The COS (Common Object Service) Naming Service allows an object to be found from its symbolic name. The client obtains the object reference invoking the naming service as any other CORBA service. The naming service itself can be located from the stringified object reference (see {@link org.omg.CORBA.ORB#string_to_object(String)} or from the ORB pre-configured data by passing "NameService" to {@link org.omg.CORBA.ORB.Object#resolve_initial_references(String)}. The returned object is casted to the NamingContextExt using {@link org.omg.CosNaming.NamingContextExtHelper#narrow}. The Naming Service can reside on any host accessible within the network.

The default pre-configured location method uses two parameters (properties, applet parameters or command line parameters): org.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialHost and org.omg.CORBA.ORBInitialPort. If these parameters are missing, the naming service is supposed to be running at port 900 on the local host.