A top-level domain (TLD) is the highest level of 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 in the root zone A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS system deployed for the Internet. The zone is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), managed by ICANN of the Domain Name System The Domain Name System is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers of the Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are linked by copper wires, fiber-optic. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the 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, that is, the label that follows the last dot of a fully qualified domain name A fully qualified domain name , sometimes referred to as an absolute domain name, is a domain name that specifies its exact location in the tree hierarchy of the Domain Name System (DNS). It specifies all domain levels, including the top-level domain, relative to the root domain. A fully qualified domain name is distinguished by its unambiguity;. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is com com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) within the Domain Name System of the Internet. It was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs), the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa established in January 1985. It has grown to be the largest TLD in use, or COM, as domain names are not case-sensitive Text sometimes exhibits case sensitivity; that is, words can differ in meaning based on differing use of uppercase and lowercase letters. Words with capital letters do not always have the same meaning when written with lowercase letters. For example, Bill is the first name of former U.S. president William Clinton, who could sign a bill . And a. Management of most top-level domains is delegated to responsible organizations by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Headquartered in Marina Del Rey, California, United States, ICANN is a non-profit corporation that was created on September 18, 1998 and incorporated September 30, 1998 in order to oversee a number of Internet-related tasks previously performed directly on behalf of the U.S (ICANN), which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, root zone management for the Domain Name System (DNS), media types, and other Internet Protocol related assignments. It is operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN (IANA) and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone A DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in a Domain Name System hierarchy. Most commonly it refers to the root zone of the largest global DNS system deployed for the Internet. The zone is managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), managed by ICANN.
Originally, the top-level domain space was organized into three main groups,[1] Countries, Categories, and Multiorganizations. An additional temporary group consisted only of the initial DNS domain,[2] arpa arpa is an Internet top-level domain used exclusively for Internet infrastructure purposes. The name is a backronym for Address and Routing Parameter Area, intended for transitional purposes toward the stabilization of the domain name system.
Countries are designated in the domain name system by their English two-letter ISO country code[3]. This group of domains is therefore commonly known as country-code top-level domains A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country (a sovereign state or a dependent territory) (ccTLD).
The Categories group has become known as the generic top-level domains A generic top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. Initially this group consisted of GOV gov is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is restricted for use by government entities in the United States. The gov domain is administered by the General Services Administration (GSA), an independent agency of the United States federal government. The URL for registration services is http://www, EDU edu is the sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for educational institutions, primarily those in the United States. Although not officially mandated for much of the domain's existence, in practice it has been used primarily for U.S.-based four-year universities. Starting in 2001, it was officially restricted, COM com is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) within the Domain Name System of the Internet. It was one of the original top-level domains (TLDs), the others being edu, gov, mil, net, org, and arpa established in January 1985. It has grown to be the largest TLD in use, MIL mil is the sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) in the Domain Name System of the Internet for the United States Department of Defense and its subsidiary or affiliated organizations. It was one of the first top-level domains, created in January 1985, ORG org is a generic top-level domain of the Domain Name System (DNS) used in the Internet. org is sometimes pronounced in word form as 'org', 'dot-org', or 'dot-oh-are-gee (O R G)'. It is derived from the word organization, and NET net is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) used on the Internet's Domain Name System. The net gTLD is currently operated by VeriSign. Registrations are processed via accredited registrars and internationalized domain names are also accepted (see details).
In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to create additional generic top-level domains. Some of the initial domains' purposes were also generalized, modified, or assigned for maintanance to special organizations affiliated with the intended purpose.
As a result, IANA today distinguishes the following groups of top-level domains:[4]
- country-code top-level domains A country code top-level domain is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country (a sovereign state or a dependent territory) (ccTLD): Two letter domains established for countries In geography, a country is a geographical region. The term is often applied to a political division or the territory of a state, or to a smaller, or former, political division of a geographical region. Usually, but not always, a country coincides with a sovereign territory and is associated with a state, nation and government or territories A dependent territory, dependent area or dependency is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a State. With some historical exceptions, the code for any territory is the same as its two-letter ISO 3166 ISO 3166 is a three-part standard published by the International Organization for Standardization , and defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states). The official name is Codes for the representation of names of countries code.
- generic top-level domains A generic top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet (gTLD): Top-level domains with three or more characters
- unsponsored top-level domains: domains that operate directly under policies established by ICANN processes for the global Internet community.
- sponsored top-level domains A sponsored top-level domain is one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet (sTLD): These domains are proposed and sponsored by private agencies or organizations that establish and enforce rules restricting the eligibility to use the TLD. Use is based on community theme concepts.
- infrastructure top-level domain: This group consists of one domain, the Address and Routing Parameter Area arpa is an Internet top-level domain used exclusively for Internet infrastructure purposes. The name is a backronym for Address and Routing Parameter Area (ARPA). It is managed by IANA on behalf of the Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. It is an open standards organization, with no formal membership or membership requirements. All participants and managers are for various purposes specified in Request for Comments In computer network engineering, a Request for Comments is a memorandum published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) describing methods, behaviors, research, or innovations applicable to the working of the Internet and Internet-connected systems.
In addition, a group of internationalized domain name An internationalized domain name is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label that is displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in a language-specific, non-Latin script or alphabet, such as Chinese, and is internally encoded in Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System as ASCII (IDN) top-level domains has been installed under test test is a name reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force in RFC 2606 (June 1999) that is not intended to be installed as a top-level domain (TLD) in the global Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet for production use for testing purposes.
The authoritative list of currently existing TLDs in the root zone is published at the IANA website at http://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/ and a Wikipedia list The official list of all top-level domains is maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority exists.
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Andrew Allemann
ue, 14 Apr 2009 14:42:23 GM
The comment period for the second draft of ICANN's new . top level domain. name applicant guidebook concluded yesterday. Most commentors suggested ways to fix the process and rules, but these same commentors are opposed to any adoption of ...
Q. What top-level domains should I avoid when writing research papers?
Asked by Brandon Taylor - Tue Dec 2 10:43:16 2008 - - 2 Answers - 0 Comments
A. Particularly, never mention Wikipedia (or any other encyclopedia) as your source, because that is *sure* to get ensure a lower score. If possible, try to see that your sources are .edu / .gov sites. (I don't know which topic you're writing the paper on - the availability of data online, and what kind of websites they are in - would depend from topic-to-topic.)
Answered by Needlessly Messianic - Tue Dec 2 10:57:12 2008
