Domain Name System Definition
Domain name system (DNS) is a system that translates domain names, such as rankapage.com, to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses – 213.43.78.12 and allows accessing the requested website. Therefore, people do not need to remember long strings of numbers when searching for their favorite sites online.
First, let’s look at how the domain name system works in simple and understandable terms.
Consider www.rankapage.com as an example even though people use the domain name to reach the page.
- Initially, it is recognized by its IP address on the Internet.
- Likewise, if you request to connect you to www.rankapage.com, your computer must first identify its IP address.
- At this point, DNS servers come into action. The computer connects to the DNS server which looks up for the IP address associated with the website’s URL.
- Once the matching IP address is found, you are connected to the website and see its content.
The Importance Of DNS To Website
The majority of people might not be aware that apart from matching the domain name to the IP address, DNS servers can influence your website?s performance in the following ways as well:
- Increase the speed of the website. In case you are unsatisfied with the slow services of your DNS company, you can always switch to a third-party DNS server to improve your website’s speed.
- Improve the website’s security. Another advantage of a third-party DNS server is an increased level of security against the latest spam and phishing scams.
Keep in mind that once you purchase the domain name, you will be provided with the DNS server of your domain name registrar company.
Since DNS can have a significant effect on your website, we strongly recommend you to get a third-party DNS server like Cloudflare. They are offering an excellent and free domain name servers.
Learn How DNS Works In-Depth
Since DNS is a central part of the Internet, it might be helpful to understand how it works. Below you will find a summarised analysis of how it works in step-by-step to understand it in-depth:
- Requesting for the information? once you want to access the website, you type its domain name into the address bar on your browser. Firstly, it looks up the cache if you have previously visited the site. In case it’s your first time, it performs the DNS query to find the matching IP address.
- Interaction with the recursive resolver? the recursive resolver is the server that requests to find the IP address on the Internet. Usually, it is provided by your Internet Server Provider (ISP), wireless carrier, or a third party company. Recursive DNS server serves to find necessary information, in this case, the IP address, on the Internet.
- Connecting to root name servers? root name servers hold information about top-level domains. Likewise, a recursive resolver asks to search for information about the top-level domain of the website you requested to access.
- Reaching top-level domain (TLD) name servers ? once the root name servers direct the request to the top-level domain (TLD) name servers, they will lead to the authoritative DNS servers holding the necessary information.
- Check within authoritative servers? since authoritative DNS servers keep numerous different information, they must find the right answer. Thus, if we request for the IP address, it should look like the query for Address Record A.
- Get the matching IP address ? authoritative name servers provide the record A to the recursive resolver which stores it on its local cache. Likewise, once other people request it, the path for reaching the matching IP address to that specific website will be shorter. The recursive resolver will send the IP address to your computer which will save it and pass it to the browser. Finally, the browser connects to the webserver and displays the content of the website you have requested to visit.