Internet Domain Organization

Internet Domain Organization

On the Internet, domains are arranged in a hierarchical tree structure. The following list includes some of the top-level domains currently in use:
com: A commercial organization. Most companies will end up as part of this domain.
edu: An educational establishment, such as a university.
gov: A branch of the U.S. government.
int: An international organization, such as NATO or the United Nations.
mil: A branch of the U.S. military.
net: A network organization.
org: A nonprofit organization.

Warning:
Unfortunately, the word domain is used in several ways, depending on the context. In talking about the Internet, a domain refers to a collection of network host computers. See Chapter 4, “TCP/IP Utilities,” for a discussion of how Microsoft Windows Server products define a domain.



Your local ISP is probably a member of the .net domain, and your company is probably part of the .com domain. The .gov and .mil domains are reserved strictly for use by the government
and the military within the United States. In other parts of the world, the final part of a domain name represents the country in which the server is located (.ca for Canada, .jp for Japan, .uk
for Great Britain, and .ru for Russia, for example). Well over 130 countries are represented on the Internet. The .com domain is by far the largest, followed by the .edu domain.
If you want to contact someone within one of these domains by e-mail, you just add that person’s e-mail name to their domain name, separated by an at (@) sign. Generically, it looks like this:

name@company.com 

To increase the number of domain names available for use—after all, there is only one mcdonalds.com domain name available—several alternative top-level domains have been suggested. 
These include .firm for businesses and companies, .store for businesses selling goods rather than services, .arts for cultural and entertainment organizations, and .info for informational services. The domains .cc, .biz, .travel, and .post are also in use on the Internet.
      ICANN assigns all Internet domain names and makes sure that a name is not duplicated. Names are assigned on a first come, first served basis, but if you try to register a name that
infringes on someone else’s registered trademark, your use of that name will be rescinded if the trademark holder objects.