hostname is valid. FTP or File Transfer Protocol is used to transfer data from one computer to another over the Internet, or through a network. ...
Graphic representation of the world wide web around Wikipedia The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). ...
In computer networking, the Name/Finger protocol and the Finger user information protocol are simple network protocols for the exchange of human-oriented status and user information. ...
For other uses, see Ping (disambiguation). ...
See also In economics, scarcity is defined as a condition of limited resources, where society does not have sufficient resources to produce enough to fulfill subjective wants. ...
Notes and references An IETF working group, or WG for short, is a working group of the IETF. It operates on rough consensus, is open to all who want to participate, has discussions on an open mailing list, and may hold meetings at IETF meetings. ...
External links - RFC 952 - "DoD Internet host table specification."
- RFC 1034 - "DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES" (In particular, section 3.5)
- RFC 1035 - "DOMAIN NAMES - IMPLEMENTATION AND SPECIFICATION" (In particular, section 2.3.1)
- RFC 1123 - "Requirements for Internet Hosts - Application and Support."
- RFC 1178 - "Choosing a Name for Your Computer"
- RFC 3696 - "Application Techniques for Checking and Transformation of Names"
This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL. The Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as dmoz (from directory. ...
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC) is an online, searchable encyclopedic dictionary of computing subjects. ...
GNU logo (similar in appearance to a gnu) The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free content, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU project. ...
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