What Are Hostnames?

Hostnames are the unique names assigned to computers which are connected on a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) / Internal Protocol (IP) network. Computers are named in order to distinguish each other on the network.

Hostnames and DNS

In the domain name system, the hostname combined with a domain name is known as FQDN (fully qualified domain name). For example in the URL ‘en.wikipedia.org’, the hostname is ‘en’ and the domain name is ‘wikipedia.org’. The domain name, wikipedia.org is translated into an Internet Protocol (IP) number by DNS on request of the server connected to the domain.

Domain names and host names are often confused with each other. All domain names are not hostnames, even though all hostnames are in fact domain names. Domain names are purchased from a registrar. Hostnames are commonly used to identify the name servers for a domain. It is possible to have several host names to one domain name.

How to Select a Hostname

The following are important points to be remembered while selecting host names. The length of the hostnames should not exceed 24 characters, consisting of alphanumeric characters, minus sign and the period. It is to be noted that the first character of a hostname should begin with an alphabetic character, preferably lower case character and the hyphen or period should not be used as last character. Spaces are not to be used.

Names similar to domain names, lengthy names and embarrassing names should be avoided. Moreover, hostnames beginning with digits, non-alphanumeric characters, and names containing terms which are already in common use are to be avoided. It is advisable to use hostnames that are rarely used, real words or theme names.