Question:

Describe the function of the Domain Name System (DNS) and explain how this system works.

What is DNS?

Created in 1983, the DNS or translated in non-acronym format: Domain Name Services, is a simple system that maps domain to IP addresses. The reason for this is that as humans we would have a hard time navigating the web if we had to remember IP addresses like 763.232.434.12 when we wanted to visit a web site.

Then we have computers who don’t understand what we are saying when we type in google.com. They talk in 0’s and 1’s literaaly. You would not beable to reach the server if it wasn’t for the DNS.

You could say that DNS acts as the translator for human to computer so that we humans and computers know what we want and where to get it.

Of course this process has more steps than the image provided as it will first look at its own cache to see if it has the information already. This will speed up the retrieval of the website. Also when the dns returns the ip address where the website is located the computer than goes out and finds that server to get what it wants.