 | | The Internet Domain Name System allows the host name space to be subdivided into a number of logical areas, or domains. This allows the administration of the host name space to be spread out such that in general, each organization on the Internet can administer its own name space. In olden days, the entire host name space was controlled by the Network Information Center, and any time a new host was added to the network, it had to be registered with them. With over nine million hosts on the Internet as of January 1996, this is obviously no longer workable. Another reason for subdividing the name space is to allow host names to be re-used in different areas of the name space. Before the domain name system, there could be one and only one host named “fred” on the entire Internet. Again, with over nine million hosts, this rapidly becomes unworkable unless we all use host names such as “aaaaaaa,” “aaaaaab,” and so forth. The domain name system allows the “fred” host name to be used in each logical area. There can still be one and only one “fred” within a logical area, but two different logical areas can each have a “fred.” | |
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