Marketing Tools

How Does DNS Work?

By Jon Burgess – January 2005

dns_chart The essential system which allows a Domain Name to direct customers to your web site is depicted on the right. This diagram shows a request made by a customer’s web browser as they attempt to log onto your site.

1. To determine which primary name server contains your Domain Name Records, your computer contacts the root level internic name server maintained by InterNIC.

2. Next, the root level internic name server returns the IP address of the primary name server responsible for requesting the domain.

3 & 4. The primary name server is the next machine to be contacted by the your computer.

The primary name server contains the IP address for the domain name, fulfilling the your computer’s request.

5. Finally the hosting server can return to the web browser with the IP address.

6. Using the IP address, the web browser is then able to contact the company’s web server and retrieve your web pages.

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