Meaning – The term name resolution, refers to the process of mapping a machine name to the corresponding Internet Protocol (IP) address.
Name resolution is an important part of network communication because the logical names of hosts on the network must be resolved into their network addresses before communication can take place.
TCP/IP networks running Microsoft Windows operating systems support two name resolution methods:
- NetBIOS name resolution to resolve NetBIOS names into IP addresses. This is performed by using broadcasts or by querying a Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) server.
- Hostname resolution to resolve fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) into IP addresses. This is performed by using a local Hosts file or by querying a Domain Name System (DNS) server.
Example of usage – “Once the name resolution process is complete, you can place frames on the network with appropriate destination MAC addresses so that they can be received by their destination host.”
