Domain Name System

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The Domain Name System (DNS) is a system used to convert a computer's host name into an IP address on the Internet. For example, if a computer needs to communicate with the web server example.net, your computer needs the IP address of the web server example.net. It is the job of the DNS to convert the host name to the IP address of the web server. It is sometimes called the Internet's telephone book because it converts a Website's name that people know to a number that the Internet actually uses.

The DNS is defined by Request for Comments (RFC) documents. These are technical documents about computer networks. The DNS is mainly defined by RFC 1034 and RFC 1035. There are later RFC which define changes to the system.