It is also called site names at times. It is a different named given in which a device attached to network is known on that network. The device could consist of network storage device, file server, cable modem, copier, fax machine etc. it is used to identify a specific host in different shapes of electronic communication. For example e-mail, Usenet or World Wide Web. There is an interchangeable use of the terms “hostnames” and domain name” but there are few differences as far as the technicality of both is concerned.
NIS, DNS and SNB are the various system that use hostnames.
So every naming system has its own meaning of the term “hostname” or it varies according to the system it is concerned. A hostname will be an invalid internet hostname if it is meaningful to Microsoft NetBIOS workgroup. In normal it will be a safe assumption that an internet is the network and the host naming system is DNS when the hostname is presented with no context.
There is a typical use of hostnames in an administrative capacity and you will get the hostnames in their computer browsers lists, active directory lists. IP addresses to hostnames resolution and e-mail headers etc. they are the nick name that are readable for human beings that can immediately correspond to MAC addresses.
Sometimes there are non dotted IP addresses, embeded domain names and locations in the hostnames. Hostname is normally just a single word for a simple local area network. CVS server of an organization will be named “cvs” generally. Talking about the hostname of internet, it is a domain name that is assigned to a host computer. Both the hosts local name along with the present domain name altogether make the hostname. A single host computer may have plenty of host names but normally its operating system likes to have one host names for the personnel use of host. There are some terms and restriction on the validity of the hostnames. They are consisted of series of labels and every label is separated by dots. The length capacity for each label is 1 to 63 characters and once all the labels are combined the limit of character at maximum 255. The hostnames label can be made from “a” to “z” and the digits involved in the can be from 0 to 9. The hostnames labels cannot be started nor can they be ended with a hyphen.
