You might have the best web site design for florists, but do you ask yourself, “What is DNS?” “Do I need to use DNS?” Do you feel confused? In some cases, DNS can be convoluted and complicated. Let’s talk about Domain Name System (DNS) services. When you need to access a website, you type the domain name, such as www.google.com, into the web browser instead of typing an IP address. A conversion happens between www.google.com to 172.217.12.46, an IP, which designated to a device on the Internet. This conversion is a DNS query, an integral part of devices connecting with each other to communicate over the internet. To understand the DNS query process, let’s talk about how a DNS query routes through different components, and is important to protect your network for this, if you want to do this, you can visit the next page to find the right information about this area.
DNS Lookup Process
Step 1: Requesting Website Information
First, you visit a website by typing a domain name into a web browser. Your computer will start resolving the hostname, such as www.liquidweb.com. Your computer will look for the IP address associated with the domain name in its local DNS cache, which stores DNS information that your computer has recently saved. If it is present locally, then the website will be displayed. If your computer does not have the data stored, then it will perform a DNS query to retrieve the correct information.
Step 2: Contact the Recursive DNS Servers
If the information is not in your computer’s local DNS cache, then it will query the recursive DNS servers from your (ISP) Internet service provider. Recursive DNS servers have their local DNS cache, much like your computer. Given that many of the ISP’s customers are using the same recursive DNS servers, there is a chance that common domain names already in its cache. If the domain is cached, the DNS query will end here and the website displayed to the user.
Step 3: Query the Authoritative DNS Servers
If a recursive DNS server or servers do not have the information stored in its cache memory, the DNS query continues to the authoritative DNS server that has the data for a specific domain. These authoritative name servers are responsible for storing DNS records for their respective domain names.
Step 4: Access the DNS Record
For our example, to find out the IP address for www.liquidweb.com, we will query the authoritative name server for the address record (A record). The Recursive DNS server accesses the A record for www.liquidweb.com from the authoritative name servers and stores the record in its local DNS cache. If other DNS queries request the A record for www.liquidweb.com, the recursive server will have the answer and will not have to repeat the DNS lookup process. All DNS records have a time-to-live value, which shows when a DNS record will expire. After some time has passed, the recursive DNS server will ask for an updated copy of the DNS record.
Step 5: Final DNS Step
The Recursive DNS server has the information and returns the A record to your computer. Your computer will store the DNS record in its local DNS cache, will read the IP address from the DNS record, and pass this information to your browser. The web browser will connect to the web server associated with the A records IP and display the website.
The entire DNS lookup process, from start to finish, takes only milliseconds to complete. For a more profound understanding let’s break down the previously mentioned DNS components that are relevant to the DNS lookup process.
DNS Servers
Authoritative DNS Server
An authoritative name server is a DNS server that stores DNS records (A, CNAME, MX, TXT, etc.) for domain names. These servers will only respond to DNS queries for locally stored DNS zone files. For example, if a DNS server in my network has a stored A record for example.com, then that DNS server is the authoritative server for the example.com domain name.
Recursive Nameserver
A recursive name server is a DNS server that receives DNS queries for informational purposes. These types of DNS servers do not store DNS records. When a DNS query is received, it will search in its cache memory for the host address tied to the IP address from the DNS query. If the recursive name server has the information, then it will return a response to query sender. If it does not have the record, then the DNS query will be sent to other recursive name servers until it reaches an authoritative DNS server that can supply the IP address.
DNS Zone & DNS Zone Files
A DNS zone is an administrative space within the Domain Name System (DNS). A DNS zone forms one part of the DNS namespace delegated to administrators or specific entities. Each zone contains the resource records for all of its domain names.
A DNS zone file is a text file stored on a DNS server that contains all the DNS records for every domain within that zone. It is mandatory for the zone file to have the TTL (Time to Live) listed before any other information. The TTL specifies how long a DNS record is in the DNS server’s cache memory. The zone file can only list one DNS record per line and will have the Start of Authority (SOA) record listed first. The SOA record contains essential domain name information including the primary authoritative name server for the DNS Zone.
DNS Records
Stored in authoritative DNS servers are the DNS records, these records provide information about a domain including its associated IP address for each domain. It is mandatory for all domains to have a few necessary DNS records to be able to access a website using a domain name.
Below is a list of the most common types and frequently utilized DNS records. Let’s dive into each kind of record.