History of Domain Name System

The history of Domain Name System goes back to the 1960s when computer networking was confined exclusively to the the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, and later DARPA). During those times the use of the Internet by the general public was unknown. The networking computers were given certain addresses for a proper interconnection o the computers. This administering system was called HOST.TXT . But with the expansion of computer networking in the next few years, a more effective address system was required for the networking computers.

The Domain Name System was engineered in order to:

•  Over come the problems of overlapping of web addresses

•  Ensure that all the Internet addresses are unique so that when a web page is searched, or e-mails are send to a particular Internet address they reach the correct destinations

•  Maintain a consistency in the naming system

Here are some of the most important dates and events in the history of Domain Name System :

1983: Jon Postel, Paul Mockapetris and Craig Partrige published RFC 882, creating the domain name system (DNS).

1984: RFC 920 established 7 generic top level domains or gTLDs such as the .com, .net, .org and .gov.

1985: DARPA put pressure on Internet Users to adopt DNS addresses.

1986: At a grand summit meeting, network representatives decided that the DNS system would for surely be used at a permanent level.

1987: RFC 1020 channelizes control of Internet Protocol numbers from Jon Postel and ISI to the Network Information Center (NIC) at SRI International.

1993: NSI and National Science Foundation (NSF) enter into Cooperative Agreement that would grant NSI the power to manage DNS registration and database.

1998: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) integrates with objective of acquiring the identification as "Newco" and the objective is very soon reached.

The Domain Name System is officially managed by a non profit organization called Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers or simply ICANN. But in order to understand the exact functions of Domain Name Systems we must first understand the process in which web pages are displayed, and your e-mails reach the e-mail ids that you send out to your friends and colleagues.