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Domain Names and IP Addresses

3:56 with Joy Kesten

A domain name is a word or phrase used to help people remember web addresses, or IP addresses. In this video let's check out how domain names and IP addresses work in more detail.

ICANN - the non-profit North American organisation responsible for Internet IP address space allocation and DNS management, among other technical management functions.

Fun Fact: Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn co-designed the Internet Protocol (IP) and the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP).

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    In every URL is a domain name. 0:00
    A domain name is a word or phrase used to help people remember web addresses, or 0:02
    IP addresses. 0:07
    In this video, let's check out how domain names and IP addresses work. 0:09
    In each domain name, there are a few parts labeled from right to left. 0:12
    Top Level Domains, or TLDs are actually what most people think of as the end, 0:16
    or extension of a domain. 0:22
    A few Top Level Domains you're probably familiar with are .com, 0:24
    .net, .edu, and .org. 0:30
    However, this list also includes country codes, such as .uk for the United Kingdom, 0:33
    .jp for Japan and .us for the United States and 0:38
    even brand names, organizations and vanity words like .ninja and .name. 0:43
    Top Level Domain names are managed by the Internet Corporation for 0:49
    Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN and can be found at www.icann.org. 0:54
    ICANN authorize domain name registrars which are the companies responsible for 1:02
    registering and reassigning domain names. 1:08
    When we say domain names are organized from right to left, it means each label or 1:12
    section between the dots, specifies a subdomain of the section to its right. 1:17
    For example, in teamtreehouse.com, .com is the Top Level Domain, 1:22
    teamtreehouse is a subdomain of .com. 1:29
    If you've thought about this in terms of geography, 1:32
    .com would be the country you live in, like the United States of America and 1:36
    teamtreehouse is the state, or province. 1:41
    Any subdomains of teamtreehouse.com, 1:44
    like www.teamtreehouse.com are like the towns in the state, in the country. 1:48
    An important function of domain names is to provide easily recognizable, 1:55
    and memorable names to the numeric IP addresses of the servers where 2:00
    the websites actually live. 2:04
    If I wanted to find the treehouse website, using its domain name, 2:07
    I would type in teamtreehouse.com into the address bar. 2:11
    If I wanted to find the treehouse website, using its IP address, 2:15
    I would type in 173.247.98.20 and 2:21
    hit enter, and look, it's the same website. 2:26
    Nearly everything on the web uses Internet Protocol version 4, or IPv4. 2:30
    IPv4 is comprised of four numbers, each between 0 and 255, separated by dots. 2:38
    IPv4 has the capacity to identify about 4.3 billion unique addresses, 2:46
    but with over 7 billion people already on the planet and each person having more and 2:54
    more devices connected to the Internet, IPv4 is quickly running out of space. 2:59
    Luckily, there's already an alternative IP version 6 that's quickly catching on. 3:05
    IPv6 will support every person on Earth 3:11
    having billions of devices connected to the web at once. 3:14
    IPv6 is kind of like adding more numbers to phone numbers as the population grows. 3:19
    Phone numbers in a country often start with just a few numbers. 3:25
    But, as more people get phones, phone numbers get longer and then, an area 3:29
    code is added to differentiate the same number in different geographic regions. 3:34
    IPv6 is the new format for IP addresses and 3:39
    gives us billions of new phone number for all of the new devices on the web. 3:43
    Now that we know a bit more about domain names and 3:48
    IP addresses, let's find out how they're all connected with domain name servers 3:51

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