Everything that connects to the internet – websites, tablets, laptops, mobile phones, Google Home, internet thermostats, and refrigerators has an IP address. An internet protocol address by its full name is a unique string of numbers that identifies each digital device to communicate via the world wide web.
Thanks to DNS, there is no need to maintain an address book of IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, the DNS service locates the website and translates the name into its corresponding IP address. Alphabetic domain names are easier to remember than IP address numbers, so when you type www.google.com into a web browser, you only have to remember the URL.
1. IP addresses help locate a computer on the internet and relay the information (website data, emails, etc) traveling between computers. As soon as you type a domain name, for example, Amazon.com into your browser, your browser, and your computer check if one of them has the domain’s related IP address in their memory.
2. If Amazon.com isn’t in your computer’s local memory (cached memory), it expands the search out to the internet where it queries the DNS to determine if the domain exists in their DNS database. If the first DNS doesn’t find it on its server, it sends it to the next server until the right domain name server is found. For example, the URL for Amazon.com is associated with servers run by Amazon Web Services. The domain name system allows you to reach Amazon’s servers when you type Amazon.com into your web browser.
3. Once the DNS server finds the domain name Amazon.com, the server returns the domain name, and its IPS address to the requesting DNS server, down the line until it arrives back at your computer.
4. Once the IP address has reached your computer, your browser finds it on the internet. Next up, it communicates with the domain name hosted to request any associated files. The host server returns the files which display Amazon.com in your web browser.
DNS Operations
The DNS operates a client/ server network system performing the following operations:
1. Send requests to and receives responses from DNS servers. Each request contains a name which results in the corresponding IP address returned from the server. This is known as forward DNS lookups.
2. Besides forward lookups, the DNS can request reverse lookups that query an IP to determine the associated domain name.
3. Find the correct servers to deliver email.