Chapter 18 - Names For Computers

1. Introduction
2. People Prefer Names To Numbers
3. Naming A Computer Can Be Difficult Or Fun
4. Compuer Names Must be Unique
   Each computer on the Internet must have a unique name or the name would not distinquish the compter from all others.
5. Suffixes On Computer Names
   Because a suffix appended to the name of a computer identifies the organization that owns the computer and the type of the organization, the full names of any two computers owned by separate organizations are guaranteed to differ from one another.
6. Names With Many Parts
7. Domain Names Outside The US
8. Translating A Name To An Equivalent IP Address (try nslookup jaring.nmhu.edu from the command line)
9. Domain Name System Works Like Directory Assistance
10. Computer Name Lookup Is Automatic
    A computer on the Internet only needs to know the location of one domain name server. A program becomes a client of the domain name service when it sends a computer's name to the local domain name server. The local server answers the request by translating the name into an IP address. Although the server may contact remote servers to obtain the information, the client receives an answer from the local server.
11. IP Addresses And Domain Names Are Unrelated except that a domain is typically assigned a "group" of IP addresses, ie. nmhu.edu has the group of addresses 192.132.89.0-255 and 207.66.121.0-255 as well as several other groups of addresses

• The Domain Name System

Terms

• computer name
• domain name
• domain name server
• Domain Name System (DNS)