Questions tagged [domain-name]

A domain name is an identification string that defines a group of computers on the internet under the same realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Technically, any name registered in DNS is a domain name, however, the term usually refers to a second and top level domain, such as serverfault.com

A domain name is an identification string that defines a group of computers on the internet under the same realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control. Technically, any name registered in DNS is a domain name, however, the term usually refers to a second and top level domain, such as serverfault.com.

Domains are grouped into a hierarchy from right to left, with levels being delimited by dots. For example, in the domain name chat.stackexchange.com, .com would be the top level domain (TLD), stackexchange would be the second level domain and chat would be the third level domain. (Third level and higher domains are usually referred to as subdomains.)

Domain names serve as human-friendly references to networked devices, which would otherwise be designated by their IP addresses, which are strings of numbers that are generally difficult for humans to remember.

More information on domain names can be found at the Wikipedia page devoted to the topic, here.

472 questions
49
votes
4 answers

Can someone using the same DNS server as me hijack my domains?

When I register a new domain, I send it to my hosting provider by assigning it its domain name servers in the registar's settings. For example, with Digital Ocean, I input the…
34
votes
23 answers

Who is a good registrar these days?

It's been a long time since I've had to register a new domain. What registrar is considered geek and sysadmin friendly? I've heard that godaddy will screw you 10 ways to Sunday, and a lot of the other ones basically only lease you the domain. …
jedberg
  • 2,291
  • 22
  • 21
32
votes
2 answers

Does adjusting a domain name's TTL actually matter?

I'm aware that tomorrow the public IP address of one of our production servers is going to be changed. The TTL on that A record is currently set to 3 hours. Will adjusting the TTL on that A record to something lower like 1 minute actually work (the…
user5603796
  • 479
  • 1
  • 7
  • 8
31
votes
3 answers

How to set the domain name on GNU/Linux?

Similarly to hostname that can be changed in different ways: temporarily using the hostname command permanently using /etc/hostname (or /etc/sysconfig/network or /etc/HOSTNAME, these files are used by the init scripts) I want to change my domain…
Mildred
  • 815
  • 2
  • 10
  • 16
22
votes
1 answer

Is there an example domain which is guaranteed not to exist?

I would like to use a domain name in an example. I know that example.com exists for this purpose, but I would like the domain name not to exist (and not to start existing later). Is there any canonical example of a domain name which is guaranteed…
a3nm
  • 859
  • 5
  • 11
21
votes
3 answers

Configure domain name in CentOS

How do I configure domain names in Cent OS? I am actually connecting to the servers via SSH remote terminal and I also have root credentials. Does configuring the /etc/sysconfig/network and /etc/hosts suffice? Would be great to have some steps or…
19
votes
2 answers

List of top-level domains (TLDs) that require HTTPS connections, like .dev

I know the .dev top-level domain requires all sites to support only encrypted HTTPS connections, disallowing any HTTP connections. Are there other such TLDs?
Basil Bourque
  • 801
  • 1
  • 11
  • 22
16
votes
6 answers

Spam emails regarding Domain Abuse Notices

I have received domain abuse notice email from chloe-gray@icann-monitor.org. The mail asks to download a Word Document which I believe contains a virus. Dear Domain Owner, Our system has detected that your domain: example.com is being used for…
AAgg
  • 321
  • 1
  • 4
  • 11
16
votes
1 answer

Difference between DHCP options 'Domain-Name' and 'Domain-Search'

What is the difference between the two? I had thought that domain-name would put the client on the specified domain (ie. If the domain-name was set to "foo.bar" the clients FQDN would be 'hostname.foo.bar'), but…
Rauffle
  • 377
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13
15
votes
5 answers

When exim4 sends HELO/EHLO, how do I configure which host name it sends?

Mails from my system are being rejected when the receiving server does HELO checking. I believe my system is sending the wrong domain name. I'm running exim4. Googling for anything about exim4 and domains yields a nightmarish list of irrelevant…
user10066
14
votes
1 answer

Relation between "Registrar Registration Expiration Date" and the actual expiry

I'm struggeling somewhat understanding the Expiration related output for a whois query of a .com domain. In particular I don't really get the meaning of the Registrar Registration Expiration Date field. Here is an example (shortened): $ whois…
nanos
  • 141
  • 1
  • 1
  • 5
12
votes
2 answers

Does transferring a domain transfers DNS records?

Does transferring a domain name automatically transfer all DNS records? I'm transferring to GoDaddy. I'm particularly concerned with the MX records and others which one creates for Google Apps Email and other services.
Jungle Hunter
  • 535
  • 1
  • 5
  • 14
11
votes
3 answers

SSL certificate for a public IP address?

I just tried buying a Comodo Positive SSL but it was rejected due to not supporting a public IP address, but instead they only support a domain name. Does anyone know any SSL certificate provider that supports public IP address instead of a domain…
hsym
  • 1,003
  • 3
  • 14
  • 26
10
votes
4 answers

WHOIS command not returning useful information?

Whenever you use WHOIS command doesn't return any usefully information. I usually have to go to Godaddy, Dnsstuff or other services to get the data. I understand the reason is mostly due to spamming. I was just wondering how other services get…
Max Thomson
  • 171
  • 2
  • 5
10
votes
4 answers

What's the difference between example.com and www.example.com?

I'm a developer and I'm having trouble setting up some hosting, and I hope you guys can help me out. I've got a domain I'm setting up for a friend. URLs work fine when I use the short form, like http://example.com. That is, the pages render…
Steve Cooper
  • 205
  • 3
  • 6
1
2 3
31 32