As I quite often refer to it, I thought it might be useful to share a brief outline of what DNS is and how it works. This is an extract from PowerDMARC’s excellent blog, you can read their full article here.
DNS stands for Domain Name System, which is a system that translates domain names into IP addresses. Domain names are the human-readable addresses (e.g. apple.com) that we use to identify websites, while IP addresses are the numerical addresses (e.g. 17.253.144.1) that computers use to communicate with each other over the internet.
Today, most people use DNS without even knowing it. When you enter a domain name into your web browser, your computer sends a request to a DNS server to look up the IP address associated with that domain name. The DNS server then returns the IP address to your computer, allowing it to connect to the website.
DNS is an essential part of how the internet works, allowing us to use easy-to-remember domain names instead of having to memorise IP addresses. It also allows websites to change their IP addresses without requiring users to update their bookmarks or remember a new IP address.
