The domain name system (DNS)

Skills: none
IT concepts: domain, domain name, host, IP
address, domain registrar

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The domain name system (DNS) in context
• Internet concepts
– Applications
– Technology (TCP/IP)
– Implications for
• Individuals
• Organizations
• Society

• Internet skills
– Application development
– Content creation
• Text
• Images
• Audio
• Video
 Domain names

We refer to computers on the Internet (Internet

hosts), by names like:

bpastudio.csudh.edu

These are called domain names or, if you want to

be really geeky, “fully qualified domain names.”

The key point is that the name identifies a

particular computer – no two hosts have the same
domain name.
 The parts of a domain name

bpastudio.csudh.edu

The particular host is called bpastudio

The organization that controls it is called csudh
This host is at an educational organization

A domain is a group of related hosts.

 How are these hosts related?

• bpastudio.csudh.edu
• www.ucla.edu
• sws.csudh.edu
• chemistry.stanford.edu

They all belong to educational institutions.

They are members of the edu top-level domain

(TLD).
 How are these hosts related?

• bpastudio.csudh.edu
• www.csudh.edu
• sws.csudh.edu
• chemistry.csudh.edu

They all belong to the same organization, CSUDH.

They are members of the csudh.edu second-level

domain.
 A unique host

bpastudio.csudh.edu

This is the domain name of a unique host. It is

a member of the csudh.edu domain, but it is
the only one with the name bpastudio.
It is like a family – all the brothers and sisters
have the same last name, but it would be
confusing if two of them also had the same first
name.
There are a limited number of top-level
domains (TLDs), including:

• .edu, educational
• .com, commercial
• .gov, government
• .org, non profit
• .net, networking organizations

These are called “generic” TLDs.

There are also country code top-level
domain names for every nation, like:
• .us, United States
• .mx, Mexico
• .cl, Chile
• .uk, United Kingdom
• .tv, Tuvalu

These are called “country code” top-level domains

(ccTLDs).

The organization or host do not necessarily have to be

in the country to register the name. For example, .tv is
popular everywhere.
Some TLDs use a four-level hierarchy

• http://www.google.co.uk/
• http://www.unam.edu.mx/
• http://www.ox.ac.uk/
• http://www.google.com.mx/
 Registrars sell domain names

• For most generic TLDs there are many registrars

and a competitive registration market place:
– http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-
list.html
• The registrar for .edu is a professional society
called Educause:
– http://net.educause.edu/edudomain/
• List of organizations responsible for registrars in
the country code domains:
– http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/#
Regstering a domain – check for
availability
Larrypress.com was taken, but these
are available and for sale
 Getting a name and IP address at
CSUDH
• A computer center staff person assigns
them.
• No two IP addresses or domain names
can be the same.
• The staff person updates the table of
domain names and IP addresses stored
on the CSUDH domain name server.
Some hosts in the csudh.edu domain
Domain name IP address
sws.csudh.edu 155.135.1.163
ctl.csudh.edu 155.135.1.166
email.csudh.edu 155.135.1.180
ns1.csudh.edu 155.135.55.2
vaquero.csudh.edu 155.135.55.6
toro3.csudh.edu 155.135.55.8
music1.csudh.edu 155.135.55.11
home.muphiepsilon.org 155.135.55.13
library.csudh.edu 155.135.55.17

We are letting muphiepsilon.org use a computer on our campus.

Some hosts in the csudh.edu domain
Domain name IP address
sws.csudh.edu 155.135.1.163
ctl.csudh.edu 155.135.1.166
email.csudh.edu 155.135.1.180
ns1.csudh.edu 155.135.55.2
vaquero.csudh.edu 155.135.55.6
toro3.csudh.edu 155.135.55.8
music1.csudh.edu 155.135.55.11
home.muphiepsilon.org 155.135.55.13
library.csudh.edu 155.135.55.17

Every domain has a domain name server (DNS). Our DNS is

ns1.csudh.edu. It does the IP address lookups for TCP..
 DNS search

• If your DNS knows the IP address it returns it.

• Otherwise it will contact another DNS to get the
result.
• Etc. until it is found or determined that it does
not exist, in which case an error message is
returned.
 Food for thought

• Is the <your name>.com domain name

available?
• When you try to go to http://www.google.xom,
you get an error message, but
http://www.gooogle.com takes you to Google.
Why?
• http://wwww.google.com also returns an error
message. Why?