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How Domain Names Work

     - Monday, June 07, 2004

I need to write this out as much for myself as for anyone else. What I need to remember is that it's not really as complicated as it sounds. Here's the step-by-step. You open up your browser and type whateversite.com. Your computer doesn't know anything about whateversite.com so it asks your ISP. If your ISP doesn't know what the address is, it says to ask a Root Name Server.

The Root Name Server may not know, so it says to ask the .COM name servers which will have a list of all .com names.

Now, here's where it gets funny. Associated with the .COM name isn't the site's IP address, it's the name of computer that knows the site's IP address. Each registered domain name is required to have at least 2 name servers that will be responsible for knowing what the IP address of the site is.

So, finally, the site's domain name server replies with the IP address of the actual site you were looking for.

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |