What is a DNS server?

Question

I was just curious what a DNS Server is

Answer 1

It is the server that resolves (translates) host names to IP addresses. When you type www.yahoo.com into your browser, DNS returns the IP address for yahoo so the browser knows where to send the request.

Answer 2

(1) Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4.
The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.

(2) Short for digital nervous system, a term coined by Bill Gates to describe a network of personal computers that make it easier to obtain and understand information.

The domain name space consists of a tree of domain names. Each node or leaf in the tree has one or more resource records, which hold information associated with the domain name. The tree sub-divides into zones. A zone consists of a collection of connected nodes authoritatively served by an authoritative DNS nameserver. (Note that a single nameserver can host several zones.)

When a system administrator wants to let another administrator control a part of the domain name space within his or her zone of authority, he or she can delegate control to the other administrator. This splits a part of the old zone off into a new zone, which comes under the authority of the second administrator's nameservers. The old zone becomes no longer authoritative for what comes under the authority of the new zone.

A resolver looks up the information associated with nodes. A resolver knows how to communicate with name servers by sending DNS requests, and heeding DNS responses. Resolving usually entails recursing through several name servers to find the needed information.

Some resolvers function simplistically and can only communicate with a single name server. These simple resolvers rely on a recursing name server to perform the work of finding information for them.

The DNS consists of a hierarchical set of DNS servers. Each domain or subdomain has one or more authoritative DNS servers that publish information about that domain and the name servers of any domains "beneath" it. The hierarchy of authoritative DNS servers matches the hierarchy of domains. At the top of the hierarchy stand the root servers: the servers to query when looking up (resolving) a top-level domain name (TLD).

Answer 3

On the Internet, the domain name system (DNS) stores and associates many types of information with domain names; most importantly, it translates domain names (computer hostnames) to IP addresses. It also lists mail exchange servers accepting e-mail for each domain. In providing a worldwide keyword-based redirection service, DNS is an essential component of contemporary Internet use.

Useful for several reasons, the DNS pre-eminently makes it possible to attach easy-to-remember domain names (such as "wikipedia.org") to hard-to-remember IP addresses (such as 66.230.200.100). People take advantage of this when they recite URLs and e-mail addresses. In a subsidiary function, the domain name system makes it possible for people to assign authoritative names without needing to communicate with a central registrar each time.

Dornessa
http://onlinedownlinebuilders.com

Answer 4

The protocol used to associate a domain name with an IP address or a group of IP addresses.
ISP provides the dns.

Answer 5

DNS is Domain Name System.

It translates the IP address (for example, 64.233.187.99) into something that is readable and memorizable by humans (in this case, google.com)

For more information on DNS server, you can refer to the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_system
http://www.howstuffworks.com/dns.htm

Answer 6

On the Internet, the domain name system (DNS) stores and associates many types of information with domain names; most importantly, it translates domain names (computer hostnames) to IP addresses.