Mastering Domain Name/DNS Resolution — How it Works?
Privacy is not an option, and it shouldn’t be the price we accept for just getting on the Internet.
A Domain Name Server (DNS) is like the internet's phonebook, translating human-friendly domain names (like medium.com) into IP addresses that computers use to identify each other on the network.
Here’s how DNS works step-by-step:
1. User Enters a Domain: When you type a domain name (e.g., medium.com) into your web browser, the browser doesn’t understand the domain directly – it needs an IP address to connect to the server.
2. Browser Queries DNS Resolver: The browser first checks its cache to see if it already knows the IP address of the domain. If not, it contacts a DNS resolver, usually provided by your ISP or a third-party DNS service (like Google DNS or Cloudflare).
3. DNS Resolver Checks Cache: The resolver checks if it has the IP address cached from a previous lookup. If it finds it, the resolver returns the IP to the browser.
