Let’s Understand what a Domain Name System and how it actually works?
To simply put, the Domain Name system or DNS is the collection of all the addresses of websites that are present on the internet. People visit the website that has the unique domain name and web browser is the toll that is being used for this purpose. There are certain processes running at the background of this activity of web browsing and reaching a website. Web browsers cannot read the domain name as they can only understand the Internet Protocol or the IP. DNS serves the purpose of converting the Domain names into the IPs so that the web browser can open the website.
In simple terms, IP is actually a unique address of a server and it is quite complex to remember by a human. This is where DNS comes handy as it helps humans to open up a website and skip this memorizing step.
What is the purpose of DNS?
The entire process of DNS involves the conversion of the Domain name address into the computer readable Internet Protocol. It is known as the Internet Protocol Address which is recognized by the computer. This IP address is a source for any website to get found. Like for example, if you want to locate a house number, all you need is a street address to find it. That IP address is the street address of any particular website. Background translation happens whenever a user types the domain name or website name on the web browser.
This process of translation is not that simple and happens in the background. There are some prerequisites to understand the process of DNS resolution. A DNS query is generated and passed on between the different hardware. DNS lookup starts to happen whenever the user initiates to look for the website on the browser. This is the only interaction that occurs from the user’ device.
In order to reach a website successfully, 4 types of DNS servers are involved:
DNS Recursive Resolver
The very first server that is involved in such translation is DNS Recursive resolver which receives the queries from the user. They are directly linked to the web browsers to be able to receive the query. It is also called the recursive resolver or DNS Resolver. It is actually a bridge that connects the user with the DNS name server. After receiving the query, it is either resolved with the help of the cached data stored or if not possible then forward it to the root server.
Root Name server
If the cached data is unable to resolve the query, it is forwarded to the Root Name server to find the web address. The next step is the instigation of the translation process which is done through the Root Name server. It is the category from which a specific address is present. It locates that category, then sends it back to the DNS resolver. The query includes the domain name. DNS resolver then sends this to the TLD name server for further processing which responds as per the extension of the domain name such as .pk domain extension, .co.uk etc.
TLD Name server
The next stop after the root name server is TLD or top level domain server. TLD servers are used to categorize the different websites as per the type or the locality of the website. It helps to create multiple websites having the same business name as it can be differentiated with the help of the domain extension. It is handled by the organization called the IANA.
Authoritative name server
The response from the TLD server received by recursive resolver is sent to the authoritative name server. It finds the IP address of the website as per the response of the recursive resolver. This is the entire process of finding a website through the DNS System.