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A glossary of Domain terms and references

auDA

.au Domain Administration Ltd (auDA) is the manager of the .au domain, and independent regulatory body for the Australian domain name industry. auDA is responsible for ensuring that the .au domain operates for the benefit of the entire Australian Internet community.

Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)

ccTLD's represent the TLD's used by Countries in the world, they account for about 250 of the 260 TLD's. Some examples of ccTLDs are '.uk' for the United Kingdom, and '.au' for Australia. A list of ccTLD's can be found at http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm.

Domain Nam

n addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP) numbers) used by the network. A domain name is hierarchical and often conveys information about the type of entity using the domain name. A domain name is simply a label that represents a domain, which is a subset of the total domain name space. Domain names at the same level of the hierarchy must be unique. Thus, for example, there can be only one .COM at the top-level of the hierarchy, and only one ausregistry.com at the next level of the hierarchy.
A valid domain name registered with AusRegistry must:

• be from 2 to 63 characters long in the 3LD
• only use the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9, and “-” (the hyphen)
• not have a hyphen in the 3rd or 4th character position in the 3LD
• be a valid domain type

Domain Name System

The DNS is the hierarchical system by which easy-to-remember, human-friendly names like "yahoo.com" are associated with Internet locations

Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD)

A top level domain name that is open to registrants around the world in contrast to country code top level domains that are often restricted to registrants located in a particular country or region. .com, .net and .org are all generic top level domains.

Host

Also called a name server. A computer that has both the software and the data (zone files) needed to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.

Internet Protocol (IP)

The communications protocol underlying the Internet, IP allows large, geographically-diverse networks of computers to communicate with each other quickly and economically over a variety of physical links.

IP Address

An Internet Protocol Address is the numerical address by which a location in the Internet is identified. Computers on the Internet use IP addresses to route traffic and establish connections among themselves; people generally use the human-friendly names made possible by the Domain Name System.

Name Server

See Host.

Name Service

Providing individuals or organizations with domain name-to-Internet Protocol (IP) number resolution by maintaining and making available the hardware, software, and data needed to perform this function. Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) operate name servers and provide their customers with name service when they register a domain name. Most individuals are not in a position to operate a name server on their own and will need to make arrangements for name service with an ISP or some other person or organization.

Registrant

The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or organization is the "legal entity" bound by the terms of the relevant service agreement with the registry operator for the TLD in question.

Registrar

A person or entity that, via contract with Registrants and a Registry, provides front-end domain name registration services to registrants. These services form the public interface to registry services. As the reader of this document you are most likely to be a budding or active registrar for the Australian Registry. Registrars may be providing registration services for names from one or more 2LD's within Australia or a multiple of TLD's around the world.

Registry

Has the exclusive responsibly for maintainence of a centralised registry for its particular TLD. AusRegistry maintains the Root Name Servers for these 2LD's in Australia.

Resolve

The term used to describe the process by which domain names are matched with corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) numbers. "Resolution is accomplished by a combination of computers and software, referred to as name servers that use the data in the Domain Name System to determine which IP numbers correspond to a particular domain name.

Second Level Domain (2LD)

The alphanumeric string before the dot and the TLD. AusRegistry administers all domains within the .com, .net, .org, .id and .asn 2LD's that exist within the .au TLD. 2LD's are also called domain types within the Australian registry system.

Third Level Domain (3LD)

The alphabetic string before the dot and the 2LD. Between 2 and 63 characters long, this is the 'yahoo' in yahoo.com.au.

Top Level Domain (TLD)

Superset of gTLD's and ccTLDs. Every domain name must end with a TLD. Australian domains all have the TLD, which is a ccTLD, which is .au.
TLDs are the names at the top of the DNS naming hierarchy. They appear in domain names as the string of letters following the last (rightmost) ".", such as "net" in "www.example.net". The administrator for a TLD controls what second-level names are recognized in that TLD. The administrators of the "root domain" or "root zone" control what TLDs are recognized by the DNS. Commonly used TLDs include .com, .net, .edu, .jp, .de, etc.

Whois

A TCP transaction based query/response server, that provides netwide directory service to network users, can be used to determine if domain names are registered and by whom. More complex queries can result in multiple results showing lists of domains registered to specific entities or residing on specified host machines. The Whois Protocol was originally defined in RFC 954.... coming soon... AusRegistry WHOIS..

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