Have you ever seen a phonebook directory or know what is it? If yes then DNS would be easy for you because DNS is just like a phonebook directory for the internet.
DNS
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the phonebook of the Internet. Web browsers interact through Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load Internet resources. Each device connected to the Internet has a unique IP address which other machines use to find the device. DNS servers eliminate the need for humans to memorize IP addresses.
When you open a web browser and go to a website, you don’t have to type a long number. Instead, you can enter a domain name like example.com and still access the website.
Working of DNS
The process of DNS resolution involves converting a hostname (www.example.com) into a computer-friendly IP address (192.168.12.1). When a user wants to load a webpage, the domain name that the user types must be converted into IP address( because computers only understand that), so that with the help of that IP address the server of that website can be found and the website can easily accessible to the user.
Steps in DNS
- DNS resolver – When any client searches for any website, that query goes to a server that is called DNS resolver. The resolver can be thought of as a librarian who is asked to go find a particular book somewhere in a library.
- Root nameserver– The root server is the first step in which translation of human-readable hostnames into IP addresses is done. It can be thought of like an index in a library that points to different racks of books, which can serve as a reference to other more specific locations.
- TLD nameserver – This nameserver is the next step in the search for a specific IP address, and it focuses on the last portion of a hostname (In example.com, the TLD server is “com”). The top-level domain server (TLD) can be thought of as a specific rack of books in a library.
- Authoritative nameserver – This name server is the final step in the DNS processing. In this, the DNS resolver gets the IP address from the TLD server, and then the browser sends the request to that IP address so that the user can access the website.
Writer: Mr Kaushal Vijay Singh Chauhan