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{"id":447,"date":"2009-03-30T07:11:48","date_gmt":"2009-03-30T07:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.webhostingbuzz.com\/blog\/?p=447"},"modified":"2009-03-30T07:11:48","modified_gmt":"2009-03-30T07:11:48","slug":"what-exactly-is-dns-and-what-does-it-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.webhostingbuzz.com\/2009\/03\/30\/what-exactly-is-dns-and-what-does-it-do\/","title":{"rendered":"What Exactly is DNS and What Does It Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Domain Name System (DNS) is an essential element of the Internet, responsible for tying a domain name to the IP address where that domain resides. \u00a0Since humans can only memorize so many twelve digit IP addresses (for example: 127.243.238.123), DNS was created as a way to take that IP address and create a unique human-identifiable name to be related with it. \u00a0Because of DNS, you can type “google.com” into your browser and it magically finds the Google server.<\/p>\n
It comes in handy to thoroughly understand the DNS system because you use it constantly as a web developer or server owner, so let’s take a moment to see how this process works.<\/p>\n
DNS Resolution<\/h3>\n
When you type “google.com” into your browser and hit enter, many things happen behind the scenes that you never see:<\/p>\n
\n
The browser takes the name “google.com” and sends a DNS request to the default name server setup by either your IT staff or your ISP. \u00a0Basically, it asks “Where is google.com?”<\/li>\n
The default name server looks in its DNS table to find “google.com”. \u00a0If it has an entry for it, it sends back the corresponding IP address. \u00a0If it does not have an entry, it forwards the request to another DNS server – typically operated by your ISP.<\/li>\n
The next name server looks at its table, and hopefully has an entry for “google.com” and is able to respond with its IP address. \u00a0Although this process could repeat, it typically doesn’t exceed 1-3 forwards before it finds the correct entry.<\/li>\n
The browser receives the response saying Google’s IP address is “74.125.67.100” and then sends a request to\u00a074.125.67.100 for the page you asked for.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n
See the Process in Action<\/h3>\n
If you are a Windows (XP\/2000) user, click on Start, Run, and type “cmd” without the quotes, and hit enter. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Windows Vista users need to find the command prompt in their Start Menu.<\/p>\n
A command prompt should come up after you have done this. \u00a0From here, type “nslookup google.com”. \u00a0If you are connected to the internet and DNS is set up correctly, you will see something like this:<\/p>\n