IP Address And Domain Name – What’s The Connection?
March 1, 2010 by admin
Filed under Industry News
In the early days of the internet, there were just a small number of computers connected with modems and telephone lines. You would make internet connections by giving the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the computer that you wished to connect to.
The IP address is a 32-bit numeric address that is written as four numbers separated by dots. Each IP address is unique. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.
Needing to know the Internet Protocol, or IP, address was manageable when there were only a few hosts. It quickly became difficult when more and more internet computers came online.
As a result the concept of domain name emerged. In an early system, a simple text file was maintained by the Network Information Center to keep track of mapping names to IP addresses. Soon, the text file became so huge that it was unmanageable. In 1983 the University of Wisconsin created the Domain Name System which maps text names to IP addresses programmatically. From that introduction, the concept of the IP address and domain names was born.
With the system of domain names, people connect with computers easily by remembering a name such as “areadomainer.com”. The domain name system makes everything lighter and easier. The IP address is critical, but it is behind the scenes. People know where they want to go by the domain name.
A domain name can by assigned to one or more IP addresses. The IP address and domain name are used to identify web pages. So, if you type into the browser either the IP address or the domain name, the system will then locate thepage for you.
