What is a DNS Server:

DNS stands for Domain Name System.

It is a technology which is used for searching public names for different websites and other internet domains. It is due to this technology that we type the name of any website on the browser, and the computer search the web address on the internet and display it on the screen. The most important element is the worldwide collection of the DNS servers. Domain Name System can be compared with a phone book. It can also be called as Internets phone book. It maintains a directory of all the domain names and it can translate the domain names to the IP addresses. Although it is always easy to remember the domain names, but computers, laptops and other machines can access the website by knowing the IP addresses.

A DNS server is a registered computer which can join the Domain Name System. This server runs networking software, it has a public IP address and also it contains a database of the entire web networking names. Also it has the addresses for all the internet hosts.

The information of all the domain names and their servers which are present on the internet are collected and saved at the Central Registry. All the host companies and internet service providers keep on connecting with the Central Registry and update their DNS information. This updating process is done at a regular time interval.

Whenever a web address is entered (for example: www.facebook.com), the Internet Service Provider looks for the DNS of this name, and translates it into IP address (for example: 212.178.224.56 in this case, it is the IP address for www.facebook.com). Then the system directs the internet connection to the appropriate website.