What Is An FQDN?

Date First Published: 6th June 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Identifiers

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 6/10

CONTENTS

End Dot Of An FQDN

Learn more about what an FQDN is in this article.

Also known as an absolute domain name, an FQDN stands for a Fully Qualified Domain Name and it describes a full alphanumeric domain name that consists of a hostname, a dot, an SLD, a TLD, and a dot. For example, 10questionquizzes.computerhelp4all.com. is an FQDN as the hostname is ‘10questionquizzes’, the second-level domain (SLD) is ‘computerhelp4all’, the TLD is ‘com’ and it ends with a dot.

‘computerhelp4all.com’ would not be an FQDN as it is missing a hostname and an ending dot. This is known as a partially qualified domain name (PQDN) as it only provides a small portion of the domain name. It may also be known as a relative domain name. '10questionquizzes' is also a PQDN as the hostname is known but the domain name that it belongs to is unknown. Partially qualified domain names always have some uncertainty in them as any domain name could have that hostname. Partially qualified domain names are often used in certain situations to refer to the part of the domain name without referencing to the fully qualified domain name.

End Dot Of An FQDN

The end dot of a domain name is required for an FQDN. Even though it is unnecessary to enter the end dot when typing a URL into the address bar of a web browser or when specifying a mail server in an email application, it is necessary to include the end dot in zone files for each FQDN.