What is a DNS?

The acronym DNS stands for Domain Name System. This domain name system contains information for each domain on the internet, and on which IP address it is located.

Thanks to this system, it became possible to use domains or so-called website names. For example, website.com or website.eu, instead of accessing them by digital IP addresses.

At the same time, the server and the IP address on which it is located can change on the website itself, but visitors will still be able to access it on the same domain.

The DNS query happens as follows:

Your computer sends a request to the DNS server that looks like What IP address is website.com domain located on?» The DNS server replies: «It is located on 1.2.3.4». After receiving such a response, the computer continues to display website.com in the address bar of your browser, but it downloads all the website files from 1.2.3.4.

For the user, this happens unnoticed. If you want to know what IP address a particular website is located on the command line, type: nslookup website.com for Windows or host site.com for macOS and Linux.