What Is DNS? | How DNS Works |

 Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the Internet's equivalent of a phone book. They maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. This is necessary because, although domain names are easy for people to remember, computers or machines, access websites based on IP addresses.

A hierarchy of DNS servers communicates with each other to teach each other their

name resolutions. DNS servers are also implemented in today’s LANs, for example,

Microsoft domains, although DNS can be used on any operating system that runs TCP/IP.

The LAN DNS servers do the same thing as their Internet counterparts, just on a smaller

scale—although sometimes not so small! DNS servers use inbound port 53 to accept name

resolution requests. Microsoft DNS servers run the DNS service and clients can connect to

and use that service as long as their IP Properties pages are configured properly.