host name

The unique name by which a computer is known on a network. It is used to identify the host in e-mail, Usenet news, or other forms of electronic information interchange.

On the Internet, the host name is an ASCII string. For example, the host name "wombat.doc.ic.ac.uk" consists of a local part (wombat) and a domain name (doc.ic.ac.uk). The host name is translated into an Internet address by the "/etc/hosts" file, NIS, the Domain Name System (DNS), or resolver. It is possible for one computer to have several host names (aliases), though one is designated as its canonical name.