A DNS server is a kind of naming server which is responsible for maintaining, managing and processing the domain names on the internet and also other records that are associated with them. In other words, a DNS or Domain Naming Service stores the names of the websites with corresponding IP addresses. Whenever a particular website is requested, it first gets checked in the DNS, if the IP address matches with the hostname, the user will be redirected to the webpage, else an error message will be displayed. When it comes to web hosting services, DNS plays a very important role.
How does the DNS Server Work?
Here is a brief insight on how a DNS server operates
- Information Request: Whenever you are trying to access a website through your browser the first thing that will be done is to check the local cache to see if this site has ever been visited before. If not, in that case, a DNS query will be generated to find the answer
- Recursive: If a user has not visited a page before, in that case, the computer will search for the answer the recursive DNS servers of the internet service provider. They too have a cache that would generate the results. If they don’t have one, in that case, they will have to search for the information in some other place
- Root Name Servers: Once a query is triggered, it can travel a long distance. Name Server is its next step. These servers are like intermediaries, they don’t have the answer; however, they know where to find it
- TLD Name Servers: The job of the name server is to read from right to left and then direct the user to the TLD or Top Level Domain naming servers to look for the extensions, like .com, .org and others. It is the TLD server that will finally lead the user to the servers that contain the right information
- Authoritative DNS Server: These servers run a check on the DNS servers for information. Different records are available here
- Retrieving of Record: Once a request is being triggered the next step us retrieving of the record from the cache
- Final result: In this phase, the computer will read the IP address, save the records and will pass the information to the browser. The browser then establishes a connection with the server
DNS plays a very important role as far as web hosting services are concerned.
