THE NAME GAME

Memory artists can memorize a list of over 300 numbers, but others might find it hard to remember even the four numbers that make up an IP address. Most people agree that a name is easier to remember than a number. The advantage of associating an object with an alphanumeric name is the real reason for the existence of the huge, globally distributed Domain Naming System (DNS), a system that links computer names and addresses around the world. The DNS system has been the subject of countless articles and books, most of them focused on the naming system itself or on DNS servers such as Berkeley Internet Name Domain (BIND). But on the other end of the connection is an application on a simple desktop computer that needs a means of contacting the server to resolve a name to an IP address.