The Domain Name System (DNS) operates as the "phone book" of the Internet. Because human users rely on memorable domain names while machines require numeric addresses for routing, DNS translates human-friendly names (such as `example.com`) into numeric IP addresses.

Without DNS resolving domain names to IP addresses, users would need to memorize and enter specific numerical IP addresses for every website or remote service they access.

Domain Name System

DNS lookup serves as the initial step when initiating network communication, such as loading a web page. When a user enters a website name into a browser and presses Enter, the client device immediately queries a DNS server to find the target IP address associated with that domain name.

Once the DNS server resolves the domain name into an IP address, the client can initiate the remaining protocol stack actions—such as establishing a TCP connection via the three-way handshake, setting up TLS encryption if HTTPS is used, and sending an HTTP request for web page resources.

Learn Before

Related

Learn After