This arrangement provides for more than four billion different addresses. A central administrative body oversees the distribution of IP addresses. Along with an IP address, administrators can optionally assign a domain name to their computer. An administrator has more flexibility in creating domain names than in assigning IP addresses. Within the Internet, the Domain Name System manages and matches domain names to their IP addresses.
Most Internet sites conform to a standard naming convention.
The first part of a domain name often represents the type of computer. Site administrators in the United States have their own convention for ending their domain names. These are only conventions. Administrators are free to use whatever they want in their site name, provided the whole name is unique and not offensive. The IP address and domain name each uniquely identify every Internet computer, client or server.