Have you ever wondered how domain names work? How entering a domain name in a web browser leads to the opening of a specific website? Have you ever came across the term DNS and wondered what is DNS? Let’s have a look at how the system works?
What is DNS?
Domain Name System (DNS) is a protocol under which a domain address is converted into an IP address and redirects the browser to a particular web server where the website files are hosted. This server then returns the requested web page and displays it in your device’s browser. A domain name system can also be termed as Directory of the Internet, where it searches for the IP address associated with the specific domain name. Each device connected to the internet has a unique IP address, using which other machines communicate with it.
You can read about common errors like DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN, 502 Bad Gateway error, 504 Timeout, Http Status Code List
In this article, we will cover the following topics –
Detailed Technical Overview:
Configuration of DNS Records
Difference between a Free DNS and Premium DNS
Propagation of DNS
Detailed Technical Overview:
The domain name system consists of five interconnected elements, namely:
Domain Name
Hosting Server (IP address)
Nameservers
DNS Record
Browser
Domain Name
It is the business identity and is based on the preferred choice of the website owner. A website owner can register any of the available domain names, followed by domain extension, like .com, .net, .co, .org, .edu. Each of these domain extensions is used for specific purposes.
Under the domain settings within the registrar account, you can set specific Nameservers to point the domain to a specific hosting server.
Hosting Server
It is that part of the system where files and database associated with the website are stored. The hosting service provider provides users with a set of DNS records and Nameservers. You have to specify these nameservers or DNS records for your domain to direct the end-users to display the webpage on their browser.
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yourwebsite.com) and their phone number would correspond to the website’s IP (e.g.
There are a few steps that take place when a DNS server is asked to look up a website’s IP.Website Request- The first step is, of course, to request the actual website via a web browser.
Both the OS and browser first look at their own DNS caches to see if the information is already stored locally.
The root server looks at the last section of the request (the .com portion).
The resolver then stores this information for later use.Ask TLD server- The resolver goes on to ask the TLD servers the IP address of the website in question.
Again, the resolver stores this information for later use.Ask authoritative name servers- Finally, now that the resolver knows what the authoritative name servers are, it can query these name servers and retrieve the required IP information.
