`.` At The End of a URL

I recently learned that websites can be terminated with a . such as www.google.com. or https://neocities.org.. However, this does not work for all websites. I was skimming through Network for Dummies during work and while it doesn’t cover anything useful for the work I am trying to do (if you have taken a network course before, don’t bother reading this book unless you were bored like I was¹), terminating a website with a . was a surprise.

The book states that If a domain name ends with a trailing dot, ..., and the domain name is said to be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). The difference between an absolute name (FQDN) and relative name is important when working with DNS and can cause an “internet outage” if done incorrectly as one user on hackernews comments. Based on some article (linked by a stackoverflow user), websites that fail to handle . in their domain names are the ones who are in violation of RFC 1738 or at least not heeding to its recommendations.

Notes:

¹ While Network for Dummies was actually fun to read surprisingly due to the author’s writing style, it lacks technical depth which should come to no surprise.