If you've ever used the Internet, it's a good bet that you've used the Domain Name System, or DNS, even without realizing it. DNS is a protocol within the set of standards for how computers exchange data on the Internet and on many private networks, known as the TCP/IP protocol suite. Its basic job is to turn a user-friendly domain name like "howstuffworks.com" into an Internet Protocol (IP) addresslike 70.42.251.42 that computers use to identify each other on the network. It's like your computer's GPS for the Internet.

Computers and other network devices on the Internet use an IP address to route your request to the site you're trying to reach. This is similar to dialing a phone number to connect to the person you're trying to call. Thanks to DNS, though, you don't have to keep your own address book of IP addresses. Instead, you just connect through a domain name server, also called a DNS server or name server, which manages a massive database that maps domain names to IP addresses.

Whether you're accessing a Web site or sending e-mail, your computer uses a DNS server to look up the domain name you're trying to access. The proper term for this process is DNS name resolution, and you would say that the DNS server resolves the domain name to the IP address. For example, when you enter "https://www.howstuffworks.com" in your browser, part of the network connection includes resolving the domain name "howstuffworks.com" into an IP address, like 70.42.251.42, for HowStuffWorks' Web servers.

You can always bypass a DNS lookup by entering 70.42.251.42 directly in your browser (give it a try). However, you're probably more likely to remember "howstuffworks.com" when you want to return later. In addition, a Web site's IP address can change over time, and some sites associate multiple IP addresses with a single domain name.

Without DNS servers, the Internet would shut down very quickly. But how does your computer know what DNS server to use? Typically, when you connect to your home network, Internet service provider (ISP) or WiFi network, the modem or router that assigns your computer's network address also sends some important network configuration information to your computer or mobile device. That configuration includes one or more DNS servers that the device should use when translating DNS names to IP address.

So far, you've read about some important DNS basics. The rest of this article dives deeper into domain name servers and name resolution. It even includes an introduction to managing your own DNS server. Let's start by looking at how IP addresses are structured and how that's important to the name resolution process.
DNS Servers and IP Addresses

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You just learned that the primary job of a domain name server, or DNS server, is to resolve (translate) a domain name into an IP address. That sounds like a simple task, and it would be, except for the following points:

• There are billions of IP addresses currently in use, and most machines have a human-readable name as well.
• DNS servers (cumulatively) are processing billions of requests across the Internet at any given time.
• Millions of people are adding and changing domain names and IP addresses each day.

With so much to handle, DNS servers rely on network efficiency and Internet protocols. Part of the IP's effectiveness is that each machine on a network has a unique IP address in both the IPV4 and IPV6 standards managed by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). Here are some ways to recognize an IP address:

• An IP address in the IPV4 standard has four numbers separated by three decimals, as in: 70.74.251.42
• An IP address in the IPV6 standard has eight hexadecimal numbers (base-16) separated by colons, as in 2001:0cb8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. Because IPV6 is still a very new standard, we'll concentrate on the more common IPV4 for this article.
• Each number in an IPV4 number is called an "octet" because it's a base-10 equivalent of an 8-digit base-2 (binary) number used in routing network traffic. For example, the octet written as 42 stands for 00101010. Each digit in the binary number is the placeholder for a certain power of two from 2 to 2⁷, reading from right to left. That means that in 00101010, you have one each of 2¹, 2³and 2⁵. So, to get the base-10 equivalent, just add 2¹ + 2³ + 2⁵ = 2 + 8 + 32 = 42. For more about how IP addresses are constructed, see our article "What is an IP address?"
• There are only 256 possibilities for the value of each octect: the numbers 0 through 255.
• Certain addresses and ranges are designated by the IANA as reserved IP addresses, which means they have a specific job in IP. For example, the IP address 127.0.0.1 is reserved to identify the computer you're currently using. So, talking to 127.0.0.1 is just talking to yourself!

Where does your computer's IP address come from? If we're talking about your desktop or laptop computer, it probably comes from a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server on your network. The job of a DHCP server is to make sure your computer has the IP address and other network configuration it needs whenever you're online. Because this is "dynamic," the IP address for your computer will probably change from time to time, such as when you shut down your computer for a few days. As the user, you'll probably never notice all this taking place. See the sidebar on this page for hints on where to find the IP address assigned to your computer or mobile device.

Web servers and other computers that need a consistent point of contact use static IP addresses. This means that the same IP address is always assigned to that system's network interface when it's online. To make sure that interface always gets the same IP address, IP associates the address with the Media Access Control (MAC) address for that network interface. Every network interface, both wired and wireless, has a unique MAC address embedded in it by the manufacturer.

For more information on IP addresses, see the IANA, operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Now, though, let's look at the other side of the DNS equation: domain names.

FINDING YOUR IP ADDRESS

The following are tips on how to find your computer's IP address. Note that the address will change periodically unless you've chosen to use a static IP (rare for end-users):

• Windows -- Though you can click through the user interface to find your network interface settings, one quick way to find your IP address is to open the Command Prompt application from Accessories and enter this command: ipconfig
• Mac -- Open your System Preferences, click Network, be sure your current network connection (with the green dot beside it) is selected, click Advanced, and click the TCP/IP tab.
• Linux or UNIX -- If don't already have a command prompt, open a terminal application, such as XTERM or iTerm. At the command prompt, enter this command: ifconfig
• Smartphones using WiFi -- Look at your phone's network settings. This will vary depending on the phone the version of its operating system.

Note that if you're on a home or small local network, your address will probably be in the form 192.168.x.x, 172.16.x.x or 10.x.x.x (where x is a number between 0 and 255). These are reserved addresses used on each local network, and a router on that network then connects you to the Internet.