What is a Domain Name?

Registering a Domain Name gives you an online identity or brand.

A Domain Name is an addressing construct used for identifying and locating computers on the Internet. Domain Names provide a system of easy-to-remember Internet addresses, which can be translated by the Domain Name System (DNS) into the numeric addresses (Internet Protocol (IP) numbers) used by the network.

For example:
IP Address: 202.65.12.105 maps to the ausregistry.com.au Domain Name.

A Domain Name is hierarchical and often conveys information about the type of entity that has registered the Domain Name.

ausregistry.com.au is a 3LD, Australian country code Domain Name.

Domain Names at the same level of the hierarchy must be unique. Thus, for example, there can only be one .com.au at the top-level of the hierarchy, and only one ausregistry.com.au at the next level of the hierarchy.

Domain Names must:

• be at least 2 characters long;
• contain only letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-), or a combination of these;
• start and end with a number or a letter, not a hyphen; and
• not contain hyphens in the third and fourth position (eg. ab--cd.com.au).

See our FAQ for further definitions.