Where Websites Come To Life
What is a DNS Server?
Posted: May 14th, 2018
A DNS server is a computer server that contains a database of public IP addresses and their associated hostnames, and in most cases, serves to resolve, or translate, those common names to IP addresses as requested.
DNS servers run special software and communicate with each other using special protocols.
In more easy to understand terms: a DNS server on the internet is the device that translates that www.kekhost.com you type in your browser to the 209.172.49.216 IP address that it really is.
Note: Other names for a DNS server include name server, nameserver, and domain name system server.
Websites are identified in computer systems by a series of numbers called IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. So that humans do not have to remember multiple numbers for all the websites they want to visit, these numbers are matched by names in a database table housed on special types of computers called Domain Name Servers. The DNS server translates the website names into the correct IP address.
Benefits
Without domain name servers, navigating the Internet would become an extremely cumbersome task. Given the millions of websites in existence, keeping track of these by IP number would be impossible.
Function
When you type a name such as www.ehow.com into a browser, the request first goes to a DNS server. If that server can translate the name to an IP address, it does so. Otherwise, the request is forwarded to a higher level server.
Size
According to Dan Kaminsky, a security researcher, the Internet has about 9 million DNS servers. About 10 percent are vulnerable to malicious attacks (see Additional Resources).
Expert Insight
You can learn what DNS servers are being used in your own setup by using a Windows command. In Start/Run type "cmd". When a black box appears, type "ipconfig/all". This will display the DNS servers running.
Warning
When DNS servers develop problems or are maliciously hacked, you may find yourself on what you thought was the web page wanted but actually redirected to fraudulent sites.
Why Do We Have DNS Servers?
This question can be answered with another question: Is it easier to remember 151.101.129.121 or www.lifewire.com? Most of us would say it's much simpler to remember a word like lifewire instead of a string of numbers.
When you enter www.lifewire.com into a web browser, all you have to understand and remember is the URL https://www.lifewire.com. The same is true for any other website like Google.com, Amazon.com, etc.
The opposite is true, too, that while we as humans can understand the words in the URL much easier than the IP address numbers, other computers and network devices understand the IP address.
Therefore, we have DNS servers because we not only want to use human-readable names to access websites, but the computers need to use IP addresses to access websites. The DNS server is that translator between the hostname and IP address.
More Information on DNS Servers
In most cases, two DNS servers, a primary and a secondary server, are automatically configured on your router and/or computer when connecting to your ISP via DHCP. You can configure two DNS servers in case one of them happens to fail, after which the device will resort to using the secondary server.
While many DNS servers are operated by ISPs and intended to be used only by their customers, several public-access ones are also available. See our Free & Public DNS Servers List for an up-to-date listing and How Do I Change DNS Servers? if you need help making the change.
Some DNS servers may provide faster access times than others but it relies solely on how long it takes your device to reach the DNS server. If your ISP's DNS servers are closer than Google's, for example, then you might find that addresses are resolved quicker using the default servers from your ISP than with a third-party server.
If you're experiencing network issues where it seems as if no website will load, it's possible that there's an issue with the DNS server. If the DNS server isn't able to find the correct IP address that's associated with the hostname you enter, the website won't load. Again, this is because computers communicate via IP addresses and not hostnames–the computer doesn't know what you're trying to reach unless it can use an IP address.
Article sourced from Lifewire.com and Yahoo.com