DNS is a topic often considered difficult to understand, but the basic workings are actually not hard to grasp. The first fundamental point to grasp is that every domain in existence is linked to an Internet Protocol (IP) address.

Though loading a webpage may seem like magic, it is not. If one were to open up their web browser, type www.example.com and hit enter, their computer would then ask a server where to load that website from. In response, this server would respond with an IP address in order to be directed to the website of choice — that is what the domain name system (DNS) is.

In other words, when a user enters a website into the address bar, a translation must occur between the domain that the user types in (www.example.com) and the IP address which the domain is linked to. The task taking place behind the scenes here is referred to as a DNS name resolution.

The way in which this works can be compared to how a postcode is used in combination with a door number in order to be directed to a literal geographical location. The reason for this is because a long string of numbers like 93.184.216.34, which is the IP address for the domain in this scenario, would be too difficult for human beings to memorize or remember for each and every website. To solve this, DNS was created to operate as a directory for the internet. This particular process is known as a DNS query.

#dns #neural networks