Domain Name System

Understand how the Domain Name System works.

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Every device connected to the internet has its unique IP addressIP address is short for Internet Protocol address. It is a unique numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network. IP addresses can be either IPv4 (32-bit) or IPv6 (128-bit)., enabling communication with it. When we browse the internet, we access web applications hosted on servers, each identified by a distinct IP address. For instance, consider the case of educative.io. If we assume that the content of educative.io is stored on a server with the IP address 104.18.2.119., then educative.io is a domain name that directs users to this server. We can access the same content using the educative.io domain name or the server’s IP address.

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Users accessing educative.io
Users accessing educative.io

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical decentralized naming system that translates human-readable domain names, such as educative.io, into IP addresses. The DNS organizes domain names into a hierarchical tree-like structure:

  • At the top are root domain servers, the highest authority in DNS.

  • Below are top-level domainsTop-level domains (TLDs) are the last part of website addresses, like ".com" or ".org." They categorize websites into groups based on their purpose or location. There are three main types: generic (for everyone), country-specific, and special-purpose TLDs. Knowing ...