DNS

=DNS=

DNS stands for Domain Name System and its job is to translate URLs (such as [|www.youtube.com]) into IP addresses (in the form of w.x.y.z where w, x, y, and z are numbers from 0-255). DNS is necessary because without it you would have to input the IP address of a website every time you wanted to go there. Isn't it much easier to type www.youtube.com than 203.98.7.65?

In 1983, Paul Mockapetris invented DNS and wrote the first program. Soon after DNS was invented, the Internet Engineering Task Force wrote and published the first DNS protocol. Some ways DNS is implemented is in: the BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) or the Microsoft implementation that is called the Windows NT 4.0 DNS Server.

This image explains how DNS works. When you request a website your computer goes to the DNS server and requests the authority and IP of the website you are going to. The DNS server then sends your computer the IP address and your computer uses that IP to connect to the website. All of it happens in less than a second.



=Sources= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System http://technofriends.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/dns.gif http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772774%28WS.10%29.aspx

Edited by Richard Ding