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I have read many a places talking about DNS. Even one is on my current computer something called Primary DNS and Secondary DNS. But the thing which I do not understand is that what is this DNS for and why is it needed? Can you help me or explain me what is DNS used for and why is it useful?
Domain Name System (DNS) is the process by which words from a common recognizable language (for example www.techarena.in) is converted to IP addresses. Software such as Web browsers basically uses the IP address rather than the name while sending and/or receiving information. It is used because humans do not understand the IP addresses.
According to wikipedia, the Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. The Domain Name System makes it possible to assign domain names to groups of Internet users in a meaningful way, independent of each user's physical location. Because of this, World-Wide Web (WWW) hyperlinks and Internet contact information can remain consistent and constant even if the current Internet routing arrangements change or the participant uses a mobile device.
In short, the Domain Name System serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses.
Yeah it is useful as said before because generally humans do not remember so many IP addresses for each sites available on world wide web. On the contrary it is easy to remember the names of the websites. For this DNS is used. We just type in the name of the websites on web browsers and DNS will simply convert those names into IP addresses which routers and other networking devices can understand.