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DNS
Our Definition
DNS stands for three terms with essentially the same meaning: Domain Name System, Domain Name Server and Domain Name Service. This system changes the domain names that we use to identify locations on a network--like individual computers or Web pages--into IP addresses, which are numbers that computers can "understand." |
Sources and Online Definitions
Web-o-pedia
Short for Domain Name System (or Service or Server), an Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The Internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.example.com might translate to 198.105.232.4.
The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.
A system that translates domain names, such as http://www.smartcomputing.com, into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, such as 63.70.164.22, to direct information from within the domain to other computers on the Internet. It also translates IP addresses into domain names. DNS is also the acronym used for Domain Name System, Domain Name Server, and Domain Name Service. All three are often used interchangeably because they all constitute the elements needed to conduct name resolution.
Other Resources
How Stuff Works: How Domain Name Servers Work
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