Web Hosting Glossary Terms and Definitions

Are you confused with so many domain name extensions? Centaurhosting has compiled this domain name glossary to help you understand the meaning of important domain name terms and definitions.

A glossary is defined as an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge; usually published as an appendix to a text on that field.

This Domain Name Glossary section is specially designed to explain most of the domain name terms that you should read and understand before you choose your domain name.

.COM : Short for .commercial. Domain names with the .com extension are by far the most popular, and can be purchased by any individual or business.

.NET : Short for .network, this domain extension was originally designed to be used by technical Web sites. However, domains using this extension can be registered by anyone.

.ORG : Short for .organization. Originally designated for non-profit firms and any other organizations that did not fit under the .com or .net extension, any individual or business may now register a .org domain name.

.AERO : The TLD designated for the air transport industry. Available only to aviation community members, this domain suffix is now live and fully functional. You can find more information on this TLD here: http://www.nic.aero/ .

.BIZ : The .biz TLD is a designated suffix for businesses. Domains using the .biz extension must be used for business or commercial use. This suffix is fully active. http://www.neulevel.biz/ has more information on the .biz suffix.

.COOP : This TLD is available to cooperatives, cooperative service organizations and wholly owned subsidiaries of cooperatives. You can find more information on the .coop suffix here: http://www.nic.coop/.

.INFO : The first unrestricted top-level domain since .com, .info domains are available to the general public. You can find more information here: http://www.nic.info/gateway.

.MUSEUM : This TLD is available only to museums, museum organizations and individual members of the museum profession. More information on the .museum TLD is available at http://musedoma.museum/

.NAME : Available to the general public, .name email addresses are listed as firstname@lastname.name or lastname@firstname.name, while Web sites are listed as www.firstname.lastname.name. More information on the .name TLD is available here: http://www.nic.name/.

.PRO : The .pro suffix was created for certified professionals including lawyers, doctors and accountants. RegistryPro, the organization in charge of administering .pro domains, has initiated steps to set up the new registry. More information is available at http://www.registrypro.com/.

ICANN : Stands for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (http://www.icann.org), which is a not-for-profit organization that handles IP address space allocation and most other regulatory tasks associated with domain names.

IDN : Internationalized Domain Name. Also known as multilingual domain names. It gives the possibility to use more characters in domains names, besides letters and numbers, and specifically characters available in other alphabets, like accents. A standard is being developed by the IETF.

Internic : Registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce, licensed to ICANN. More information is available at http://www.internic.com.

NSI : Network Solutions Incorporated (http://www.nsi.com/). Historically it is the company that received from the US government management of .com/.net/.org/.edu domain names. After the end of the monopoly it is still the company managing the Registry of those TLDs, while still being one of the Registrars for those TLDs. Has been sold to VeriSign.

VeriSign : Company handling digital certificates, having bought NSI, thus managing through its branch VeriSign Global Registry Services some TLDs, while being Registrar through VeriSign Registrar. More information is available at http://www.verisign.com/.

.in is the India country code top level domain (ccTLD). The domain is operated by INRegistry under the authority of NIXI, the National Internet Exchange of India. INRegistry was appointed by the government of India. As of 2005, liberalized policies for the .in domain allow unlimited second-level registrations under.in. Unlimited registrations under the previously structured existing zones are also allowed:

• .in (available to anyone, used by companies, individuals and organizations in India)
• .co.in (originally for banks, registered companies, and trademarks)
• .firm.in (originally for shops, partnerships, liaison offices, sole proprietorships)
• .net.in (originally for Internet service providers)
• .org.in (originally for non-profit organizations)
• .gen.in (originally for general/miscellaneous use)
• .ind.in (originally for individuals)

Five zones are reserved for use by qualified organizations in India:

• .ac.in (Academic institutions)
• .edu.in (Educational institutions)
• .res.in (Indian research institutes)
• .gov.in (Indian government)
• .mil.in (Indian military)

The domain .nic.in is reserved for India's network information centre, but in practice most Indian government agencies have domains ending in .nic.in.