Domain Name Glossary

Administrative Contact/Agent - The administrative contact/agent is an individual authorized to interact with a domain registry on behalf of the domain name registrant. The administrative contact/agent should be able to answer non-technical questions about the domain name's registration and the domain name registrant.

Contact/Agent - Contacts/Agents are individuals or groups who represent the registrant on matters related to the registrant's domain name. There are three types of contacts/agents: administrative, technical, or billing. The entity listed as the administrative, technical, or billing contact/agent should be the entity best able to answer questions about that particular aspect of the domain name's registration.

Deactivation - The process of removing a domain name from the zone files for the top level domains. When a domain name is deactivated, the Domain Name System (DNS) will no longer have the information needed to resolve the domain name to its corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) number(s), effectively disabling the domain name as a tool for locating the related computers or organizations.

Deletion - The process of removing a domain name and its corresponding record from the Domain Name System (DNS) and InterNIC' domain name database. A deleted domain name cannot be used to locate computers on the Internet and will be made available for other parties to register on a first-come, first-served basis. A domain name may be deleted at the request of the domain name registrant, as a result of non-payment of fee, or due to circumstances particular to individual cases.

Domain Name - On a technical level, it is an addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP)) numbers) used by the network.

Domain Name Servers (DNS) - A Domain Name Server (DNS) keeps a database of domain names and their associated IP addresses. When a user searches for a domain name, the request must go through a Domain Name Server (DNS) to translate the domain name and obtain the corresponding IP address. This way the request can be routed to the correct server where the web site resides.

Host (Name Server) - As applied to the Internet, it is a computer with an Internet address that runs the "server" programs that supply resources and services to the Net. InterNIC uses the term to refer to name servers, the computers that have both the software and the data required to resolve domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) numbers.