DNS is short for Domain Name System. It’s sometimes also called a “Domain Name Server” or “Domain Number System”.
DNS is a system that converts human-readable website names into computer-readable IP addresses. For example, when you type in “example.com”, your computer doesn’t know what that means – it only understands
How does dns work
DNS is short for Domain Name System. It’s sometimes also called a “Domain Name Server” or “Domain Number System”.
DNS is a system that converts human-readable website names into computer-readable IP addresses. For example, when you type in “example.com”, your computer doesn’t know what that means – it only understands numbers. But it can ask a DNS server what that name means, and the DNS server will say “Oh, that’s 1.2.3.4”. Now your computer knows that when you type in “example.com”, you really want to go to 1.2.3.4.
You can think of DNS like a phone book for the internet. Just like you need a phone book to look up someone’s phone number, you need DNS to look up a website’s IP address. And just like a phone book can have more than one listing for a single name, DNS can have more than one IP address for a single website. This is called “DNS forwarding”, and it’s how sites like Google and Facebook can have multiple servers around the world – each with its own IP address – and still be accessible when you type in just one domain name.
Every device that connects to the internet has its own unique IP address, which is a combination of numbers. IPv4 addresses are four sets of numbers separated by periods, like this: 192.168.0.1
IPv6 addresses are six sets of numbers separated by colons, and they look like this: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
When you type in a domain name, your computer converts that name into an IP address that it can use to connect to the internet. It does this using DNS servers.
DNS servers are like the phone book for the internet. They store information about which domain names are associated with which IP addresses. When you type in a domain name, your computer contacts a DNS server and asks it for the IP address associated with that domain name. The DNS server looks up the IP address and sends it back to your computer, and your computer can then use that IP address to connect to the website.
Most internet service providers (ISPs) have their own DNS servers, and they usually assign you those DNS servers automatically when you connect to the internet. But you can also choose to use a different DNS server, like Google Public DNS or Cloudflare DNS.
DNS servers are organized into hierarchies, with each level of the hierarchy storing information about a different part of the domain name. For example, the “com” part of “example.com” is at the top level of the hierarchy, while the “example” part is at the second level.
When you type in a domain name, your computer starts at the root level of the hierarchy and works its way down until it finds the correct DNS server for that domain.
The root level of the DNS hierarchy is managed by a group of 13 servers around the world, collectively known as the “root servers”. These servers store information about the top-level domains (like “.com” and “.org”) and their associated DNS servers.
When you type in a domain name, your computer contacts one of the root servers and asks it for the IP address associated with that domain. The root server looks up the IP address and sends it back to your computer, and your computer can then use that IP address to connect to the website.
You can think of DNS like a phone book for the internet. Just like you need a phone book to look up someone’s phone number, you need DNS to look up a website’s IP address. And just like a phone book can have more than one listing for a single name, DNS can have more than one IP address for a single website. This is called “DNS forwarding”, and it’s how sites like Google and Facebook can have multiple servers around the world – each with its own IP address – and still be accessible when you type in just one domain name.
Every device that connects to the internet has its own unique IP address, which is a combination of numbers. IPv4 addresses are four sets of numbers separated by periods, like this: 192.168.0.1
