System apparatus and method for hosting and assigning domain names on a wide area network

A system for enabling internet access to content identified by a user-selected domain name comprising a subdomain, without requiring that the subdomain be associated with an IP address of a higher-level domain, the system comprising:

• an internet-connected host computer, the host computer having an IP address specified by an internet-class resource record for a domain name server, wherein the resource record associates the host IP address to a host domain name in a zone file of the domain name server, and wherein the host domain name comprises (a) a subdomain labeled with a designated wildcard character of a domain name system and (b) at least one higher-level domain name;
• a memory operably associated with the host computer, the memory holding instructions comprising:
• configuring a content address according to a content storage system of the host computer independently of the domain name system, the content address comprising a user-selected label, wherein the user-selected label comprises at least one character that is not the designated wildcard character;
• storing content in the content storage system, the content addressed by the content address;
• receiving a domain name configured in accordance with the domain name system, the domain name comprising the host domain name with the user-selected label substituted for the designated wildcard character;
• determining the content address from the user-selected label;
• retrieving the content from the content storage system using the content address;
• and
• serving the content.