What is DNS?

The Domain Name System, also known as DNS, is in charge of mapping domain names to numerical IP addresses by utilizing authoritative nameservers that have been specifically designated.

The Domain Name Mechanism (DNS) is a system that allows computers and services that are connected to the Internet to resolve domain names to IP addresses. It does it by transforming domain names that are readable by humans into addresses using the Internet Protocol (IP).

Because computers can only communicate using sequences of numbers, the Domain Name System (DNS) was designed as a kind of "phonebook" that transforms the domain that you type into your browser into an Internet Protocol (IP) that a computer can read.

History of the Domain Name System

If you wanted to access a website back when the Internet was still in its infancy, you needed to know the website's IP address. This requirement was in place for the entire thirty years. This is because computers are only capable of communicating through the use of numbers, and this has always been the case.

The following is an Internet Protocol address: 127.33.54.200.

It is lengthy and difficult to remember, and I don't think any of us (humans, assuming) are robots. We needed a mechanism to convert the information usable by computers into something readable by people. In addition to that, it needed to be quick, not cumbersome, and expandable.

Paul Mockapetris conceptualized the Domain Name System (DNS) in the early 1980s. His idea was to create a system that could automatically convert IP numbers to domain names. This same mechanism continues to be the foundation upon which the modern Internet is built.

However, only a small portion of the world's population is aware that it exists, and an even smaller fraction of that population knows what it can do. The real issue is that those who are most in need of understanding how it operates and who stand to gain the most from such information do not make an effort to get it.

Introduction to DNS

Now let's put all of that information together. Your initial stop when querying a domain name won't be at the nameservers considered the root. Instead, your browser will query your local resolving nameserver to determine if it has the DNS records cached for that specific domain.

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is almost always the resolving nameserver. If the website in question is a famous one like YouTube.com, your ISP will most likely already have the record stored in their cache. In this scenario, you would proceed directly to step two of the DNS lookup process.

Nevertheless, this information is only kept for a brief length of time in the database. When you create a record, you are given the option to specify a Time to Live for that record (TTL). Resolving nameservers use TTLs to determine how long they can hold the record information. There is a wide variety of possible TTL values, from 30 seconds to one week.

What if the record we are looking for is not stored in the cache? After that, the nameserver responsible for resolution will request the root nameservers for the top-level domain associated with that domain. These nameservers will direct you to the provider authoritative for hosting the records.

Okay, locating the IP address required a few more steps than I had anticipated. This process takes place in milliseconds so that you know. Oh, and one more thing. To put this into perspective, it takes to blink an eye approximately 50 milliseconds. You can resolve most DNS queries under 30.

How Does DNS Work?

We must have an understanding of how the system operates before we can move on to discussing how you can use the DNS. We already know that it correlates IP addresses with domain names, but where exactly does it keep this information? On nameservers!

Nameservers are responsible for the storage of DNS records. A DNS record is the file that states "this domain" maps to "this IP address." Is there a single location that houses the nameservers and DNS records for every website on the Internet, or is this information spread across multiple sites? No, no way could ever happen.

They can be found in every region of the globe. The locations of the top-level domains are stored on these nameservers, which are referred to as root nameservers. Root nameservers are distinguished because they do not keep a record of every single domain (TLDs).

TLDs, or top-level domains, are the two or three-character extensions added to the end of a domain name, such as ".com." Each top-level domain extension (TLD) has its unique collection of nameservers responsible for keeping the information necessary to determine who has the authority to store DNS records for a certain domain. In most cases, the DNS provider or registrant will act as the authoritative nameserver. Additionally, in this section, we can locate the DNS record that translates the domain name example.com to the IP address 127.66.122.88.

WHAT IS HOSTNAME?

The hostname is an alias used to mark a device on a TCP/IP network. Hostnames define TCP/IP hosts more effectively than does the IP address. Hostnames may be overcome by using a DNS server or host files to look them up. Hostnames may include the characters a–z, A–Z, 0–9, (-). To completely natively help the DNS, stop utilizing any unique names in hostnames.

WHAT IS IP ADDRESS?

(Internet Protocol address) The address of a connected device in an IP network (TCP/IP network) is the worldwide standard both in-house and on the Internet. Every desktop and laptop computer, server, scanner, printer, modem, router, smartphone, tablet, and smart TV is assigned an IP address, and every packet (Web, email, video, etc.) traversing an IP network contains a source IP address and a destination IP address.

WHAT IS A DOMAIN NAME?

A domain name is a URL for your website. A website address is an address where you can view the website. A domain name assists in finding machines on the Internet. The device uses IP addresses, a sequence of numbers. Humans also find it very challenging to recall a considerable amount of digits. Domain names have been used to address the websites instead of IP addresses.