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Website Development & Hosting

Top-Level Name Component of the Domain Naming System (DNS) Hierarchy 

Top-Level

Description of Organisation Type

Example of Domain

Name

Name

Component

.com

An Internet name authority delegates portions of the microsoft.com

domain  namespace  under  this  level  to  commercial

organisations, such as the Microsoft Corporation.

microsoft.com

.edu

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this mit.edu

domain  namespace  to  educational  organisations,

such  as  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Technology

(MIT).

.gov

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this whitehouse.gov

domain  namespace  to  governmental  organisations,

such as the White House in Washington, D.C.

.int

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this nato.int

domain  namespace  to  international  organisations,

such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

.net

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this nsf.net

domain namespace to networking organisations, such

as the National Science .oundation (NS.).

.org

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this cnidr.org

domain namespace to non-commercial organisations,

such  as  the  Center  for  Networked  Information

Discovery and Retrieval (CNIDR).

.mil

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this ddn.mil

domain namespace to military operations, such as the

Defence Date Network (DDN).

.xx (e.g. .zw,

An Internet name authority delegates portions of this co.zw

.za, .sz, .ke, .ca

domain  namespace  to  individual  countries.  .or

etc.)

example, .zw is the top-level domain for Zimbabwe. 

Beneath the top-level domains, an Internet name authority delegates domains to organisations

that connect to the Internet. The organisations to which an Internet name authority delegates a

portion of the domain namespace are then responsible for naming the computers and network

devices  within  their  assigned  domain  and  its  subdivisions  e.g.  www.africaonline.co.zw,

www.nation.co.ke, www.mweb.co.za, www.sitesofafrica.8m.net, www.microsoft.com.

Copyright  NESIS 2002

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