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What Are Domains?

A domain name identifies one or more IP addresses. A domain name appears as part of a Web site�s URL (Uniform Resource Locator, e.g. www.company.com). Domain names use alphabetical addresses that are easier for humans to remember than numeric IP addresses.

Example

Registered domain name: company.com
Domain name: www.company.com
URL: http://www.company.com/index.html
IP address: 192.168.12.34

The Domain Name System (DNS) is an Internet directory service. DNS is where companies publish which IP addresses are allowed to send email on their behalf. DNS is flexible and allows multiple IP addresses to be assigned to a single domain name, or multiple domain names to be assigned to a single IP address. ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is in charge of managing the DNS.