How are internet websites displayed and how do you get to the desired website by typing their name? These are questions that have only one answer, with the help of DNS. But what is the domain name system or DNS and what is its use?

what is DNS?

Before you ask what is DNS? It should be said what is the abbreviation of DNS protocol? This three-letter word stands for Domain Name System.

What is the function or use of DNS?

When you create a website, you must specify a name that points to your site in order to register its domain. Later, this name will be converted to IP with the help of dns and identified in the Internet space. In most cases, these settings are made by the control panels of the host and the domain name registrar.

What is dns server?

What is meant by dns server? It should be said that in order for a domain to point to a website, it must be added to the DNS server in the first step. But what is the work of dns server? DNS server is a large database that contains a collection of related domains and IPs. For example, if the domain is google.com, the site will be resolved to IP with DNS address 64.233.167.99.

There are many DNS servers in hosting companies and organizations. These DNS servers are connected to each other. Therefore, it is enough for your hosting company to add your domain name to the dns server so that it is gradually (in about 48 hours) synchronized with other dns all over the world.

DNS error

When you enter a URL, if the DNS server is down, the computer cannot enter the IP address for that URL. Because your system does not know how to access Google, in this case you will encounter a DNS error message.

What does DNS change mean?

It should be said that if it is from two different companies and you have purchased your own domain, after registering your domain, you must change the DNS according to your web hosting provider’s service so that they can use your domain.

cloud DNS

DNS disconnection or sometimes slow DNS performance can lead to big problems for you. With cloud DNS technology, you can reduce the risks related to availability limitations, security vulnerabilities, and performance limitations.

How does the browser find the right website?

When the name of the site is typed in the address bar of the browser, several different things happen to find and display the correct site. First, the domain name is translated to the site’s IP address. This will help you find the right website. When the site is found, the web page file will be loaded and the site will be displayed.

By typing the URL in the address bar of the browser, the following steps are performed:

• First, the browser checks its cache to find the IP corresponding to the typed address, if this IP exists, it resolves it and displays the site.
• If the domain name is not resolved, the browser checks the host files and DNS records (DNS check).
• If there is no record in the host file, the browser will look for the default DNS server and if there is an entry for the domain name, it will display the corresponding site.
• Now, if the dns server does not have a record for the domain, the browser looks for the server in other parts of the world, and this is done through a hierarchical structure.
• If the browser could not find any DNS server site, the domain name will not be resolved and the corresponding error will be displayed to the user.

What is the reason for using dns?

Consider a simple situation where you have entered the Google site to do a project. Then you have found good information on Wikipedia site, so you want to send this page from Wikipedia to your friend using email service. In your opinion, if there was no dns, what should be done? In fact, we do the following long way to do this in the absence of dns:

1. 179.206
2. 174.192
3. 36.5

Really remembering the following numbers is far from our mental power. Of course, you can memorize them by spending some time, but why should we remember numbers when there are textual and meaningful addresses? Anyone who does this probably does not have perfect mental health and should see a psychiatrist.

Apart from the problem that you cannot easily remember this number, the possibility of mistakes is very high. It is enough to enter one of the numbers in place or wrongly, the whole address will be messed up.

What are the benefits of DNS?

The main advantage of the DNS system is that it greatly facilitates the use of the Internet. If we had to keep track of all the IP addresses we wanted to access in order to visit the sites, it would be very cumbersome and difficult. Using it, there is no need to memorize this string of numbers and it is suitable for categorization, archiving and helping search engines.

Another significant advantage is its stability. For various reasons, IP addresses can change, so if you want to access a website, not only do you need to know its IP address, but you also need to keep this information up-to-date. The DNS system is responsible for updating IP addresses in a very fast and consistent manner and making it easy for us to access websites.

DNS can improve the security of the infrastructure, it can also provide secure dynamic updates. It is more reliable and can deliver messages to users with zero failures. This system enables you to specify the technical performance of the database service. It can also define the DNS protocol, the detailed specifications of the data structure and data communication exchanges used in DNS. In fact, DNS is used as a kind of load balancing or an additional layer of security.

What are the disadvantages of DNS?

Along with all the advantages and uses of DNS, there are also disadvantages to it. One of its main disadvantages is DNS Attacks, in which the attacker replaces the real address with a fake address for the purpose of fraud and tricks users into redirecting them to malicious addresses without their knowledge. Usually, the purpose of this work is to get banking information or other important and sensitive data of users.

If the malware has changed your DNS server settings, entering the URL may redirect you to a completely different website or to a website that looks like your bank’s website. It may capture your username and password and give the information needed to access your bank account into the hands of the abusers.

Malware hijacks some DNS servers to redirect you from popular and highly visited websites to fake virus websites full of ads, creating the false impression that you need programs that are actually malicious to remove viruses from your computer. And they are viral download and install.

To avoid such problems, it is necessary to install valid antivirus programs on your system and avoid entering sites that look different from the website you requested. Also, avoid entering your personal and banking information on unreliable sites.

Ignoring DNS records by hosts files

This can be done by changing the host files. The host file is a file that is available on your computer and acts like a mini DNS server.

Ignore dns records by DNS local site

Since the browsers check the local DNS server first, you can define the relevant records in your internal DNS server so that the resolve operation is done locally.

What happens if the DNS server does not find the domain name?

If the requested domain is not found on the desired DNS server, the DNS server forwards the request to other DNS servers. Finally, the domain IP is found by other half servers and sent to the requesting server and from there it is sent to your computer.

The process of mapping domain to IP address is called Name Resolution.

When the DNS server finds your requested address on another server, it keeps it in its cache memory for a while so that it can respond to your request faster if you request it again.

A DNS error occurs if none of the servers can find your requested address. This error will be displayed to you in the form of a message and it means that this domain is invalid or does not exist at all.

A file is set for each domain on the domain name system. The name of this file is Zone File and it stores reference records or Resource Records.