DNS - The Domain Name System

Domain Name Service or simply DNS is what you can call the internet’s telephone directory.

As we know every website  has a IP (Internet Protocol) address (shared or dedicated) associated with it and that’s all what we require to access that site. But it is not humanly possible to remember websites by their IP addresses , in much a same way as remembering the telephone number of every person on this planet!! 

So the way out is the DNS system where domain names are mapped to IP addresses and therein came the existence of nameservers. Every website  has a nameserver whose sole function is to keep a record of the site’s domain name and its associated IP.

Whenever you want to access a website first a request is routed(sent) to its nameserver which then hands out the IP at which the site can be accessed and then that IP is accessed. Its very much like you want to make a phone call to someone. You first lookup the telephone directory for that persons’s number and then dial that number.

You can access a site by simply typing its IP address in your browser but the question is how many IP addresses can you remember ??

For example typing 74.125.67.100 in your browser opens up the google homepage 

To know the nameserver for  any site use the nslookup utility