What Is Domain Name System; What Is DNS Used For?

what is dns and how it works

Every website has an IP address. However, people cannot remember the IP address of every website on the Internet. That’s where DNS comes into play. DNS replaces the IP address of a website with a meaningful domain name. Let’s dive deep and learn what DNS is all about. All website owners should have this understanding. If you want to know what is domain name system continues.

 

What Is DNS? | What does DNS stand for?

First, you should know what does DNS stand for? Domain Name System or DNS is sometimes called the Internet’s Yellow Pages. When you needed to find a business address in the past, you looked it up in the Yellow Pages. DNS is similar; however, you don’t have to look anything up because your computer is linked to the Internet. It’s how your computer figures out where Google.com is.

If you want to know what is domain name in website ? this post can help you!

 

How Does DNS Work?

Now you know what DNS is all about. Understanding how DNS works is critical because it’s a crucial aspect of the Internet.


Consider DNS a phone book; instead of mapping people’s names to street addresses, it maps computer names to IP addresses. A “DNS record” is the name given to each mapping. To get these records, DNS clients on linked devices contact DNS servers. Different sorts of records are used for various purposes. Web browsers use an “A” type record, but an “MX” record links to a mail server. This is how you may host a website with one provider and use an email service with another.

You can read aall about Ip Address in what is Ip Address article.

 

Types of DNS Records

You will come across a few different DNS records when you want to learn what DNS is all about. Here are the most common DNS records that you will find.

“A” Record

This DNS record represents the classic use of DNS. It is translating the domain of a website into its resembling IPV4 address.

“AAAA” Record

The AAAA record does the same work as the A record. However, it is translating the domain into IPV6 address.

“MX” Record

MX is the short word given for Mail Exchange. This record identifies an email server linked with the domain.

“TXT” Record

TXT Record is versatile as you can use it for multiple purposes. For example, you can use this record to prove domain ownership or sign emails cryptographically to fight against spam.

“CNAME” Record

CNAME is the abbreviation for Canonical Name. This would point a domain name to a different domain name. In other words, a domain name replaces the IP address here.

“SRV” Record

SRV record holds information about the IP address and the specific port associated with the service.

 

What is DNS lookup?

What is DNS lookup? or why do we call it DNS lookup?
DNS lookup is the steps of the server to return a record of the DNS address. For example, in reality, you want to find an address; in this case, you do everything to find it; it may be easy or hard, The performance of DNS lookup is like this.

 

 

What is DNS resolver?

DNS resolver is a part server that can answer the users. The duty of the DNS resolver is to answer the questions.

 

 

Steps in a DNS Lookup

 

 

Types of DNS Queries

1- Recursive Query

DNS Servers with recursion feature enabled answers to recursive queries with either the record data of the question or an error message if they could not locate the record. Disabling this feature (a good security practice for local servers) will result in rejected unrelated queries.

 

2- Iterative Query

The DNS client will let the server deliver the best possible result in this case. If the queried DNS server cannot locate the record in local DNS Zones or DNS cache, it will forward the request to upper-level DNS Servers. After then, the DNS client will query the referral address. This operation continues along the query chain with other DNS servers until an error or timeout occurs.

 

3- Non-recursive Query

When a DNS resolver client asks a DNS server for a record that it has access to, either because it is authoritative or in its cache, DNS records are typically cached by DNS servers to save unnecessary bandwidth usage and pressure on upstream systems.

 

Conclusion

By now, you completely understand what DNS is all about. Use this understanding when you work with a DNS server. Then you can figure out what you are doing. If you still need more details, check out this post!


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