Understanding Domain

Name System (DNS)

A Brief History of the DNS

Thirty years ago, when the Internet was

still in its infancy when you wanted to
visit a website you had to know the IP
address of that site. That’s because
computers are and were only able to
communicate using numbers.
This is an IP address: 127.33.54.200.
It’s long, hard to remember, and we
(humans, I presume) are not robots.
We needed a way to translate
computer-readable information into
humanreadable.
And it had to be fast, lightweight, and
scalable. In the early 1980’s, Paul
Mockapetris came up with a system that
automatically mapped IP addresses to
domain names and the DNS was born. This
same system still serves as the backbone
of the modern Internet today.
Definition
The Domain Name System (DNS) is the
phonebook of the internet. Human’s access
information online through domain names. It
converts human readable domain names (like:
www.google.com) into Internet Protocol (IP)
addresses (like: 173.194.39.78). Computers can
only communicate using series of numbers, so
DNS was developed as a sort of “phone book” that
translates the domain you enter in your browser
into a computer readable IP.
How does a DNS server work?

Domain names, such as example.com,

are easy to remember for humans but
less suitable for communication between
computers in a network. To make sure
that computers and other devices can
communicate with each other via the
internet or other networks, each device
is assigned its own unique IP address.
How does a DNS server work?

Similar to long phone numbers, IP

addresses are difficult to remember
for human users. The domain name
system (DNS) combines the
requirements of humans and
computers by enabling a connection,
for example to a website, without
having to know the corresponding
IP-address. DNS servers play an
important role here.
 DNS servers translate domain names, such as
example.com, into IP addresses. During this
resolution process, the DNS records on the
server are searched and, if available, the domain
name data set is returned. If the IP address
cannot be found on this DNS server, the query is
sent to other DNS servers until the data for the
respective domain is retrieved.
 When you enter a URL into your browser, it starts
searching for the corresponding IP-address in a local file
stored on your PC. If it finds no information there, the
request will be redirected until the IP address will be
identified. Thereby it passes the local DNS-Server (usually
your internet router), the ISP’s DNS-Server, and the root
name server, which is accountable for the respective Top
Level Domain (TLD). If there is still no information found,
the request will be sent to the Network Information Center
(NIC) responsible for the zone.
 The NIC’s server will send the address of the
zone’s authoritative nameserver to the ISP. The
ISP will then ask this authoritative server for the
IP, and send the information through your router
back to your browser. That way the website can
be accessed. If no IP address can be found, an
error message is returned. The browser then
indicates that the website could not be found or
may not exist.
The information provided by authoritative name
servers is binding and trustworthy for other servers. In
contrast to that, your router or the ISP's servers are
nonauthoritative. In order to answer repeated queries
for the same domain more quickly, the information is
temporarily stored in the DNS server’s cache for a set
period of time. This period is called “time to live”,
abbreviated TTL. Depending on the server
configuration, the TTL can vary between a few minutes
and several days.
HOW DOES A DNS QUERY WORK

Step 1: The Web Client

You open a web browser and type
http://www.google.com. The query leaves
your browser and is received by the DNS
client built into operating system.
Step 2: DNS Local Cache
The built-in DNS client checks its local cache to
see if it has the associated numeric address
already on file. If it does, it provides the address
to the web client. If not, it sends a query to an
external DNS resolver server residing on the
Internet. It’s typically maintained by your
Internet Service Provider (ISP).
Step 3: The DNS resolver
This server resides between you and all
other DNS servers required to get
Google’s numeric address. This server
essentially takes control of the DNS
query, temporarily becoming the DNS
client.
Step 4: The Root nameserver
There are 13 of these servers
maintained by the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN). Overall, this network keeps
track of all the servers that maintain a
directory of each domain, like .com,
.net, .org, and so on.
Step 5: The Top Level Domain (TLD) nameserver
TLD nameserver maintains a directory of a
specific domain. They’re managed by Inter
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which is part
of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN). When the .com TLD nameserver
receives the DNS resolver’s request, it responds
with the address of an Authoritative nameserver
that keeps Google’s actual numeric address.
Step 6: The Authoritative nameserver
This is the final stop for the DNS query. This
nameserver receives the DNS resolver’s query and
pulls up the DNS A Record to retrieve Google’s
numerical address. However, if a domain or a
subdomain has an alias – like Google.com – the
DNS resolver will receive that information first,
prompting it to send another request for then
numerical address listed in the DNS A Record.
Step 7: The DNS resolver
With Google’s numerical location in
hand, the DNS resolver delivers the
information to your PC’s DNS client.
The resolver is done for now until it
receives another DNS query.
Step 8: The DNS client
Now knowing the numerical
address, the DNS client hands the
address over to the web client. It
will also store the numeric address
in its cache for later use.
Step 9: The Web client
Using the numeric address, the web browser
sends an HTTP request to the server located at
that Internet address, which in turn responds
with the webpage you see in your browser. DNS
servers are the foundation of the internet’s
domain name system (DNS). They store public
IP addresses and other data associated with
hostnames.