Introduction to Data Communications
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Domain Name Structure

Domain names tend to follow a loose structure that gives a description of the network. For example, sait.ab.ca uses the Canada extension ca, preceded by the province of Alberta extension ab and then the abbreviation SAIT for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. This is a geographical designed domain name that follows the ISO-3166 country code structure as listed in Appendix K: ISO 3166 Country Codes. Example of country codes are:

	br	Brazil			ca	Canada

	fi	Finland			gb	United Kingdom

	na 	Nambia			nz	New Zealand

	tw	Taiwan			us	United States

There are top level domain (TLD) names extensions that attempt to describe the purpose of the domain. It is broken down into seven basic categories:

	com	- Commercial domains that are a business.

	edu	- Educational institutes

	net	- This is for computers of network providers such as Internet Service Providers

	org	- Standard organizations or non profit organizations

	int	- Organizations that have been established by international treaties.

	gov	- Municipal, federal, provincial, state governments.

	mil	- United States military

All in all, it is often quite difficult to establish where a domain is physically located or what it actually does from the domain name. But it makes remembering locations easier than attempting to remembering an IP address.

Introduction to Data Communications
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