How to understand the Domain Name System
By Clare Lawrence 13th August 2004
Laptop Battery Ever wonder why DNS systems came into existence? Efficiency. Every computer has a distinct IP address, and the Internet needed an elite method for obtaining these addresses and for managing the system as a whole. Enter ICANN.
When you fire up your favorite web browser and type in the domain name of a website you want to view, the first thing that happens is that a request is sent to the server that is hosting that website. This server is found via the Domain Name Server (DNS) system, which associates the domain name (which we humans understand) and the address of the server that is hosting that website (which the computers understand). Once that request is received by the server, it looks at the files of the website to determine what happens next.
Thinkpad The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number manages the DNS root of the Internet domain namespace. ICANN's role is to manage the assignment of identifiers, ensuring that all users have unique names.
Berkeley Internet Name Domain An implementation of the Domain Name System protocols, A Domain Name System server (NameID). A Domain Name System resolver library, tools for verifying the proper operation of the DNS server. The B.I.N.D. D.N.S. Server is used on the vast majority of name serving machines on the Internet, providing a robust and stable architecture on top of which an organization's naming architecture can be built.
Microsoft The DNS system is run by a series of servers called DNS servers. ICANN manages the root DNS domains, under which are the top-level domains.
It also manages:
What does it mean to egister a domain name The Internet domain name system (DNS) consists of a directory, organized hierarchically, of all the domain names and their corresponding computers registered to particular companies and persons using the Internet. When you register a domain name, it will be associated with the computer on the Internet you designate during the period that the registration is in effect. From that computer, you can create a website that will be accessible to Internet users around the world.
Laptop Computers Organizational domains
Geographical domains
Reverse domains
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Laptop Computer Beneath the top-level domains are other naming authorities such as Nominet, the UK's naming authority.
(800) 2165 (435) 3433 DNS (Domain Name Servers) DNS (Domain Name Servers) A Domain Name ServerM (DNS) keeps a database of domain names and their associated IP addresses. When a user searches for a domain name, the request must go through a Domain Name Server (DNS) to translate the domain name and obtain the corresponding IP address. This way the request can be routed to the correct server where the website resides.
Desktop Computer How does a DNS Query work?
Notebooks The process occurs in two parts. Firstly, a name query begins at a client computer and is passed to DNS client service for resolution. When the query cannot be resolved locally, DNS servers are queried.
Lenovo For example, when a web browser calls the fully qualified domain name www.discountdomainsuk.com, the request is passed on to the DNS client service to resolve the name by using locally cached information. If the query is held in the cache, then the process is complete.
Hard Drive If, however, the query cannot be answered locally, the DNS client service uses a server list (ordered in sequence) to query external DNS servers. When a DNS server receives a query, it first checks to see if it is authoritive for that domain name. If it is authoritive, it resolves the name, and the process is complete.
Travelstar If the DNS server is unable to resolve the query, it in turns queries other DNS servers, using a process known as recursion. DNS servers make use of root hints to assist in locating DNS servers, which are able to provide the required result. In this way, DNS queries are minimised and the Internet is able to operate quickly and effectively.
Gateway A typical query may run as follows:
Laptop Parts Client contacts Nameserver A looking for www.discountdomainsuk.com
Nameserver A checks its cache, but can't answer, so it queries a server authoritive for the Internet root.
Software The root server responds with a referral to a server authoritive for the .com domains.
NameserverA queries the the .com server and gets referred to the server authoritive for www.discountdomainsuk.com
Hard Drives Nameserver A queries this server and gets the IP address for www.discountdomainsuk.com.
Electronics Nameserver A replies to the client with the IP address.
Canon Queries can return answers that are authoritive, positive, negative or referral in nature. In the event of a negative answer, another DNS server is queried.
Desktop Pc
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Clare Lawrence is CEO of Discount Domains Ltd - A leading UK provider of Domain name registration
and Web Hosting services. Please feel free to re-publish this article provided this reference box remains together with a hyperlink to http://www.discountdomainsuk.com Clare can also be contacted on clare@discountdomainsuk.com
