After that, the information expires and has to be looked up again. This allows institutions to change things. The domain system is not limited to finding out Internet addresses. Each domain name is a node in a database. The node can have records that define a number of different properties.
Examples are Internet address, computer type, and a list of services provided by a computer.
A program can ask for a specific piece of information, or all information about a given name. It is also possible to use the domain system to store information about users, mailing lists, or other objects. There is an Internet standard defining the operation of these databases, as well as the protocols used to make queries of them. Every network utility has to be able to make such queries, since this is now the official way to evaluate host names. Generally utilities will talk to a server on their own system.