< networking > (FQDN) The full name of a system, consisting of its local hostname and its domain name, including a top-level domain (tld). For example, "venera" is a hostname and "venera.isi.edu" is an FQDN. An FQDN should be sufficient to determine a unique Internet address for any host on the Internet . This process, called "name resolution", uses the Domain Name System (DNS).
With the explosion of interest in the Internet following the advent of the World-Wide Web , domain names (especially the most significant two components, e.g. "sun.com", and especially in the ".com" tld) have become a valuable part of many companies' "brand". The allocation of these, overseen by ICANN , has therefore become highly political and is performed by a number of different registrars. There are different registries for the different tlds.
See also network, the , network address .
(2003-09-23)