What is the DNS (Domain Name System)? How Does DNS work?

 DNS is the central part of the internet that provides a way to match names ( a destination website) to numbers (the address for the website).

The domain name system is the phonebook of the internet to access information online through domain names, for ex: klcweb.com. Web browsers interact through IP (internet protocol) 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 that other machines use to find the device. DNS servers eliminate the need for humans to memories IP addresses such as 192.168.1.2 (in ipv4).

How does DNS work?

The process of DNS resolution involves converting a hostname (such as www.example.com) into a computer-friendly IP address (such as 192.168.1.1). An IP address is given to each device on the Internet, and that address is necessary to find the appropriate Internet device - like a street address is used to find a particular home.

When a user wants to load a webpage, a translation must occur between what a user types into their web browser (klcweb.com) and the machine-friendly address necessary to locate the example.com webpage.

In order to understand the process behind the DNS resolution, it’s important to learn about the different hardware components a DNS query must pass between.

For the web browser, the DNS lookup occurs “ behind the scenes” and requires no interaction from the user’s computer apart from the initial request.