Definitions for teachers by teachers
Host Name
HOST NAME (also "SITE NAME")The unique name that identifies a computer that is connected to a TCP/IP network, including the Internet, used to identify it in electronic mail, Usenet news, or other forms of electronic information interchange. Each host has a unique IP address. On the Internet, the host name is in the form "comp.xyz.net". If there is only one Internet site the host name is the same as the domain name. One computer can have more than one host name if it hosts more than one Internet site, (for example, "home.xyz.net" and "comp.xyz.net"). However, in that case "comp" and "home" are host names and "xyz.net" is the domain name.
On Internet the host name is an ASCII string, e.g. "foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk" which, consists of a local part (foldoc) and a domain name (doc.ic.ac.uk). The hostname is translated into an Internet address either via the /etc/hosts file, NIS or by the Domain Name System (DNS) or resolver. It is often possible to guess a host name for a particular institution. This is useful if you want to know if they operate network services like anonymous FTP, World-Wide Web or finger. First try the institution's name or obvious abbreviations thereof, with the appropriate domain appended, e.g. "mit.edu". If this fails, add "ftp." or "www." as appropriate to the beginning, e.g. "www.data-io.com".
What this means to you: The host name for District 186 is the same as the domain name.
by Margie Adkins
HOST NAME
The portion of the fully qualified domain name that refers to a specific host computer. For example, in "library.nwu.edu", "library" is the host name within the "nwu.edu" domain.
by Brian Weinert
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Last updated: 31 July 2000