The Domain Name System (DNS) is essential for the Internet to work the way it does, as it is responsible for translating domain names , which are easy to type and remember, into IP addresses that computers can understand to take us to the websites we want to visit. Understanding how the DNS works, therefore, is essential not only for IT professionals, but for any Internet user with a little curiosity about the processes that make the digital world work the way it does.
We promise to explain it in a language and tone that everyone can understand, so get rid of that weird face and keep reading, because you won't leave here without knowing what DNS is and what its types are!
dns server
One of the easiest ways to understand the meaning of DNS is to compare it to a large internet phone book. Remember those big books that contained all the phone numbers in our cities? It seems like we used them a lifetime ago! Well, we're looking at something very similar.
And what is DNS used for? Basically, it converts human- readable domain names , germany business email list such as google.com, into numeric IP addresses that are more easily understood by computers and servers.
This process is what allows you to access web pages using easy-to-remember names instead of complex numerical sequences. That is, when you type a web address into your browser, the DNS looks up the corresponding IP address in order to load the page you are requesting access to. Without the DNS, we would have to memorize and enter IP numbers separated by periods for each website we wanted to visit. Can you imagine how crazy that would be? Most of us can barely remember what to enter when we need to access our router settings!
How the Domain Name System Works
The DNS resolution process begins when you enter a domain name into your browser, a process involves several steps:
The device queries the DNS servers for the IP address associated with the domain name.
The query is first directed to a root DNS server, which responds with the address of the top-level DNS server (TLD) that corresponds to the domain.
The TLD server directs the query to the domain's authoritative DNS server, which contains the specific IP address information.
The authoritative DNS server responds with the IP address of the requested domain name , allowing the browser to load the requested web page. And the best part is that all of this happens in a matter of milliseconds!
When it comes to registering a domain for your website, you won't have to worry about any of this, but keep reading, because it will really have an impact on you later!
Types of record
There are several types of records and services that exist for the Internet, one of the most important being DNS. Let's start by explaining what the address (A) record is.
Address Type (A)
You know that every website on the Internet uses an IP address to identify itself on the web. For example, an address record tells the Internet which IP address to associate with a domain name.
You can find a series of numbers that identify a site ( http://189.34.56.87 ), but as these are difficult to memorize, this is when the magic of the records appears to indicate to the network of networks that these numbers are the website of a company, blog, official site, etc., so it will be automatically identified.
You can also click on a series of numbers, then click on a site with an established domain registration and both will be the same.
CNAME Type
The so-called CNAME will help your site be searched and found by typing in a subdomain. It works like this: if you want http://www.mysite.com to take you to http://mysite.com , you would create a CNAME record called www and set it to go to your address (A) record.
Name Server (NS) Record Type
This simply tells the Internet which server has all the records. It is recommended that if you use this service, you never move a single letter, because if you do, all the other records on your nameserver become invalid.
Mail exchange type (MX)
Finally, among the most common records is the Mail eXchange (MX) record. As a local or international company, you will always need to have an email address for remote communication and data exchange, and MX records “tell” the Internet where to direct that email.
Chances are you have such a tool hosted in the office on an Exchange server, or perhaps your email is hosted as a Google app. You may even have a contract with the cloud storage host that offers you email (such as with your domain registrar).
MX records are what send traffic from the web to the email servers. One important thing to note is that you can choose to change your website's hosting, without affecting your email, if you have control over all of your DNS records in one location.